PALM TREE Pubs of Woodnesborough

DOVER KENT ARCHIVES

Page Updated:- Wednesday, 29 March, 2023.

PUB LIST

PUBLIC HOUSES

Paul Skelton

Earliest 1735

Palm Tree

Closed 1974+

Woodnesborough

Above photo of the Palm Tree 1960, kindly supplied by Terry Wheeler of the Ramsgate History Society.

Above map 1896.

Above photograph, June 2002.

Above photo by Nick Smith. http://www.closedpubs.co.uk/

Above photo, kindly taken and sent by Rory Kehoe, July 2019.

The building can be dated back to 1735. A recent email sent 2 Jan 2015, says the following:- "I have the original title documents for the Palm Tree dating back to 1735. It was known as the "Palm Tree" back then. I also unearthed a very old painted copper sign that depicts a “Palm Tree.” Not the yew trees that came later. The two yew trees were either side of the Pub entrance before the road was moved.

Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald, Saturday 17 October 1908.

Woodnesborough beer retailers failure.

The statement of affairs under the failure of John Ovenden of the "Palm Tree Inn," Woodnesborough, beer retailer, shows total deaths amounting to £242 16s., and net assets £67 9s. 5d. The causes of failure are stated by the debtor are:- "Bad times and competition."

The Official Receivers observations are as follows.

1. The debtor (age 62 years) was compelled to file his petition owing to his embarrassed financial position.

2. He states he started business about 22 years ago at the "Palm Tree Inn," Woodnesborough. It appears that the property, including the furniture, fixtures etc,. belonged to his mother-in-law, the late Sarah Taylor. An arrangement was made whereby the debtor and his wife went to reside with his mother-in-law, the licence was transferred to him, and he was to receive the profits. He did not pay anything to Mrs. Taylor for the ingoing valuation, and started practically on credit. A few years later Mrs. Taylor died, and the "Palm Tree Inn" was sold by auction. After payment of the mortgages, etc., the debtor's wife received, in addition to practically all of the furniture then at the Inn, a sum of £138 4s. 10d. in cash, and of this she lent £100 to the debtor, no portion of which has been repaid. The "Palm Tree" was purchased by a firm of brewers, and the debtor became the tenant at a rental of £20 a year. The debtor alleges that for several years the Inn paid, but during the last three or four years, owing to competition and bad trade and losses sustained by him in doing a little market gardening, his affairs have been considerably involved.

3. The debtor has not kept any account of his receipts and payments, but he admits he discovered his insolvency about three years ago.

4. Of the 11 unsecured debts, 5, and mountain together to £220, exceed in amount £10 each. All the debts appear to be the usual trade and domestic debts, and are mostly running accounts during the past four 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 Dover Express 22 September 1933.

SNOWDOWN MINER KILLED. COLLISION WITH MOTOR CAR.

Whilst on his way home from Snowdown Colliery, on Wednesday afternoon, about 2.50, Trefor Jenkins, aged 22, a loader, living at 2, Castle View, Richborough, Ash, was killed when his cycle came into collision with a motor car at the cross-roads near the "Palm Tree," Woodnesborough. The motor car was driven by Dr. Ernest Charles Jennings, of Pinewood Lodge, Ascot, and he was on his way from Walmer to Canterbury.

The inquest was held at the "Palm Tree" Inn on Thursday, by the East Kent Coroner, Mr. R. Mowll, and a jury, of which Mr. J. Steele was foreman.

Evidence of identification was given by Oliver Jenkins, a brother of the deceased.

Mrs. Colbeck, of Wimbledon, who was sitting on the off side of the motor car, gave evidence as to the accident. Something hit the near side of the car at the corner, and the car swerved to its off side.

Evidence was given that the deceased lived for about fifteen minutes after. Death was due to a fractured skull.

A verdict of misadventure was returned.

Dover Express 01 February 1935.

DEATH OF MRS. J. OVENDEN.

The death occurred on Monday morning at the residence of her daughter, Mrs W. Simmons, Tilmanstone, of Mrs. Francis Rigden Ovenden, at the age of 86 years. Deceased was a daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. James Taylor, of the "Palm Tree," Woodnesborough, and widow of the late Mr. John Ovenden, market gardener, at Marshborough, and for several years licensee of the "Palm Tree," who died in 1918. She leaves a son and daughter. The funeral took place at Woodnesborough on Thursday.

From the Dover Express and East Kent News. May 1937.

Quite a gloom was cast over Woodnesborough when it became known that Henry Clements, licensee of the "Palm Tree" for the last 29 years, had passed away aged 69.

From the Dover Express and East Kent News. 17 February 1939.

The licensee of the "Palm Tree" Inn, Woodnesborough, was granted a wine license.

From the Dover Express and East Kent News, Friday 17 October, 1941

Ignored Halt Sign

Albert Walter Hall, a lorry driver, was summoned for failing to conform to a "Halt" sign at Woodnesborough, on 8th Sept.

Defendant pleaded guilty.

Mr. Eric Weale, prosecuting, said that on 8th September, at about 10 a.m. defendant was driving a motor lorry from Ash in the direction of Eastry, and came to the "Palm Tree" cross-roads, coming onto the main Sandwich-Woodnesborough road without stopping at the "Halt" sign. He was not going at an excessive speed. Unfortunately, coming from the direction of Sandwich to Woodnesborough, was a private car with a trailer, and it had to swerve to avoid the lorry, ad it collided with the wall of the "Palm Tree" public house. Defendant admitted the responsibility at the time, saying, "I did not notice the "Halt" sign as I have not used the road for several years."

Defendant said that he had held a clean driving licence for 18½ years, and he had never had a case against him before.

Fined £1 and 7s. costs.

LICENSEE LIST

TAYLOR Sarah pre 1886

OVENDEN John 1886-Nov/08 (only market gardener age 55 in 1901)