Two Bells (2) 1950s

Folkestone Herald 28-3-1953

Local News

Protection order made by Folkestone Magistrates on Tuesday: Charles Henry Welling, of 82, Rosebury Avenue, Tottenham, in respect of the Two Bells, Canterbury Road.

Folkestone Gazette 28-7-1954

Local News

The licensees of the Two Bells and the Royal Standard, Canterbury Road, Folkestone, were granted an extension from 10.30 p.m. to 11 p.m. from August 6^th to 14^th, with the exception of Sunday, at Folkestone Magistrates’ Court yesterday. The application was made be­cause of the fair to be staged during the week on the Canter­bury Road Recreation Ground. Chief Inspector L.A. Hadlow said the extension was granted last year because of the Coron­ation and the two licensees found it so advantageous during the week of the fair that they had decided to make application this year. The police, he said, had no objection.

Folkestone Herald 20-8-1955

Local News

At Folkestone Transfer Sessions on Wednesday the Magistrates granted an appli­cation for permission to carry out alterations at the Two Bells public house in Canterbury Road. It is proposed to build a new kitchen with a living room above and turn the old kitchen into a large saloon bar.

 

Folkestone Herald 3-3-1956

Local News

An anonymous telephone call led police to question a Dover man about the theft of £25 from a Folkestone public house, it was stated at Folkestone Magistrates` Court on Tuesday.

Before the Court was Bernard Wilfred Henley, 30 year old plasterer, of 16, The Linces, Dover, who pleaded Not Guilty to stealing the money, belonging to Charles Henry Wellings, of the Two Bells, Canterbury Road, Folkestone, on December 2^nd. Henley, married with two children, was found Guilty. He was put on probation for two years and ordered to pay £7 13/10 costs. When the accused asked for time to pay the costs, a prosecution witness, Mr. D.M. Jolliffe, manager of Lloyd`s Bank, Buckland, said he would waive his claim to expenses amounting to £1 6/-. Henley was given two months to pay the balance of £6 5/10.

Mr. R.P. Tunstall, prosecuting, said on the date of the offence, and for some time before, structural alterations were being carried out at the public house. It was significant that Henley was one of the men engaged on the work. Mr. Wellings put a box containing £25 belonging to the dart club in his bedroom. Henley knew it was there because he swept debris away from just inside the door. Mr. Tunstall alleged that there was necessity for the accused man to commit the offence because he had an overdraft of some £80 at the bank. More significant still, Henley called on Mr. And Mrs. Hopper, of 7, Shrubbery Cottages, Dover, on November 30^th, and told Mrs. Hopper that he knew of a box with some money in it at the place where he was working and he was going to have some of it. On the evening of the day the offence was committed Henley appeared to be flush with money. He paid 17/6 for a taxi to St. Margaret`s Bay. The taxi driver noticed there was £6 to £10 in Henley`s wallet. Mr. Tunstall said when Henley was seen by the police he denied ever taking the money.

D.C. Crane said on December 3^rd he went to the Two Bells public house, where he saw a number of workmen, including the accused. He told Henley he was making enquiries about the £25, and that an anonymous phone call had been received on December 2^nd to the effect that the person responsible was a workman living at Dover. Accused denied knowing anything about the money. He said he had a bit of an overdraft but was not hard up. The police officer said he saw Henley again on December 7^th and told him he had reason to believe he took the money. The accused replied “I don`t know how you can say that”. When he saw the accused on December 20<sup>th</sup> he told him that two days before the money was stolen he (Henley) had told Mrs. Hopper that he was going to have some. “That is more of Hopper`s lies”, replied Henley, who maintained that his conscience was clear.

Henley, giving evidence, said in 1950 he went into business on his own as a contracting plasterer. In 1954 he ceased the business because his overdraft at the bank was so big. Since then he had been reducing the overdraft. On December 2^nd he was in no graver financial circum­stances than he had been for the previous year or 18 months. The money the taxi driver saw in his wallet was his wages.

Mr. H. Gardener-Wheeler, for the accused, submitted that the evidence for the prosecution was most highly and unsatisfactorily circumstantial.