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17 North Road (Middle Row)
Kingsdown
Above photo, date unknown, from Colin Harris. |
Above postcard, circa 1905, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe. |
Above photo, date unknown, kindly sent by Debi Birkin. |
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. |
By kind permission of the "Zetland
Arms." Photo shows the pub in 1952. |
Above map 1896. |
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From the Dover Mercury, 18 August, 2011.
70p
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.
Same shot shown 2011.
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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.)
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From the Dover Express and East Kent News, Friday 9 June, 1933.
LICENSING TRANSFER SESSIONS.
Plans were approved of alterations to the "Victory," Kingsdown.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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LICENSEE LIST
BINGHAM James Files 1871-74 (age 56 in 1871 )
BINGHAM James Richard 1882-Oct/1927 (also fisherman age 45 in 1901)
   
TURNER Mr H D Oct/1927+
(From
Gillingham)
SWIFT John 1937-38+
ARNOLD George 1946-58
SHILLING H R Oct/1958+
https://pubwiki.co.uk/Victory.shtml
From the Post Office Directory 1874
From the Post Office Directory 1882
From the Kelly's Directory 1903
From the Post Office Directory 1913
From the Dover Express
 The Old Pubs of Deal and Walmer by Glover and Rogers
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