Above photo, date unknown.

Above postcard, circa 1928, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Above postcard, circa 1930s. Kindly supplied by Rory Kehoe.

Above photo circa 1937, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Above postcard, circa 1951, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Above photo, circa 1952, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Above photo, circa 1957, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Above painting by John Beckett, 1967.

Above drawing, date unknown, by John Baroque.

From the https://shorehamkenthistory.weebly.com/the-rising-sun.html​ accessed 6 March 2023.

By James Saynor.

A private house since the early 1970s, set in a cottage almost facing the Bridge, the "Rising Sun" was an unlicensed beer house early in its commercial life. In 1894, William Plane – a former sergeant-major of the 1st Battalion, the Dorset Regiment – became landlord and fought a successful action to keep the pub alive, after the Justices appeared likely to deny it a licence. More than 50 signatures were gathered arguing in its favour, and one of the key arguments was that lovers of Westerham Ale would have to trek all the way to the "Crown" at the other end of the village for their favourite pint if the licence were denied.

​​In the mid-1950s, when landlord Frank Coon was in charge, a tame swan called Charlie used to waddle into the pub from the river, seeking food. He had been orphaned by a fox and raised by villagers. He was sometimes bold enough to pull at the door handle of the pub with his beak to gain admittance.

When the village was severely flooded in 1968, Bessie Motley, wife of licensee Frank Motley, told the Sevenoaks Chronicle that more than two feet of water inundated the pub. The couple retreated to an upstairs room with cat, dog and budgie – not forgetting barrels of beer. “Don’t worry, mister, the river won’t get into the beer,” Mrs Motley assured the newspaper.

Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, Wednesday 11 December 1957.

THE WHITE SWAN AND THE RISING SUN.

A couple of years ago, a cygnet was orphaned by a fox at Shoreham, in Kent. The villagers nurtured him and in due course conveyed him to the nearby River Darent. There he made a home, but the easy luxury of hand-fed life in Shoreham sticks in his mind, so that three times a day he waddles up to the "Rising Sun", rattles the door handle (sometimes he even opens the door himself), and applies for whatever he fancies. He is a very regular customer, and a cunning one, too.

ARE THEY OPEN YET?

Charlie the Swan, having emerged from his River Darent, surroundings, goes flat-footedly up the road to the door of the "Rising Sun." It is his mid-day visit.

WILL IT TURN?

Sometimes he manages it, sometimes he doesn't. But the gerflummery and noise brings someone to the door on those days when the handle is reluctant to oblige - and it makes no difference if it happens to be out of hours.

PINT PLEASE!

Regular customers are not surprised by the arrival of Charlie; and the landlord Frank Coon, understands how to translate a pint into appropriate nourishment.