Thanks And Acknowledgements

My thanks go to Kent Libraries and Archives - Folkestone Library and also to the archive of the Folkestone Herald. For articles from the Folkestone Observer, my thanks go to the Kent Messenger Group. Southeastern Gazette articles are from UKPress Online, and Kentish Gazette articles are from the British Newspaper Archive. See links below.

Paul Skelton`s great site for research on pubs in Kent is also linked

Other sites which may be of interest are the Folkestone and District Local History Society, the Kent History Forum, Christine Warren`s fascinating site, Folkestone Then And Now, and Step Short, where I originally found the photo of the bomb-damaged former Langton`s Brewery, links also below.


Welcome

Welcome to Even More Tales From The Tap Room.

Core dates and information on licensees tenure are taken from Martin Easdown and Eamonn Rooney`s two fine books on the pubs of Folkestone, Tales From The Tap Room and More Tales From The Tap Room - unfortunately now out of print. Dates for the tenure of licensees are taken from the very limited editions called Bastions Of The Bar and More Bastions Of The Bar, which were given free to very early purchasers of the books.

Easiest navigation of the site is by clicking on the PAGE of the pub you are looking for and following the links to the different sub-pages. Using the LABELS is, I`m afraid, not at all user-friendly.

Contrast Note

Whilst the above-mentioned books and supplements represent an enormous amount of research over many years, it is almost inevitable that further research will throw up some differences to the published works. Where these have been found, I have noted them. This is not intended to detract in any way from previous research, but merely to indicate that (possible) new information is available.

Contribute

If you have any anecdotes or photographs of the pubs featured in this Blog and would like to share them, please mail me at: jancpedersen@googlemail.com.

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Saturday, 28 February 2015

True Briton (1) 1960s



Folkestone Gazette 13-2-1963

Local News

Permits under the Betting and Gaming Act for amuse­ments with prizes have been granted to the Martello Hotel, True Briton, Ship Inn, East Cliff Tavern, Raglan Hotel, Royal Pavilion Bars, Railway Tavern, and Royal Standard.

Folkestone Herald 7-8-1965

Local News

In the presence of a most distinguished company, Mr. Douglas Thomson, ex-R.A.F. officer and Director of Whitbread`s Ltd., unveiled the inn sign of the True Briton outside  the No. 1 (F) Squadron headquarters at R.A.F. West Raynham, Norfolk. The sign was originally erected in Folkestone to pay tribute to fighter pilots who flew from Hawkinge and Lympne and whose off-duty hours were spent mainly in Folkestone during the 1939-45 war.

Some years ago the sign was changed to depict an old ship in accordance with the brewery`s series of famous ships at their Kent establishments.

Mr. Leslie Hunt (who served at Hawkinge in No. 313 “Czech” Squadron) wrote to the brewers asking them to hang this sign at an inn near an R.A.F. base, but it proved impossible and Mr. Hunt was eventually offered the sign for the R.A.F. or R.A.F. Association. He, in turn, suggested to the Commanding Officer of No. 1 Squadron that it would be suitable for their museum and it was immediately accepted and hangs outside in style.

At the unveiling ceremony former members of the Squadron from the two world wars, with pilots like record-breaker Air Commodore Teddy Donaldson, were in attendance, and Wing Commander Wilkinson, M.B.E., D.F.M. and bar, who commanded No. 1 in 1941, drove from Sheerness for the occasion.

Thus a part of Folkestone lives on in Norfolk, thanks to Whitbread`s generous act.

Folkestone Gazette 22-6-1966

Local News

Torrential rain in the early hours of Fri­day morning caused havoc in Folkestone’s High Street. Thousands of gallons of surface water draining from the main shopping centre burst through an 18in. water-sewage drain under High Street flooding shops, public houses and other premises and blocking the lower end of Tontine Street with tons of sand, sludge and rubble. Gangs of Corporation workmen were on the scene by 6 a.m. clearing drains and opening the road to traffic. Eye witnesses said that at one time the road was flooded to a depth of two feet with a “sea of yellow filth”. A Corporation spokesman said the flooding was caused when the sewer pipe collapsed. “Drainage surface water, under pressure, must have leaked from the pipe, washing out a cavity under the road”, he said. “This caused the pipoe and the raod surface to collapse”. On Monday night High Street was still closed to traffic as workmen laid new pipes and filled in the cavities with weak concrete. “This is done to prevent a recurrence and to reduce any risk of damage to the foundations of nearby properties”, said the spokesman. In all, workmen cleared away five lorry loads of sand and rubble – about 20 tons – from Tontine Street.

At the Harbour Inn the licensee, Mr. V. Hood, said “This is the third time this has happened to me in 13 months. It is about time the Corporation did something about it. It would not be a big job. Fortunately it was rainwater and not sewage that flooded us out, otherwise all my stock would have had to be sent back”.

At the True Briton, licensee Mr. Steve Heron, said “This has happened three four times to me, but this was the worst. It was abso­lutely horrible. You could have sailed a boat outside. And it wasn’t just dirty surface water; it was a really disgusting, filthy mess, a sea of yellow filth. It’s about time the health authority did something about it”. Mr. Heron was up and about at the time the flood started, and while his cellar was flooded he managed to sluice most of the filth away with a hosepipe as the water receded. “This sort of thing makes you lose heart”, he said. “And it would cost so little to have it put right. For a few pounds the local authority could dig a decent sized drain and then let the water flow out into the harbour”.
 

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