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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Friday, 4 December 2015

East Kent Arms 1980s - 1990s



Folkestone Herald 15-3-1980

Local News

Brian Houghton went into the East Kent Arms, in Sandgate Road, Folkestone, at opening time one evening and was refused a drink by the barman because of his condition. He started shouting and used “foul” language. The assistant manager, Mr. George Warren, went up to him and Houghton was very abusive. He took off his jacket and said “I will get you; no bastard is going to kick me out”.

A police officer arrived and took Houghton, of Bradstone Road, Folkestone, out of the pub, telling him to go home. But he refused and was arrested.

Houghton, aged 25, admitted being drunk and disorderly on March 6 when he appeared before Folkestone Magistrates` Court, and was fined £15.

Folkestone Herald 13-9-1980

Local News

A hen party in a Folkestone pub ended in a woman being hit above the eye by a glass. The injury required 18 stitches, Folkestone Magistrates were told on Tuesday.

Leonard Donald Gerrard, aged 23, of Manor Road, Folkestone, admitted wounding Miss Christini Gunsun, and was ordered to carry out 180 hours` community service.

When Gerrard was arrested he admitted throwing the glass and said he had not intended to hurt anyone, Inspector William Wharf told the Court. Miss Gunsun was in the East Kent Arms, Sandgate Road, and a hen party was in progress, with women singing, said the Inspector. A young man started singing alone and was told to shut up by Gerrard, who pushed him. A fight broke out in which Miss Gunsun felt a bang on her head as she was picking up her handbag. The police had been unable to trace the other man in the fight, the Inspector added.

Gerrard told the Court that he had had a few drinks. “I did not mean to throw the glass. It sort of happened. I threw it at the floor, like”, he said.

South Kent Gazette 15-10-1980

Canterbury Crown Court

A barman at the East Kent Arms public house in Folkestone claimed that a customer had pushed a broken glass into the side of his head and back when he tried to break up a fight. And Alexander Warren told Canterbury Crown Court on Friday that his attacker was 25-year-old Glenn Williams, of Hollands Avenue, Folkestone. Williams, who denied wounding Mr. Warren with intent to do grievous bodily harm and an alternative charge of malicious wounding, was acquitted by the jury of both and discharged from the dock.

Mr. Warren, of East Cliff, Folkestone, told the Court he had been tidying up the bar after a pre-Christmas drink at the pub last year when a scuffle broke out. “I went to try to sort out the trouble. As I went to approach them I was grabbed by someone and pushed up against the bar”, he said. The person was leaning over me, whereupon he swept a load of glasses off the counter, then he smashed one. It was a spirit glass like a very small goblet. After smashing the glass he went and stuck the glass in my ear and he also stuck the glass into my back”. He said he had hospital treatment later for the injuries, which involved a number of stitches being put into the cuts, and he was off work for about five days. During the incident he was able to turn and saw that the attacker was Williams, who was easy to recognise because of hi bright ginger hair, Mr. Warren said.

The bar manager, Mr. Brian Smart said he saw the incident and also identified Williams as Warren`s attacker.

Williams denied he had been responsible for the assault. He claimed he had tried to stop Mr. Warren getting involved in the fight “for his own good”. He had pushed the other man apart and when one of them tried to attack Mr. Williams with a glass he took it off him. But Williams was not the only person with bright ginger hair in the bar that night. There was also another man with hair the same colour and they were also “much the same age and build”, he said.

South Kent Gazette 19-5-1982

Local News

Barmaid Ms. Maureen Hoare lost pounds and made money when her sponsored slim raised £37.40 for Parkfield School. The 39-year-old mother of three, who originally weighed in at 11 stone ten pounds, lost two stone three pounds.

A member of Folkestone`s Slimming Magazine slimming club, Maureen works at the town`s East Kent Arms pub in Sandgate Road. Regulars of the pub sponsored Maureen, who lives with her family in St. John`s Street, to raise much-needed cash for the special school in Parkfield Road, Folkestone. On Thursday a slimline Maureen said “I was slimming anyway, so I though I might as well try and raise some money by it”.

Folkestone Herald 24-6-1983

Local News

A teenager who assaulted a policeman during a brawl outside a pub also sent an ex-girlfriend a rotting pheasant`s head and neck. The youth, 18-year-old Mark Chamberlain, was fined a total of £200 when he appeared before Folkestone Magistrates last week. He admitted assaulting P.C. Philip Hendry, causing him actual bodily harm, using threatening behaviour and sending a “noxious substance” through the post.

Chamberlain, of Cheriton High Street, was in the dock with four other youths who were fined various amounts for their parts in events the night of the disturbance outside the Folkestone pub. Danny Brown, 19, and Alan McClew, 23, both of Dallas Brett Crescent, Folkestone admitted threatening behaviour. Brown was fined £35 and McClew £30. William Cribben, 21, and Stephen Maddison, 24, both from High Halden, were each fined £80 with eight penalty points for taking a car and £60 for having no insurance. Maddison was also fined £30 for threatening behav­iour and £5 for not having a driving licence. He was ordered to pay £40 legal aid. Cribben was also fined £20 for being drunk and disorderly. They admitted all the offences.

Mr. Gareth Isaac, prose­cuting, described the events which took place on the night of April 1/2. It was clear all the defendants were affected, to varying degrees, by drink, he said. Police were called to a disturbance outside the East Kent Arms in Sandgate Road at 11.50 p.m. When the first officers arrived they saw a number of young man and women standing outside the pub. Two of the youths started scuffling, shouting at each other and lashing out with their fists. Officers tried to separate the youths, one of whom was Chamberlain, said Mr. Isaac. They managed to restrain him, but he was struggling, shouting, lashing out with his fists and kicking. Then some friends grabbed Chamberlain, dragged him away and appeared to be trying to calm him down. But he continued shouting at youths who appeared to be “on the opposite side”, ran down the road, grabbed hold of someone and got involved in a scuffle. Some youths appeared to be still trying to restrain Chamberlain. An officer pulled him to one side and said he was being arrested. He was put in a police van and appeared to go berserk, said Mr. Isaac. He lashed out with his fists and threw him­self at P.C. Hendley, who fell backwards, hitting his head on the seat as he went down.
Although blood was stream­ing down one side of the officer's face he managed to keep Chamberlain in the van, which went to the police station. Another officer who went to the scene thought Brown and McClew were more in­volved than anyone else in a disturbance. The parcel containing the rotten pheasant’s head and neck was sent to Mandy Hamill, who was quite sick when she received it. A few days later she was in the White Lion pub in Cheriton and remarks Cham­berlain made indicated he was the person responsible. When she went to the police station to complain the head and neck were in such a bad state they had to be destroyed immediately for health reasons, said Mr. Isaac.

For Chamberlain, Mr. Ant­hony Curran said the offen­ces were the result of peo­ple drinking too much. Chamberlain had no recol­lection of being involved in a scuffle or fighting that night and did not know the other four defendants. He had drunk a lot of beer and some vodka. He did not mean to hurt the officer and his injury was not the result of a blow aimed at him. It seemed Chamberlain was trying to get out of the police van and was probably too drunk to know why he had been put in it. When he heard the police wanted to talk to him about the parcel he went to them voluntarily. He sent it in a fit of pique because he had heard the girl was saying silly things about his association with a couple of his aunts who are only slightly older than him.

 Brown told the court he went out and had too much drink and was sorry about what happened. McClew said he just went out, had a few too many and “got a bit boisterous”. Cribben said he could not remember much about what happened. It was not intentional and he did not know why he did it.

Mr. Sproule Bolton, for Maddison, said the taking of the car was probably as a result of them “topping up” on the drink they had had during the evening.
 
Folkestone Herald 15-6-1984

Local News

Violence broke out over the weekend as temperatures nudged the seventies. In two separate attacks with broken bottles, one man was taken to hospital with facial injuries after a fight in the East Kent public house in Folkestone, and another man with a four-inch gash to his face after a bottle attack in the Old High Street.

Folkestone Herald 15-7-1988

Local News

Thirsty summer drinkers in Shepway will have to wait for all-day pub openings because of a Whitehall glitch. The Government has been forced to delay the controver­sial new licensing laws until September 1. This has been caused by a technical problem at the Home Of­fice which means present “last orders” for another two months. Then pubs will be able to serve alcohol from 11a.m. to 11p.m. all week. But not all Shepway landlords reckon it will be worth the bother.


Horace Brickell from the East Cliff Tavern said “It’s a great idea for some pubs, but for the ones in restricted areas, like us, it’s not much good.
Where we are placed, it won’t make any difference and it will be a waste of time staying open”.

 William Taylor, landlord of the Pullman Wine Bar and chairman of the Folkestone and District Licensed Victuallers Association, said "There is some confusion, but no-one is forced to stay open. They will be able to choose the hours that suit them.” Mr. Taylor said there were mix­ed feelings about the changes. “Pubs in busy areas are welcom­ing them but small, rural or out-of-the-way places are indifferent. Personally, I’m in favour. I think it will give flexibility to the licensee and the public. I don’t think it will cause more drunkenness because people only have a certain amount of money to spend each week. And I don’t mind the extra hours involved because we will get extra staff which will help the dole queue”.

Barry Chamberlain from the White Lion in Cheriton agrees. He said “I think it’s about time change was made. Pubs will become much more suitable for families, and will be more like restaurants. We will try to stay open all day. We are just about to redecorate the pub with the new freedom in mind”.

Michael Norris from the East Kent Arms told us “I’ve accepted that the new laws are coming, although I have mixed feelings about them. I think it’s a shame we are not being allowed to stay open later at night rather than all afternoon. Of course we will be making full use of the new hours and will try to serve food all day. It’s all right for us because we are so cen­trally placed”.

Eileen Lewis from The Guildhall in The Bayle summed up the feelings of most landlords when she said “If I’m making money, I’ll stay open”. She added “It’s all right for more central pubs, but I can’t see us staying open in winter. The brewery has asked us to give it a three-month trial period. Like other pubs, we’ll just have to feel our way when the change comes”.

Folkestone Herald 8-7-1993

Local News

A Folkestone pub has refused to accept £50 notes because there are so many forgeries around. Pat Morgan, owner/licensee of the East Kent Arms, on Sandgate Road, said “We have been getting forgeries, so we`ve stopped taking fifties. There are problems with £20 notes too. The number we get varies. It depends when people get paid”. She added “I check the notes we take. I used to work in a money printer`s so I know how to tell whether a note is a forgery or not. It`s a secret of the trade, but I`m not telling you what it is”.

Inspector David Kimber said “There does appear to be an increase in the number of forged banknotes surrendered to the police”.

Folkestone Herald 13-7-1995

Local News

Thugs befriended a man in a pub only to beat him up and rob him when he left. The 36-year-old met the three men in the East Kent Arms in Folkestone`s Sandgate Road precinct in the early evening and drank and chatted with them for two hours. But Det. Con. Ray Bovis, the police officer hunting the attackers, said “The three men followed the victim when he went outside. They asked him to give them his mobile phone and when he refused one of them broke his nose with a punch to the face. He fell to the ground and they went on kicking him, then they took his mobile phone and made off”.

The man needed treatment for his injuries at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Folkestone. The shocked victim, who lives in the town, is now afraid to be named for fear of reprisals.

Mr. Bovis said “This was a very brutal crime and all the more shocking because the man had been drinking with the three others in the pub beforehand, and the attack was totally unprovoked”. He issued an electronic picture of one of the attackers, who was heard to be called Rob, and had a Scottish accent. No description of the other two men was given.


Folkestone Herald 5-2-1998

Local News

A man had his face slashed when he tried to defend his girlfriend in Folkestone town centre. The man called into the East Kent arms pub in Sandgate Road, leaving his girlfriend outside, when she was approached by two men. When the boyfriend saw what was happening he left the pub and ran to the rescue, but he was attacked by the two men with bottles. Anyone with information about the attack should call police on 850055.

Folkestone Herald 19-3-1998

Toby Jugs

Those of us who enjoy the odd pint – or worse – were prepared for the usual pounding on Tuesday. How much longer, Toby Jugs wonders, before we pay more in tax for the cost of our wines, beers and other naughties? Perhaps it is as well that our liver-corroded and lung-blackened friends are now having to pay for the cost of their health care. But those of us who indulge in the odd night out, or desperate evening courtesy of the local off-licence, are being hammered for our harmless relaxation.

Not surprisingly, my friends at the East Kent Arms are up in arms at the Chancellor`s latest swipe at those of us who enjoy the odd tipple. A straw poll of boozers at the hostelry gave the whole puritanical enterprise the thumbs-down. And quite what sense there is in setting the figures for these duties is beyond me – I mean, why, say, 4p on wine? Either it is legal to drink or it is not, and if it is dangerous then why not stick £10 on it, £20, £100 on our booze?

Helen Barton, assistant manager of the East Kent Arms, hit the nail on the head when she said the rises are just a way of making ordinary people suffer.

Thomas Merton called the rises “absolutely ludicrous”, and said with our low-duty-levying neighbours so near, duties should be scrapped.

Susan Carroll called the rises “ridiculous”, and said the extra money should come from those who were “paid too much”.

So, here is the mystery – if no-one will admit to liking the rises why do they happen? Well, Toby Jugs can only say it is that old hairshirt making its comeback, just as it does with our beloved opinion pollsters at elections. After all, would you admit in the street to being against all that money from our vices going to worthy causes? It`s our way of appeasing our conscience.

Well, Mr. Jugs stands before you and admits it now: I am for no duty on alcohol whatsoever. I rest my case. Cheers.

Thomas Merton, a drinker at the East Kent Arms, clearly didn`t hear my question. Before an interesting conversation, sir, on the evils of tax, the dialogue as you sipped your spirits went like this:

TJ: Do you think the Chancellor should be slamming extra money on our alcohol and cigarettes?

TM: They are very careful with the service here and they do particularly good bread rolls.

Folkestone Herald 23-7-1998

Toby Jugs

Drinkers are advised to be on their guard: I`m reliably informed that some people go to pubs and pinch unfinished drinks. The latest incident, a regular told me, happened at the East Kent Arms. One minute the beer was on the table next to him, and the next it was gone. Was it a mistake or a joke? Jugs wouldn`t like to say, but has a confession to make. In one incident – years ago, naturally – I reached around, grabbed a drink, and after a few gulps found it wasn`t mine. Readers, the fight was defused in its early stages by profuse apologies.

Folkestone Herald 28-10-1999

Maidstone Crown Court

Two soldiers have been jailed for two and a half years after attacking a man with bottles after he answered a woman`s screams for help. As a result of the sentence, Jerome Pinnock and Lee Coe have been thrown out of the Army. Pinnock was about to be promoted and his “moment of madness” was said to have ruined a promising career.

Paul True was left bleeding and in need of some 60 stitches after he was cornered by the two men and had heavy bottles smashed over his head.

Recorder David Lamdin told them “You gave him a vicious, brutal beating, both armed with bottles. You continued to attack him even after you knew he was wounded”.

The cowardly attack happened after Mr. True went to the East Kent Arms pub in Folkestone on January 21 to get change for snooker tables at the Rendezvous Club in the town. He came out of the bar to see the squaddies grabbing at the woman. Mr. True ran over and pushed Pinnock, 23, away. But he was then hit on the head with a Jack Daniels bottle. Coe, 21, joined in, striking the victim in the face with a Drambuie bottle.

Mr. True told Maidstone Crown Court that the two bottles smashed on impact. “My face was wet with alcohol and blood”, he said. “I went down to the ground. I saw the two men – they were enjoying it”.

Pinnock stuck the broken bottle neck in Mr. True`s face before he managed to escape into the pub. Both he and the woman asked drinkers – including soldiers – for help, but were ignored. Mr. True grabbed a bar stool and went back outside. He tried to raise it above his head but dropped it because it was too heavy. Pinnock, described as being very fit, continued to attack Mr. True and Coe joined in the punching and kicking. They eventually walked off.

Pinnock was with the Duke of Wellington Regiment, stationed in Hounslow, London, and due to be promoted from Private to Lance Corporal. Coe was in the 6th Platoon, based in Lancashire. At the time of the incident they were on manoeuvres at Lydd.

They denied indecent assault, wounding with intent, unlawful wounding and affray, claiming they acted in self-defence. They were convicted of unlawful wounding and affray and cleared of indecent assault and wounding with intent. Coe admitted two thefts and three handling charges committed from Worksop Magistrates` Court and was given an additional six month sentence.

Fiona Moore-Graham, for Pinnock, said he was remorseful and appalled about his behaviour, which was out of character. “The Army are very keen on this young man and do not wish to lose hise services”, she said. “If placed into custody he will lose his career. The Army has been his life and he wishes to continue. I ask you not to prejudice his entire career because of what happened that night”.

Judith Butler, for Coe, said that, unlike Pinnock, he did not have the Army`s support. Neither did he have the support of his well-to-do family.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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