Folkestone Herald
7-7-1951
Local News
Seven Folkestone public houses were granted an extension
of licence on weekdays until 11 p.m. and on Sundays to 10.30 p.m. until
September 30th at Folkestone Magistrates’ Court yesterday.
Mr. W.J. Mason, appearing for the applicants, said
a similar application had been granted to a number of hotels for the summer
season and Festival of Britain. At Eastbourne 44 applications of the same kind
had been granted and 115 at Hastings. The extension had been granted to all
those who desired it in the other two towns.
The application was granted in respect of the Star
Inn, Bouverie Hotel, Shakespeare Hotel, Guildhall Hotel, Prince Albert Hotel,
Globe Inn, and George Inn.
Folkestone Gazette
22-10-1952
Local News
Licensee in Folkestone for nearly 50 years and a
well-known sporting personality, Mr. P.W. (Pat) Attwood, of the London and
Paris Hotel, is retiring shortly.
It was in 1904 that Mr. Attwood entered the
licensed trade, helping his father in the management of the Castle Inn, Foord
Road. Two years later he became mine host there and remained for 22 years. He left there to take over the licence
of the Shakespeare Hotel in Guildhall Street.
“In January, 1939, I
decided to retire and was looking forward to a restful time”, Mr. Attwood told
the Gazette, “but the war upset my plans”.
But it was not back to the licensed trade that
Mr. Attwood went. Instead, he joined the Auxiliary Fire Service, completing about
a year’s service, when he was invited to accept the licence of the London and
Paris.
They were grim days in Folkestone then, and
grimmer ones were to follow, for within a short time of taking over the “L and P” the
premises were not only damaged by air raid action but they came under repeated
shellfire from the Nazis’ big guns on the other side of the Channel.
The tall building stood out very conspicuously in the vulnerable
Harbour area and the military authorities had it camouflaged; possibly the only
pub in the country to be dealt with in that way. The London and Paris remained
open throughout the war except for one fortnight in March, 1943, when it was
considerably damaged by a cross-Channel shell which fell just behind the
premises. “It happened one evening about nine o`clock when there were about a
dozen in the bars”, said Mr. Attwood. “No-one was hurt although we were pretty
well shaken. We had to close for a time to get things straight again. Altogether the place was damaged 22
times as the result of enemy action”.
A Folkestonian - his father was one-time park
keeper at Radnor Park - Mr. Attwood has also been closely associated with sport
in the town.
In his younger days he was a very good
oarsman; he won the Championship of Folkestone one year and the Championship of
Folkestone and Dover combined on another occasion. About that
time there were only four towns with rowing clubs - Folkestone, Dover, Herne
Bay and Hastings. He was also a cricketer and footballer,
playing for the old Wingate club on Park Farm. Mr. Attwood was one of the first
members of the Folkestone Park Bowls Club. In his possession he has a group of
bowlers who went to Chelsea to play a match. Mr. Attwood is the only one still
living. His interest in Folkestone football clubs has extended over many years.
He was a shareholder of the old Folkestone Football Club in the days when the
club played on the Canterbury Road ground. He was a member of the committee, as
he was of the Folkestone Football Club formed after World War 1. During the
last war Mr. Attwood was also associated with Folkestone Wartime Football Club.
Mr. Attwood, who is 71,
is still a very active man. Not infrequently he can be seen on his bicycle and
although he says he is retiring, well, who knows what he will turn his hand to next?
He was a foreman plumber
before he went into the licensed trade, and altogether had 10 years` experience
in the building trade.
Folkestone Herald
25-10-1952
Local News
Mr. P.W. (Pat) Attwood, 71, of the London and Paris
Hotel, one of the best known personalities of the licensed trade in Folkestone,
will retire shortly. He has held the licences of the Castle Inn, Foord Road,
and the Shakespeare, Guildhall Street. He has been in the trade for over 48
years.
During the war the London and Paris was damaged in
air raids and by shellfire. It remained open throughout the war except for a fortnight in March,
1943, when it was considerably damaged by a cross-Channel shell which fell just
behind the premises. “Altogether the place was damaged 22 times as the result of enemy action”,
Mr. Attwood told the Herald.
A Folkestonian - his father was one-time park
keeper at Radnor Park - Mr. Attwood has long been closely associated with sport
in the town. In his younger days he was a very good oarsman; he won the Championship
of Folkestone one year and the Championship of Folkestone and Dover combined
on another occasion. He was also a cricketer and footballer, playing for the old Wingate club
on Park Farm. Later he became one of the first members of the Folkestone Park Bowls Club. His
interest in Folkestone football clubs has extended over many years.
Folkestone Gazette
29-2-1956
Local News
When an elderly woman admitted at Folkestone Magistrates`
Court on Friday that she
stole a purse from a handbag in a public house, it was said that a lot of her
trouble was caused by drink and heavy smoking.
Ivy Gwendoline Trott, 60- year-old widow, of 12,
Victoria Grove, Folkestone, pleaded Guilty to stealing a purse containing £6 13/5
belonging to Helen May Mercer. She
also admitted stealing, in a public house, £2 belonging to Emily Jane Smith.
The Chairman (Ald. W. Hollands), placing Trott on
probation for two years, said she had admitted to a very nasty trick. “Get into
your head that this sort of thing has got to stop,” he warned her. “If you are
brought back here again, I can assure you that you will not get away as lightly
as you have this morning”.
Inspector W. Floydd said at 9.45 p.m. on February 5th, Mrs.
Mercer went with her husband to the private bar of the Shakespeare Hotel,
Guildhall Street. When
Mrs. Mercer made a purchase at the bar she left her handbag on a chair next to
defendant. She believed she closed the zip after returning her purse to the
bag. Soon
afterwards defendant left the bar, and a little later Mrs. Mercer found her
handbag open. Her purse was missing. The Inspector said Mr. Mercer hurried out of the
public house and caught up with defendant near the Catholic Church. He asked
defendant about the purse and at the same time felt it in Trott’s coat pocket. Defendant told him that she saw it on
the floor of the bar and thought it belonged to her.
D.C. Crane said when he saw Trott later the same
night she said “I picked one up. I thought it was mine”. Two days later he saw her
again and she said “I took it, I am sorry”. The detective said Trott resided in Ashford for 21
years, and when her husband died in 1952 she lived with her mother in Victoria
Grove. Her mother died in December last. Trott, who had a son and daughter, was
in receipt of allowances amounting to £3 1/- a week; she paid 14/6 rent.
The Probation Office (Miss M. Mayling) said a lot
of Trott’s troubles was caused by drink and heavy smoking. The money she stole
was spent on trivialities, probably smoking and drinking.
Folkestone Herald
30-11-1957
Guildhall Street by “L.R.J.”
It was a quiet little lane, about 12ft. wide, with few
buildings along its length and wide open spaces either side of it. Almost a
country lane. Shellons Lane was that part of the Guildhall Street of today from
the Town Hall to the Cheriton Road turning, and it is so shown on a street map
of 1782 in the possession of Folkestone Public Library. The present Shellons
Street was then Griggs Lane, and the part of Guildhall Street from the Cheriton
turning onwards was called Broad Mead, Bottom Lane.
Why “Shellons” Lane? Shellons was the name of a large
field on the west side of the lane, and the thoroughfare, such as it was, took
its name from it, just as Copthall Gardens derived from the field called Copt
Hall, to the north of Shellons Lane.
Both these fields belonged to the King`s Arms Farm, which
in all consisted of about 171 acres. An old map of 1698 lists the various
fields that formed the farm. There were only one or two old buildings on the
west side of Guildhall Street a century and a half ago, and very few on the
east side. Shellons Lane was ..... just a lane.
On the site where the Town Hall now stands was the
King’s Arms inn, with next to it two or three small buildings. Behind it was
the town gaol, with stocks in which malefactors were placed. Lord Radnor was
the hereditary gaoler. Some time after 1782 the King`s Arms was moved across
the road to part of the site on which now stands the Queen`s Hotel. It was the
corner building of Cow Street (now Sandgate Road) and Shellons Lane. The old
King`s Arms buildings were demolished, and a building known as “The Cistern
House” was erected on the site. This too was pulled down in 1859, to make way for
the present Town Hall, opened in 1861. The Town Hall had no portico until 18 years later.
The first houses on the eastern side of Guildhall
Street were erected in 1844, approximately where the Guildhall Hotel and the
shop next door now stand. The hotel itself was opened probably about 30 years later, for the first
reference to it is in 1870, when the proud landlord, named Andrews, announced
“Mine is the only house in Folkestone where there is a stand-up bar like the
London style.”
By 1844 Guildhall Street - still Shellons Lane - was
built up on the east side to about the present premises of Messrs. Halfords. Development went on until by 1870 there were houses
and shops up to the corner of Griggs Lane (Shellons Street), though Messrs.
Vickery`s premises were built a little later. For nearly a
century the comer building now occupied by Messrs. Olby was a baker's shop. The
premises were built in 1856. It is interesting to note that a very old
boundary wall still exists between the premises of Richmond’s dairy and Halfords, a wall more than 150
years old. Towards the end of the nineteenth century Guildhall Street developed
with the expansion of the town and undoubtedly became a popular shopping centre, but it was
still far removed from the Street of today.
The west side of the Street, as has already been
stated, had very few buildings in 1782. The removal of the King’s Arms from the present
Town Hall site to the comer opposite may have been one of the first
developments on this side of Guildhall Street. The exact date is uncertain, but it was probably after 1782. The road
junction at that time was small, the meeting place of four narrow lanes, and
the building stood well out into what is now the roadway. It was not until 1882, and after
protracted litigation between the owners and the Corporation that the junction
was widened to its present proportions. The Kings Arms was a small hostelry by modern
standards, with a billiards room at the back and a skittle alley. One wall ran
a short distance along Guildhall Street and appears to have been a popular
place for posting notices of auction sales, meetings and so on. Later the hostelry was extended and
improved. When all the litigation was ended (there is a sizeable volume of the
proceedings in the Reference Library) the King’s Arms was pulled down, and on
May 30th, 1885, the Queen’s Hotel was opened.
A large garden occupied most of the length of
Guildhall Street from the King’s Arms, nearly to what is now Messrs. Andrews’
shop. It is possible that this garden, quite extensive in length and depth,
may have belonged to a Mr. Solomon, who built Alexander Gardens.
On the site of Stace’s stood two small cottages,
known as Pay’s cottages, and where Mr. Lummus’s cycle shop is now situated
stood another building, called Gun cottage. In the course of years the open
spaces were built over. On the site of the Playhouse cinema once stood a
substantial property known as Ivy House, and behind it, approached by the alley-way
which still exists, were stables. A little further along was
Marlborough House, the residence of a veterinary surgeon.
Part of the Guildhall
Street of days gone by was the Gun barn, shown
on the 1782 map. About 1840 the Gun brewery occupied the site of Messrs. Walter’s
furnishing store. There is reason to believe that a brewery originally stood on
the site of Messrs. Plummer Roddis in Rendezvous Street and was transferred to
the new site rather more than a century ago.
The Gun Tavern takes its name from an old gun of
the Tudor period, upended, that had long been in position at the comer of
Guildhall Street
and Cheriton Road. It was removed to the western end of the Leas prior
to the 1914-18 war, and about that period it disappeared. What became of it is
a mystery to this day.
The Gun brewery - and breweries were small and many
in those days - was owned by a man named Ham Tite. His beer may
not always have been up to standard, for in a County Cunt case in 1871 a
witness said the beer was so bad that his customers couldn’t drink it. The brewery continued until about 1880, but by
1882 part of it had become, of all things, a Chapel and coffee house. It was known as the Emanuel Mission
Church, conducted by a Mr. Toke. The tinted windows of the church remain and
there is still an “atmosphere” about the building, though it has long ceased to
serve any religious purpose.
The Gun smithy is
certainly a piece of old Folkestone, for the building itself has changed, there has been a smithy on this site for at least
a century.
The Shakespeare Hotel at the comer of Guildhall
Street and Cheriton Road is more than a century old, for all its up-to-date
facade. It was refronted in 1897, when it belonged to the Army
and Navy Brewery
Company. In 1848 it was the Shakespeare Tavern, and a directory of a later date
announces that tea and quoits were available. For some obscure reason it was
stated to be “near the Viaduct”.
So the transformation of Guildhall Street from the
virtually open fields of Shellons Lane into a modern, progressive and popularshopping
centre has taken place in less than 150 years. The unpaved, narrow lane is no more, gone are some
of the ”landmarks” of over 80 years ago, many of the old names have been lost. Changes and development have given to
Folkestone a street of which the town can be proud, a street of many trades, a
progressive street, a street of good and
efficient service to the public, a
street of shops where the customer is always right. Guildhall Street.
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