Rhodes Minnis

Elham

Above photo, date unknown.

Above photo, date unknown by Adrian Brown.

Above photo, circa 1955, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Photos by Nick Smith use under the Creative Commons Licence. Gate Inn sign July 1991. Above with thanks from Brian Curtis www.innsignsociety.com

Above aluminium card issued June 1951. Sign series 3 number 15.

Above photo, 2019, operating as the Lord Whisky Centre. Kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Above photo, 2019, operating as the Lord Whisky Centre. Kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Above map 1896.

The "Gate" is named after the old toll gate which used to exist nearby, on the road from Mockbeggar to Lyminge. However, the pub sign used to show the Fyndon Gate, St. Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury.

The above card says that the building we see today (2017) was built in 1949 by the Wateringbury Brewery. What was meant was that Wateringbury Brewery (also a Whitbread subsidiary) designed and built the signs for all the Whitbread pubs, supplied by the former Frederick Leney & Co and Mackeson companies. The artists were very well regarded and their signs became the basis of the sets of miniature cards which are still collected to this day.

The Gate was leased to Alfred Beer & Co, Original Brewery, Canterbury from 11th October 1884. Then, at an auction held at the Saracen's Head, Ashford, on 14th October 1890, the freehold of the Gate, plus 8 acres of adjoining land was sold to a Mr. E G Glasscock for £485.

Alfred Beer & Co went bust in 1891 and the unexpired part of the Gate's 14 year lease was presumably part of the sale of Alfred Beer  and Co's assets in 1892 when they were liquidated to pay off creditors. In 1894 the new owner of Beer's pubs, a Southwark hop merchant called Alfred Walton, sold them to B C Bushell & Co of Westerham. Somehow though (perhaps when the lease ran out in 1898?) the Gate then appeared as a tied pub (presumably leased from Mr. Glasscock?) of De Trafford & Co's Sun Brewery of Littlebourne. In 1907 De Trafford & Co was put up for auction, with the brewery and 6 tied houses/unexpired leases being purchased by Mackeson's Hythe Brewery. At some point Mackeson's must have bought the freehold of the Gate from Mr. Glasscock as it was certainly operating under that brewery in 1910.

Mackeson's (which became a Whitbread subsidiary in 1929) rented out the land and some of the outbuildings to the army, from just after the Second World War until 1962, when the land was sold off for £375.

Situated between Rhodes Minnis and Stelling Minnis and dated as far back as 1847 when Bagshaw's directory shows a Nicholas Swain as licensee and also farmer.

The 1861 census describes the premises as a beer shop.

Under the Parish of Lyminge but situated in Rhodes Minnis, this establishment is still serving drinks, but unfortunately no longer holds a license. It closed as a public house in the 1990s and is now part of the Lord Whiskey Animal Sanctuary. It has been suggested that the name originated after the gate in the road that can be seen on the old OS maps.

I have also seen the pub addressed as Lyminge.

According to the locals, the "Gate" had a fine reputation for serving after hours and the licensees in the 1980s/90s were warned several times about this. Eventually, the police got fed up and the pub lost its licence in the mid-1990s.

LICENSEE LIST

SWAIN Nicholas 1847-55+ (also farmer) address given as Mockbeggar.

FISHER Robert 1858

LAKER John 1861+ (age 53 in 1861)

COUZENS George 1859-82+ (also farmer)

CAUSINS Sarah 1881 (spelling mistake?)

WARWICK Edward 1887-91 (also flowers farmer)

HOPPER John 1891+ (age 52 in 1891)

SPILLET Henry W 1895+

TILLEY Mrs Ellen 1899-1907+ (widow age 32 in 1901)

RUGG Frederick Rowland 1909+

ROBERTS Ernest 11/Oct/1908-24/May/35

EDWARDS D D 25/May/1935-50+

http://www.closedpubs.co.uk/gate.html

From Bagshaw Directory 1847

From Melville's Directory 1858

From the Post Office Directory 1874

From the Post Office Directory 1913

Census