DOVER KENT ARCHIVES

Page Updated:- Monday, 06 March, 2023.

PUB LIST PUBLIC HOUSES Paul Skelton

Earliest 1866

(Name from)

Victory

Latest 1958+

17 North Road (Middle Row)

Kingsdown

Vistory

Above photo, date unknown, from Colin Harris.

Victory 1905

Above postcard, circa 1905, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Victory

Above photo, date unknown, kindly sent by Debi Birkin.

Zetland Arms 1911

Above photo, circa 1911, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe. Showing the "Victory" extreme right and "Zetland" in the centre right. The Post Office is the shop on the left.

Victory 1952

By kind permission of the "Zetland Arms." Photo shows the pub in 1952.

Kingsdown map 1896

Above map 1896.

From the Dover Mercury, 18 August, 2011. 70p

Victory circa 1910

Above photo just showing the "Victory" on the left. Circa 1910.

 

A chance to peep into the past of Kingsdown can be experienced next month at a special ceremony in the village hall.

The old pictures will include this week's Now and Then photo looking inland towards St John's Church from the seafront, in the days when North Street was a quiet lane.

There is a sign on the left displaying the name of the pub the "Victory," which closed in the late 1950s.

Conqueror

According to The Old Pubs of Deal and Walmer (with Kingsdown and Mongeham) by Steve Glover and Michael Rogers, the business was previously called the "Conqueror." In 1860 a man appeared in court charged with assaulting the landlord's wife and daughter.

The next year the landlord, Henry Erridge, married with seven children and a servant, was charged with selling beer on a Sunday.

The pub was renamed the "Victory" in 1866 and the final landlord was H. R. Shilling.

Structurally the cottages have hardly changed, although a few brick walls have been added and a variety of different front porches.

St John's Church and its neighbouring houses are now surrounded by trees and shrubs and it looks like there used to be a track up the chalk bank.

The parish of St John the Evangelist was carved out of the original parish of Ringwould. Kingsdown had begun to grow and a local man William Curling and his wife agreed to pay for a church, which was finished In 1853 on the site overlooking the sea.

Former Victory 2011

Same shot shown 2011.

From the Dover Express and East Kent News, Friday 14 October, 1927. Price 1½d.

FIFTY YEARS AS LICENSEE

At the Dover Police Court on Monday, before Messrs W. J. Barnes and J. W. Bussey.

The licence of the "Victory Inn," Kingsdown, was transferred from Mr. Bingham to Mr. H. D. Turner, of Gillingham.

The Magistrates' Clerk: Mr. Bingham has held the licence 46 years.

Mr. Bingham: Nearly 50.

The Magistrates' Clerk: Will you excuse Mr. Bingham from attending at the confirmation of the transfer?

Mr. Bussy: What! That young man!

Mr. Barnes: That 50 years has done you good. You look quite young. (Laughter.)

 

From the Dover Express and East Kent News, Friday 9 June, 1933.

LICENSING TRANSFER SESSIONS.

Plans were approved of alterations to the "Victory," Kingsdown.

 

Dover Express 20th September 1946.

GERMANS STEAL ANOTHER BOAT.

Four German prisoners of war, who had escaped from near London, stole a punt from Kingsdown this week and made an attempt to cross the Channel. A French fishing boat encountered them and its skipper took the men on board and handed them over to the French police later. The punt was the property of Mr. Arnold, licensee of the “Victoria”, (sic) Kingsdown.

 

Victory card 1949

Above card 1949, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

 

According to Steve Glover and Michael Rogers, the pub was originally the "Conqueror."

One time a tied house of Thompson and Sons, Walmer, but in 1952 tied to Charington's.

 

From the Dover Express and East Kent News, Friday, 28 October, 1955.

BAR OF MEMORIES.

Who better than 63-year-old George Arnold to preside over the "Bar of memories" at the little "Victoria Inn," nestling only a few yards from where the waves lap the shingle at Kingsdown.

Photographs yellowing with age, show Kingsdown when it was no more than a few cottages clustered near the foreshore.... the famous old Kingsdown lifeboat which went to the rescue of many a ship in distress on the Goodwins... tough, bearded fishermen who hawked their catches in the nearby markets of Dover and Deal.

Son of grand old man Richard Arnold - master of the Dover lugger "Vespa" when he was only 18 - George came up the hard way.

As a boy of 12 he sailed with the fishing crews - Jim Laming, "Bully" Bingham, and the others. He helped with the curing, and would trudge to Dover to sell 120 bloaters for five shillings.

Victory licensees, Kingsdown. Mr. and Mrs. George Arnold. 1955

A mere youth he was with the lifeboat crew and knew what it was like to shudder with fright as the craft was tossed like a cork on mountainous waves.

Then a strange break in George's life - he joined the Metropolitan Police, and apart from the First World War when he was in the Corps of Royal Military Police in France, he served in the East End of London until 1939.

He had married his charming Somerset wife, Ruth (shown picture left), - "we met after George had given two pints of blood to save my father's life," she says.

 And, of course, they returned to Kingsdown, where George spent the Second World War years as a member of the Police Reserves and as a fisherman once again.

Since 1946 he's been licensee of the "Victory," gathering together the wonderful collection of photographs and mementoes which depict, so vividly, a hundred years in the life of Kingsdown.

 

 

LICENSEE LIST

BINGHAM James Files 1871-74 (age 56 in 1871Census) Post Office Directory 1874

BINGHAM James Richard 1882-Oct/1927 (also fisherman age 45 in 1901Census) Post Office Directory 1882Kelly's 1903Post Office Directory 1913Dover Express

TURNER Mr H D Oct/1927+ Dover Express (From Gillingham)

SWIFT John 1937-38+

ARNOLD George 1946-58 Dover Express

SHILLING H R Oct/1958+

https://pubwiki.co.uk/Victory.shtml

 

Post Office Directory 1874From the Post Office Directory 1874

Post Office Directory 1882From the Post Office Directory 1882

Kelly's 1903From the Kelly's Directory 1903

Post Office Directory 1913From the Post Office Directory 1913

Dover ExpressFrom the Dover Express

The Old Pubs of Deal and Walmer by Glover and RogersThe Old Pubs of Deal and Walmer by Glover and Rogers

 

If anyone should have any further information, or indeed any pictures or photographs of the above licensed premises, please email:-

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