WOOLPACK Pub of Benover

DOVER KENT ARCHIVES

Page Updated:- Monday, 29 July, 2024.

PUB LIST

PUBLIC HOUSES

Paul Skelton

Earliest 1810-

Woolpack Inn

Open 2020+

Benover Road

Benover

01892 730356

https://www.woolpackyalding.co.uk/

https://whatpub.com/woolpack

Above photo, circa 1928, by kind permission of Roy Moore.

Above photo showing the inside of the pub, date unknown, by kind permission of Roy Moore.

Above postcard, date unknown, kindly sent by Dail Whiting.

Above painting, date unknown, kindly sent from John Jones in Wales.

Above photo 2010 by Oast House Archives Creative Commons Licence.

Photos taken on 28 August, 2006 from http://www.flickr.com by John Law.

Above aluminium card issued May 1949. Sign series 1 number 36.

Above sign left, August 1992, sign right, 2010.

With thanks from Brian Curtis www.innsignsociety.com.

Above matchbox, date unknown, kindly sent by Debi Birkin.

Local knowledge, further pictures, and licensee information would be appreciated.

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.

From the Kentish Gazette, 9 February 1810.

DEATHS.

Feb. 1, very suddenly, Mr. Thomas Hodges, Master of the Boarding School at Wrotham; he has left an afflicted widow and seven children to lament their loss; as well as his relative and friends.

Same day, at Benover, Yalding, Mrs. Lambert, landlady of the "Woolpack" public-house, of that place.

From the Kentish Gazette, 9 February 1810.

Feb. 1, at Benover, Yalding, Mrs. Lambert, landlady of the "Woolpack" public-house, of that place.

Kent & Sussex Courier, Friday 23 July 1971.

INNKEEPER.

TONBRIDGE’S newest landlord is Frederick Robins, 61, who has recently refurbished the 150-year-old "Stag's Head" in Stafford Road.

Mr. Robins, who used to be licensee of the "Woolpack" at Yalding before taking on the "Stag's Head" three months ago, has plans to turn the Tonbridge building into a fashionable, modern comfortable, club-type pub.

"It is rich in history. It was built originally as two workmen's cottages and its first licence was issued in the reign of George IV to sell beer only," he said.

A pair of plate-glass doors, one inscribed "Bottle and Jugs," the other "Public Bar," are regarded as particularly fine examples of old bar glassware and are estimated to be about 100 years old.

Mr. Robins, who was born in Acton, has been an innkeeper for 21 years.

One thing Mr. Robins finds lacking at the "Stag's Head" is the ghost he had in his last pub.

"I often used to sense and hear the old smuggler's ghost in the "Woolpack;" I'd suddenly feel a cold, clamminess when he was near, and I'd hear him coughing.

“There was an old secret underground tunnel leading from the Medway to the pub and the smugglers used to bring their casks of brandy up to the bar and exchange them for packs of wool, which they sold for cash."

From an email received, 22 June 2021.

My late husband's great grandparents, Caleb and Kate Unicume used to be the proprietors of the pub.

Caleb was born in Cranbrook in 1845 and died in Yalding in 1893. He was the son of William and Jane Unicume, a farming family of Cranbrook. Caleb married Kate Taylor, daughter of Barnabas Taylor of the "Bull Inn," Stone Street, Cranbrook in Folkestone on 23rd August 1870. There were many children. Minnie Gertrude Unicume, the daughter, used to help her mother behind the bar in the pub. As she was rather short in stature she used to stand on a wooden orange box to serve the customers.

Regards,

Sarah Smith.