PALM TREE Pubs of Eythorne

DOVER KENT ARCHIVES

Page Updated:- Wednesday, 20 April, 2022.

PUB LIST

PUBLIC HOUSES

Paul Skelton

Earliest 1866-

Palm Tree

30 Sept 1964

Eythorne

Above photo taken between 1908-30, kindly submitted by Sharon Curtis.

Above photo taken between 1908-30, kindly submitted by Sharon Curtis. The name on the postcard says Alfred Bingham.

Similar photo to above, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Above photo, circa 1930. Kindly sent by Colin Varrall.

Above photo 1952. Creative Commons Licence.

Thompson & Son ledger. Creative Commons Licence.

Above photo circa 1957. Kindly sent by Andrew Ross-Hunt.

Above print by kind permission of over Library. Palm Tree in Eythorne 1908, and below same position 1995.

The former Palm Tree in Eythorne taken on 12th June 1994.

Above photo taken in 2008 by Sharon Curtis.

Research tell me that the building seen above is not the original "Palm Tree" and that the original one was demolished in 1890.

The pub was closed during WW2.

Charringtons closed the pub in 1964.

From the Dover Express and East Kent News, Friday, 18 November, 1887. Price 1d.

FOUND ON LICENSED PREMISES

George White, Edmund Baker, Thomas Graves, John Ash, and George Joyner were charged with being found on licensed premises on Sunday, October 9th, at the “Palm Tree” beerhouse, Eythorne, during prohibited hours.

The Magistrates fined the defendants Baker, White and Groves 2s. 6d. each and 8s. 2d. costs, and the other two defendants Ash and Joyner 2s. 6d. each and 10s. 2d. costs.

From the Dover Express and East Kent News, Friday, 20 July, 1888. Price 1d.

JUVENILE OUTING

A large party of little folks paid a visit to Eythorne on Wednesday last, being conveyed from Dover in waggonettes, an open-air tea was provided for them by Mr. J. Eyles of the “Palm Tree Inn.”

From the Dover Express and East Kent News, Friday 14 September, 1888. 1d.

WINGHAM PETTY SESSIONS

The report of Superintendent Kewell showed that the ale houses, beer houses, and grocers, and others licensed to sell spirits, wine, and beer within part of the Wingham Division under his superintendence with the following exceptions have been well conducted:

The exceptions were the “Palm Tree,” at Eythorne, kept by Ambrose Eyles, who was fined 10s, and costs, for opening his house for the sale of intoxicating liquor during prohibited hours on Sunday, 11th October, 1887.

From the Dover Express and East Kent News, Friday 11 September, 1908.

TRANSFER OF THE PALM TREE

The new landlord of the "Palm Tree" is to be Mr. Dye, and a transfer will be applied for at the next sessions from the executors of the late Mr. Eyles.

From the Canterbury Journal, Kentish Times and Farmers' Gazette, Saturday 29 September, 1888.

THE LICENSING REPORTS.

The annual licensing business was then proceeded with.

With two exceptions the whole had been well conducted during the past year.

The two exceptions were the "Palm Tree," Eythorne, the landlord of which, Ambrose Hayles, was fined for opening his house during prohibited hours.

The landlords of the two houses referred to in Supt. Kewell's report were called forward and cautioned as to the way in which their houses were conducted in the future.

The Dover Express, Friday, September 05, 1919 ; pg. 8; Issue 3190.

OUTING.

An outing to Ramsgate was made on Sunday from the "Palm Ttree Inn," in a waggonette supplied by Mr. Berry, the party to the number of 22, spending a very enjoyable day.

Dover Express 12 October 1928.

BARFESTONE. SHOVE HA'PENNY.

Great interest was taken in a match arranged between the "Yew Tree Inn" and the "Palm Tree Inn" (Eythorne), which was played on the board of the former on Thursday last week. The "Yew Tree" won easily, winning eight games to their opponents one.

From the Dover Express and East Kent News, Friday 20 June, 1930.

PETTY SESSIONS

Dover County Petty Sessions were held at the Town Hall, Dover, on Thursday, before Lord FitzWalter, Miss Bomford, Messrs.A. T. Goodfellow, H. J. May, E. Hinds, A. M. Evanson, J. E. Monins, and W. H. Clark.

Long License Holders.

The license of the "Palm Tree Inn," Eythorne, was transferred from George Dye to Charles Brown. The licensee had held the license for 22 years.

From the Dover Express and East Kent News, Friday, 9 September, 1932. Price 1½d.

YEW TREE AND PALM TREE

“There is no feature of our old churchyards,” writes F.E.B., in the Canterbury Diocean Notes,” “which contributes more to their picturesque appearance than the sombre yew tree, so commonly to be found there, and none more appropriate to those associations of antiquity which haunt the ancient churches. The tree often looks as old as the church itself, and may be so. Reputed to be the longest lived of all trees, the growth of the yew is so slow that many centuries must be represented by the girth of large specimens. Evelyn tells us that he measured a yew at Brabourne, in Kent, and found its girth to be only one inch short of fifty nine feet. He does not tell us that it was called locally a “Palm tree,” but it is safe to assume this. The use of “palm” for “yew” was quite common in East Kent when the writer of these notes was a boy, some forty years ago, and that it was prevalent in the Sixteenth Century is shown by the will of Thomas Doraunte (1542), who desired to be buried in the churchyard at Littlebourne, near Canterbury, “under the great palm tree, betwixt the church and the palm tree,” the tree is still there, although it was old enough to be called “the great palm tree” nearly four hundred years ago. There seems no doubt that the use of yew branches in the churches on Palm Sunday led to their being called palms, in the same was that the name is applied to the catkin bearing branches of the sallow, in many places. There is an inn at Woodnesborough, by Sandwich, called “The Palm Tree,” but the painted signboard shows a yew, whilst at Eythorne, near Dover, by the said of the old “Palm Tree Inn,” demolished about 1890, stood the tree after which it was named, an adjoining modern house being called “Yew Tree House.” In the churchwardens' accounts of the parish of St. Dunstan, Canterbury, there is a memorial concerning “a palm tree,” which was presented to the wardens in c709, and planted in the churchyard.

From the Dover Express and East Kent News, Friday, 22 January, 1937.

WINGHAM PETTY SESSIONS

Licensing.

The licensee of "The Palm Tree," Eythorne, was granted an extension to 10.30 p.m., on February 6th, for the first annual dinner of the Buffalo Lodge.

From the Dover Express and East Kent News, Friday, 21 May, 1937.

WINGHAM PETTY SESSIONS

The licensee of "The Palm Tree," Eythorne, was granted an extension of licence until 11 p.m. on May 22nd, for a dart club supper.

From an email received 20 April 2022.

I spoke to a lady living in Eythorne who had worked as a barmaid during WW2 in both the “Palm Tree” and “The Crown” (both pubs in “The Street,” Eythorne). Her name was Dolly Purnell and she lived in a cottage in “The Street” that was only a short distance from the "Palm Tree."

With the preparation for D Day on the 6th June 1944 large numbers of troops were billeted on Waldershire Park the ancestral home of the Earl of Guildford that was adjacent to the pubs where Dolly worked. Dolly of course met and became aquatinted with large numbers of these men who mainly originated from Canada, (She mentioned The Black Watch of Canada in particular).

In the early summer of 1944 she lay in bed awake in the early hours of the morning listening to hundreds of marching soldiers, (in hobnailed boots) marching to Shepherdswell Railway Station to travel by train to their embarkation ports.

To say thanks for her friendship they all sang “GOODBYE DOLLY WE MUST LEAVE YOU” which was heard a few hundred yards away in Eythorne.

Dolly told me that not one of the many soldiers she knew (and served beer to) ever came back to Eythorne to let her know how they overcame all the trauma of the Normandy Invasion. She was very sad at the thought that they must have been killed.

As an aside, Dolly’s husband was killed by an Army truck at the Gateway to Waldershire Park, “Kennels Entrance” in what was a tragic road accident prior to D Day.

Bill Atkins.

LICENSEE LIST

HOGBEN Richard 1866+