1 Wood Street

Old Brompton

Above photo, circa 1900 showing licensee and wife outside door.

Above photo 1954.

Above photo 1954.

Above photo 1952, from www.Flickr.com by Ben Levick.

Above photo, same location 2010, from www.Flickr.com by Ben Levick. Who says:- "The only recognisable features remaining are the brick walls on the left of the picture, and the name of the small terrace (Admiralty Terrace)."

In 1869-70 the pub was part of a consortium who were advertising their goods of selling tea in response to grocers' selling beer and wine. (Click for further details.)

At Lower Wood Street in 1858, White Swan in 1815, 1828, 1832 & 1840. Licence transferred to Eastcourt Arms (The Sportsman), Twydall Mar 1954.

The Swan is a common heraldic pub name. This pub is sometimes listed as the White Swan. The pub has existed since at least 1754, but may be older. William J. R. Robins, the landlord from 1885 to 1908 was elected as a Councillor on the very first Gillingham Borough Council in 1906. Shortly after the First World war the directories imply that it was run by a ‘ghost' - Cecil John Robins (the son of William J. R. Robins) the landlord from 1909 served with 1st Battalion, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), and died in Flanders on 2nd August 1918, although Kelly's directory continues to list him as landlord until 1921. He is named on the Brompton War Memorial, which, following the demolition of Holy Trinity Church, was moved from the churchyard to a green known as Swan Garden, so called because the Swan pub once stood on the site. In reality his wife took over the licence in 1917 and remarried in 1919, the licence passing to her new husband, Ernest Moody, in 1920.

The Swan closed in 1954 when much of Brompton was redeveloped. The licence was transferred to the Eastcourt Arms in Eastcourt Lane, Twydall on the 5th Mar 1954. This became The Sportsman on the 10th September 1956. In the mid 1950s Wood Street was widened and its course altered, the road now passing behind the site of the pub. The original site of the pub and the road in front of it is now a green known locally as Swan Garden.

I will be adding the historical information when I find or are sent it, but this project is a very big one, and I do not know when or where the information will come from.

All emails are answered.

LICENSEE LIST

HOGBEN Mary 1754-63

JORDAN Thomas 1792+

MASTERS George 1808+ Deeds

MATTOCKS Mary 1815+ Handbill Wood Street

RAMAGE Thomas Ramage 1828-40+ (As White Swan)

KING George 1849-85 (1870 as Swan Tavern)

ROBINS William John Richard 29/Sept/1887-10/Aug/1908 (age 31 in 1891)

ROBINS John M 1901-1/Sept/1908 dec'd (age 41 in 1901)

ROBINS Caroline Elizabeth 11/Aug/1908+

CONNOR Alfred E 9/Feb-9/Aug/1909

ROBINS Cecil John 10/Aug/1909-16 (age 22 in 1911)

ROBINS Elizabeth Constance Winifred 6/Mar/1917+

ROBINS Cecil John Robins 1918-10/May/20

MOODY Ernest Barnes 11/May/1920-21

MOODY Ernest 1922-23

COUCHMAN Harold 1924-28

ROBBINS William 1929

COUCHMAN Harold 1930-32

WYATT Alfred James 12/Sept/1932-29/May/1933

FLETCHER George 29/May/1933-1/Oct/1934

CLARK Albert Hammond 1/Oct/1934-10/Feb/1936

MARSH Sydney George 10/Feb/1936-30/Oct/1950

WARD Harry Sautley 30/Oct/1950-10/Aug/1953

COX William Samuel Charles 10/Aug/1953-5/Mar/1954

5 Mar 1954 Licence transferred to "Eastcourt Arms" (The Sportsman) Twydall.

https://pubwiki.co.uk/Swan.shtml

From the Pigot's Directory 1828-29

From the Pigot's Directory 1832-33-34

From the Pigot's Directory 1840

From the Post Office Directory 1874

Census

From the Kelly's Directory 1903

From the Post Office Directory 1918