QUEEN'S HOTEL Pub of Snodland

DOVER KENT ARCHIVES

Page Updated:- Wednesday, 13 December, 2023.

PUB LIST

PUBLIC HOUSES

Paul Skelton

Earliest 1858-

Queen's Head Hotel

Closed 1991

High Street

Snodland

Above postcard, circa 1909.

Above postcard, date unknown.

Above photo showing a children's Christmas party held in the club room above the main bar in 1957. Kindly submitted by Martin Miller.

Above photo by kind permission of Eric Hartland, October 2012.

I am informed by Martin Miller that the pub had a large back yard that contained stables as late as 1957, and it is suggested that the pub may have been a coaching inn.

South Eastern Gazette, 15 May, 1860.

MALLING, WEST. Petty Sessions. (Before J. W. Stratford, Esq., in the chair, Admiral Randolph, Col. Fletcher, Capt. Cheere, R. Tassell, M. H. Dalison, W. Cook, and S. L. Lancaster Lucas, Esqrs.)

Thomas Castle, landlord of the "Queen’s Head," was fined 30s. for having his house open for the sale of liquor, during the prohibited hours on Good Friday.

South Eastern Gazette, 12 June, 1860.

TO ALL LOVERS OF THE PICTURESQUE.

A Beautiful Retreat in the Country, a five-penny trip by rail, or, if preferred, a lovely row on the silvery, winding Medway. Easy distance from Rochester and Chatham to the "QUEEN'S HEAD INN," SNODLAND.

T. Castle, Proprietor.

Romantic views of the famed Kit’s Coty House hills; the fine old parish church of Snodland, where quietly rest the remains of the celebrated Waghorn, of overland (India) route celebrity; and various other attractions. Salubrious air, &c. Excellent accommodation for Dinner and Tea Parties.

Wines and Spirits of the best quality.

Fine Cricket Meadow; one week’s notice required for the use of it.

Cabs. Quoits, Nine-pins, Four-corners, &c. Charges moderate.

From the https://www.kentonline.co.uk By Amy Tregenna, 10 September 2022.

The Queen's Head Hotel

Birling House, the site of the Queen's Head, 2022.

This pub on the High Street, which closed in 1991 and is now an assisted living facility named Birling House, was first recorded in 1858, when the landlord was Thomas Castle.

The land was owned by Thomas Poynder, and the building was designed to serve travellers using the railway, after the station opened in 1856. Thomas Castle and his wife had previously been at the "Five Bells" in Halling, but Poynder convinced them to move to The Queen's Head.

Thomas Castle died in 1861, and the Queen's Head was taken over by his widow, Sarah.

George Wisdom was the landlord in 1878. He married his wife Violet in 1880, and she passed away in 1889, aged 28.

George then became the landlord of the "Star Inn" in Rochester, but passed away in Tonbridge in 1893, aged just 36. (I appear to have his age in 1881 as being 46, Paul Skelton)

Now, the former hotel and coach house is run by The Mortimer Society and houses 31 residents.

Project 2014 has been started to try and identify all the pubs that are and have ever been open in Kent. I have just added this pub to that list but your help is definitely needed regarding it's history.

As the information is found or sent to me, including photographs, it will be shown here.

Thanks for your co-operation.

LICENSEE LIST

CASTLE Thomas 1858-1861 dec'd