Above photo, showing the "Rising Sun" on the left, circa 1915.

Above photo 1964, taken from https://theromneymarsh.net/ accessed March 2021.

Above image from Google maps, March 2009.

Above photos May 2014.

There was originally a "Rising Sun" Brewery in Lydd and the pub was tied to it. I wrote about this in my book, Romney Marsh Past & Present. The brewer and owner was called David Green, if I remember rightly. He died and his wife tried to keep the business going, but eventually sold it to Edwin Finn, who already owned the Lydd Brewery in the High Street. A brick in the wall of the surviving building there bears the name D Green. The story goes that carbonated drinks were invented at the "Rising Sun" brewery. Brewing was done in Lydd for over 300 years. The tower brewery building in the High Street was demolished in 1967. Most of the other buildings in the last couple of years. There are photos from the church tower in which you can identify what was probably the "Rising Sun" brewery, which was to the rear of the pub.

Hope this helps.

Dave Randal.

From the Battle of Britain: August - September

THE SPY WHO CALLED AT THE RISING SUN.

The "Rising Sun" at Lydd occasionally served beer after hours to thirsty airmen but few people tried to snatch a pint BEFORE the pub had opened! Imagine the surprise of the landlady, Mabel Cole, when a well-dressed young man knocked at the door at 9.30 am on September 3rd and, in a foreign accent, said he wanted a glass of cider and some cigarettes. Having every reason to be suspicious Mabel sent him across the road to Tilbeys Stores for his cigarettes, told him to come back for his drink, and summoned help.

The young man — Carl Meier, a Dutchman — was one of four spies who had landed in Kent with instructions look for information of military importance and to send back coded messages to Germany, prior to the invasion of Britain.

Meier returned to the "Rising Sun" where he was immediately arrested by an RAF officer, taken to the police station and interrogated. The next day police spotted a man walking across farmland near the Lydd to Dungeness road. Rudolph Waldberg, a German, was also arrested and admitted being in possession of a wireless set, five batteries and a morse key.

The other spies were Dutchmen, Charles van der Kieboom and Sjord Pons. The four men had crossed the Channel in two dinghies; Meier and Waldberg had landed at Dungeness, while Kieboom and Pons came ashore near the Grand Redoubt at West Hythe. Like their colleagues they didn't get far. Both were seen by privates of Somerset Light Infantry — and quickly captured.

The four spies were tried at the Old Bailey on November 22nd under the Treason Act. Waldberg, Meier and Kieboom were hanged at Pentonville while Pons, who claimed he had intended to give himself up and had a fairly plausible story, was found not guilty.

From http://www.dailymail.co.uk. 26 November 2011.

Mabel Cole was landlady at The "Rising Sun" in Lydd, Kent. The pub had been in the family for 140 years, so she was surprised when a stranger walked in at 9am one day in October 1940. Surely everyone knew the law prevented her from serving drinks so early?

Her surprise turned to suspicion when the customer, a man with a faint American accent, returned to ask for a brand of ‘cider champagne' that, though advertised on the front of the pub, had long been discontinued. ‘But the real giveaway,' recalls her nephew, Eddie Baker, 73, ‘was when he went to pay. Aunt Mabel told him, “That'll be one and a tanner” – a shilling and sixpence. She totally confused him with that bit of slang. He pulled some cash out of his pocket and held it out for her to take.'

Convinced he was up to no good, Mabel had the police called – and German spy Karl Heinrich Meier, 24, was apprehended. He was hanged a few weeks later at Pentonville. Fine work.

Dear Mr. Skelton,

My Dad was in the 115th (North Midland) Field Regiment of The Royal Artillery and was based at Lydd for much of the early 1940's. He was a keen amateur photographer and frequently patronized the "Rising Sun" in Lydd.

He took the attached photos of pals in his regiment in front of The "Rising Sun" in the very early '40's. Strangely, the fellow two rows behind and one to the left of the chap in civilian dress (presumably the publican) in photo (1) and two rows behind and one to the right in photo (2) seems to be the same bloke who is pulling a pint in army fatigues in picture (3)!

Photo 1.

Photo 2.

Photo 3.

Hope these are of interest to you.

Kind regards,

Laurence Wood.