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The passage below was compiled by licensee Mick
Minter.
ORB.
Was built during the reign of Henry VII in the year 1498.
Records suggest that when first built the property much smaller than the
present day edifice, was a farm dwelling. Evidence of owners or
occupiers of this period are extinct since the parish registers of
Margate do not begin for over half a century to follow in 1549, however
evidence of a license dating from 1521, does exist. It tells us that in
that year one Isaiha Cadde called a yeoman was granted a license under
the "act of the 10 of Henry VII (1495) to sell ale from his tenement or messuage on Chapel Hill called a tavern with a bushe only." From this
document it was possible to trace an earlier owner of the property,
Isaiha's Cadd's father Gaynor, who on the "ffowerth day of
October severnteenff yere of Henry VII" (1502) made a "feossment" (convenance)
of the late John Caddy of a tenement luina on Chanel Hill. It is
reasonable to assume that this was the same property and that Isaiha
Cadde turned his fathers farmhouse into a tavern.
In 1549, Isaiha Cadde is still recorded here as an "ayle-house keper"
but in 1562 it was his son Henry to whom that description had fallen and
he was keeper of the "Crown" on Chapel Hill. This was the first reference
to the "Orb's" previous title, the word Sceptre was added some years later,
but the title changed intermittently over the years from the "Crown" to
the "Crown and Sceptre" and back to the "Crown," though this may have been
the fault of the recorder.
It is not until 1624 that the inn is mentioned again. In that year Henry
Bulmer and Avery Jenkinson, both held a licence for the house, both are
recorded as brewers at the "Crown and Sceptre." Bulmer who sold the house
and its licence in that year to Jenkinson was probably here for some
considerable time as was the latter who was allowed to keep two taverns,
the "Crown and Sceptre" on Chapel Hill and the "Prospect" on Dane Hill. From
this point the inns owners and or keepers are clearly documented to the
20th century.
Avery Jenkinson, who was one of the inns longest serving keepers
throughout time, died in 1658 and bequeathed the house to his widow
Naomi who served here for a further nine years until her own death in
1667. She passed the property to her daughter Rachell, however she had
temporary benefit from her bequest since she died within one week of
her mother and was buried alongside her parents in the churchyard of St.
Johns.
At this point and for six years to follow the inn was held by
James Huntington attorney-at-law of Centerbury who acted as trustee and
executor of the estates of Naomi and Rachel Jenkinson.
There 1668 Richard May, 1668-1669, William Suarrow 1669, John brooke
1669-1670, Ellisha Rowe. 1670-1672 James Adams and 1672-1673 Richard
Mummery.
In 1673, the latter purchased the house from Huntington and went on to
keep it until his death in 1701, where after it passed to his nephew
Richard Salter. In a title drawn up for the transaction a concession was written in allowing one Garton Carthew to draw water from the well of
Richard Salter at his hospicum called the "Crown and Sceptre."
By 1721,
the house had been granted a wine license for in that year Salter sold
it and the inn to Jacob Womersley, however by the time he sold the inn
in 1738 the licence had reverted to the sale of ale and cider only, both
of which mere being brewed here at the time, for a brew house and a
forge is mentioned in an inventory of that year when the "Crown and
Sceptre" was purchased by Henry Dixon, a fellmonger and leathercutter of
Garlinge.
Henry Dixon bettered Avery Jenkinson's record of 34 years as keeper of
the "Crown & Sceptre" by two years. When he died in 1774 he had served
here for 36 years and became the longest serving keeper of the inn to
date, throughout all of which he managed to conduct his original trade
as well as keep the inn.
Dixon's widow Maria served here for two years after her husbands death,
but in 1776 sold the house as the "Crown" to Thomas Hunter, a brewer and maltster of Margate. He installed the first tenant into the house one
Richard Simcock and probably at this point carried out the first of many
alterations and additions to the property.
Richard Simcock was a draper by trade, a trade which he carried on
whilst keeping the house. He died here in 1786 where after his son
William took over the house and served here until 1792. When he left he
became a draper and tailor of Duke Street, Margate where he remained for
many years.
In October 1792 Thomas Hunter leased the "Crown and Sceptre"
to Samuel Howe, who served here until 1819 when he was succeeded by
William Philpott and he in 1831 by Philip Stratford, who kept the house
until his death in 1841 whereafter his son John took over.
In 1842
William Hunter brewer sold out to Henry Bishop and in that year John
Stratford obtained a wine and spirit license for the house. Stratford
kept the house until 1862 in that year the Bishop Brewery closed down.
The "Crown and Sceptre" was put on the market as a Free House and was
purchased by George Price. It remained in his hands hands and that of
his family until well into the first half of the twentieth century.
When
George Price died in 1889 his widow Maria took over until her death in
1905. Her son James then took over till 1932. In that year the house was
purchased by the Tomson and Wotton brewery of Ramsgate. Their first
tenant was George A Bushell who was here for many years to follow.
In
1962 after major refurbishments the name of the house was changed to
the "Orb".
In 1968 Combined Brewery holdings was taken over by the Whitbread brewery and they in 1973 exchanged some of their licensed
houses including the "Orb" with the Shepherd
Neame Brewery of Faversham,
who are the present owners of the house which is kept today by Michael
Alexander Minter. In 1994 Weston Lilrig and Morit Gooding Landlords. In
1998 Dennis and May McGrellis became landlords.
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