Above photo circa 1918, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Above photo, August 1960, kindly sent by Clive Bowley.

Above photo, March 1963, kindly sent by Clive Bowley.

Above photo 2010 by Oast House Archives Creative Commons Licence.

Above photo, October 2015, kindly taken and sent by Doug Pratt.

Above photo, October 2015, kindly taken and sent by Doug Pratt.

Above sign left, March 1987, sign right, July 1991.

Above sign left, July 1993, sign right, 2011.

With thanks from Brian Curtis www.innsignsociety.com.

Above photo showing the licensee c.1985 - 1997 was Giles Hilton. The photo is from 2022 when Giles was awarded an MBE by Prince Charles, for his services to Kent Rugby. Since running the Granville, Giles has been Shepherd Neame's Free Trade Manager and Head of Communications, as well as Commercial Manager at Canterbury RFC.

Evidently, the landlord of the Granville reckoned that publicising a two-headed pig was a crowd-puller!

I suppose having an 8-legged lamb must have just been seen as a bonus. Perhaps it was something in the water?

From the Faversham News, 16 March 1979.

It's back to the Pub Again.

Former Faversham butcher's son Mr. Chris Boulding has just been appointed manager of the "Granville pub," Street End, Lower Hardres.

Chris, a fully qualified chef, was born in a pub - the "Swan," at the bottom of Preston Street.

His late mother ran the pub while husband, Ernie, was in charge of a Preston Street butcher's shop.

A 70-year-old family connection with that shop ended a few months ago, when the premises were demolished to make way for a new supermarket for Lipton's.

And now, Chris Boulding's new post will help to provide a change of scheme for his father and his step-mother who will both be helping him at the "Granville."

Keeping things in the family, more help will be provided by Chris's wife, Myra, who is giving up her work as a nurse to do the paperwork connected with the pub.

After leaving Faversham Grammar School, Chris Boulding went to Thanet Catering College before spending 2 years as an apprentice chef at the big "Grosvenor House Hotel" in London.

Gaining advanced City and Guilds catering qualifications, he stayed on at the "Grosvenor House" for another year and then became the second chef at a restaurant in Hollingbourne, later moving to a similar post at the "Windmill," Whitstable.

He then spent 2-years on the QE2 before returning to dry land, a recent post being as head chef at the "Chaucer Hotel" in Canterbury.

From an email received 3 March 2019.

There is still a man alive in Shepherdswell who witnessed an event that occurred in the Battle of Britain in 1940 when as a boy he was stood outside the "Granville" pub at Street End.

A German Me 109 fighter landed in the field across the road from the pub and the pilot taken into captivity by the local Home Guard. The German pilot was purple with rage as he had run out of fuel and blamed his ground crew in France of tampering with his fuel gage. He was obviously unpopular and they decided to get rid of him etc. The man who told me this story is 100% honest.

(Les Wooldridge of Westcourt Lane)

Les told me today that he was aged 10 in 1940 and well remembers the incident. At least 4 Home Guard soldiers (not in any uniforms, but armed with rifles) ran out of the Granville Pub and formed up in a semi circle around the crashed aircraft with levelled rifles. The German Pilot refused to unlock the glass cockpit cover and leave the aircraft to become a prisoner of war. This went on for a good few minutes and Les laughed today at the bad language of the Home Guard lads shouting “We will f======= shoot you etc. unless you surrender.”

Looking at the cockpit layout of a ME 109 the fuel gauge is calibrated from 1 to 4 so I estimate the full fuel load would be 50 litres. The German spelling for litres is different than ours.

There is a sequel to the German ME 109 landing opposite the Granville in Lower Hardres. The plane was undamaged and put on display at Barrett’s Garage in Canterbury by the Westgate Towers for the public to view and contribute money to the Spitfire Fund. I don’t know the date of when this was but a single German Dive Bomber sent on it’s own attacked Barrett’s Garage and destroyed the building and the German fighter inside.

I was told in the 1960’s by work colleagues that there was a rumour circulating all through the war that there was a German Spy operating in Canterbury and that he was never caught. Obviously the destruction of Barrett’s Garage on the corner of Pound Lane and St Peters Street was the result of information given to the German Air force for them to execute the raid and prove the rumour to be true.

From Bill Atkins.