|
The following
information was kindly supplied by Clive Webb, see following web site:-
http://www.nonington.com/
The White Horse in Church Street was built next to St. Mary's church and may
well originally have been Church property as brewing was, before the
Reformation, often carried out by monks as it was a good source of income for
the Church and prior to commercial brewing the monasteries were the largest
brewers. Many inns and alehouse evolved from the Church providing shelter and
accommodation for travellers at one of their properties. The quality of the
materials used in the construction of the premises show that was at one time a
very high status building with extensive water cisterns underneath probably
filled from the church roof.
The earliest written evidence of its use as an alehouse is in 1607 when the
parish register records the burial on June 22, 1607 of:- "John Hickmore a
bachelor and a mason ript his own bellie lyeing upon a bed at Mother (Widow)
Gooddins' (also spelt Goddin, Goodyn) the alewife by Nonington Church, which
acte he did upon the Saturday about five of the clock in the afternoone and he
died on the next day at noone. ‘Qualis vita finis ita'". This Latin epitaph
translates as, ‘ As his life, so his end'.
The Goodins appear to have been connected to the "White Horse" for some time
previous, William Goodin died in January 1591 and Alice, his widow, probably
succeeded him as licence holder. Alice Goodin nee Alice Deale was baptized at
Nonington on January 11th 1542 at Nonington, and married William Goodin at
Nonington on September 8, 1561. William was buried at Nonington on January 30th,
1591. In these times keeping an alehouse was one of the few opportunities for a
women to run her own business, it is quite possible she ran the alehouse whilst
her husband did another job, most likely as a tradesman, possibly as a
blacksmith or carpenter or a husbandman (small tenant farmer). After her death,
she was buried on May 24th, 1612, Alice was possibly succeeded by one of her
sons, John, baptized January 4th,1561 or Sylvester baptized September 24th,1563.
The next documented evidence available is from 1659. In 1659 the alehouse, a “parcels-messe
or tenement called the White Horse togr. With the barne stable buildings dove
houses courtyards gardens orchards and piece of land contg by est 2 acres now in
the occ of the sd John Deane" (with Thomas Prebble and William Bean, both of
the parish, as guarantors) and described as “a common ale-house or
victualling house” was sold to John Deane, victualler, of Nonington and
Thomas Petit, yeoman, of Knolton by Daniel Pingle, mariner, of St. John the
Baptist parish, Thanet, Henry Pingle, butcher, of Nonington, and Thomas Pingle,
bricklayer, of Nonington, the sons and heirs in gavelkind (a form of land tenure
& inheritance unique to Kent) of Thomas Pingle, deceased, of Nonington. John
Deane and Elizabeth Deane, his wife, probably occupied the premises for some
time before 1659 but for how long is not presently known.
Thomas Osbourne recorded as the licensee in 1674, he may well have succeeded
John Deane at the alehouse. In 1672, Thomas had married his wife, Joan.
“In the 12th. Year of William the Second” (1700) Thomas Petit, yeoman,
of Knolton, William Petit, Gabriel Petit, and John Petit, heirs in gavelkind of
Thomas Petit of Knolton who had died in 1699, sold the property described as “all
that messuage or tenement with the barns stables smiths forge buildings
courtyards gardens and all that part or parcell of arable land enjoining by
estimation two acres more or less...called or known by the name of the White
Horse” to William Hammond. Thomas Petit senior appears to have obtained sole
tenure of the property at some time in the proceeding forty years. The
properties location was described as being bounded by the lands of Thomas Marsh
esq., to the east and north (Thomas Marsh at that time occupied Old Court and
Church Farms), the highway to the south and the churchyard to the west. At the
time of the sale the licensee was William Sharpe, who had married his wife,
Sarah, on March 12th, 1697.
Subsequent licensees were as follows:
1706 (and possibly before) Laurence /Laurance Austen/Austin/Asting. House-holder
and Innkeeper, buried November 12th, 1716.
1717.Elenor Austen widow of Laurence.
1720.Elizabeth Austen, daughter of the above.
1725.Richard Perry.
1726.William Harrison.
1727.Henry Hopper.
1736.Thomas Rye.
1739.Susan Rye.
1742.Henry Spaine.
1748.John Copper.
1749.Thomas Prebble.
Another change of ownership came in 1753 when Elizabeth Beake, a widow of
Stourmouth who had inherited the premises from William Hammond, of St. Ann's
Parish, Westminster, sold the White Horse to William Hammond, of St. Albans,
Nonington, for £130. 10s 8d. The property, now reduced to one acre in extent,
was described as: “that messuage or tenement situated at Nonington in a place
there called Church Street and called or known by the name of the White Horse
with outhouses buildings orchards gardens about half acre previously occupied by
Laurence Austen now occupied by Thomas Prebble” as well as “the smiths
forge" occupying about half an acre and consisting of: “stables outhouses
yards gardens backsides and lands previously occupied by Christopher Spain now
occupied by Henry Spain” but which had no living accommodation. At some
point in the previous fifty years the alehouse and smithy had divided into two
separate businesses.
After this sale the alehouse keepers were:
1762. John Ellis.
1768. Thomas Sladden.
1771. William Morris.
1785. James Makey.
The next major change at the the alehouse “known by the name or sign of the
White Horse” came in 1790 when it was leased from William Hammond of White
Friars, Canterbury for twenty one years by William Baldock, brewer, of
Canterbury and John Rigden, brewer, of Faversham, at a rent of forty pounds per
annum payable in four parts on: January 5th, April 5th. July 5th. and October
10th., William Hammond retained the rights to timber, free libert, egress,
ingress, and regress. James Makey continued as the White Horse's keeper until he
was succeeded in 1798 by James Holtum or Holton who in turn was succeeded by his
wife, Mary, in 1824.
In 1825 the licence was taken over by William Wood, a member of a prosperous
local family, whose nephew was the landlord of "Rose and Crown," now the
"Two
Sawyers," at Woolage Green. It was whilst under William's tenancy that the White
Horse became the "Hawks Head" in 1826,
remaining an alehouse until March 1832 when William Wanstall junior, who had
taken over from William Wood in May 1831, ceased trading as an alehouse keeper
on these premises. The closure seems strangely abrupt as Wanstall's new
premises, the "Royal Oak" in the Drove, lower Old or Holt Street, was not licensed
at Wingham Petty Sessions until the following September. The closure may have
been due to a change of views on the sale of alcohol by the owner.
|
