Folkestone Herald
15-3-1980
Canterbury Crown Court
Two barmaids accused of stealing from the till of the Folkestone pub
where they worked, were found Not Guilty when a judge stopped their trial on
Tuesday. Julie Willis, 22, from The Deerlngs, Lydd, and Vicky Edwards, 21,
formerly of Pilgrim Spring, Folkestone and now living at Coronation Street,
Blackpool, had denied stealing £217 from the Globe in The Bayle.
The trial, at Canterbury Crown Court, had started with the Globe's
landlord, Mr. Ronald Letts, giving evidence of how he found deficiencies in
his bar takings. Mr. Letts said he kept a daily record
of his takings and at the end of the week transferred the figures into an
account book.
But after he had been giving evidence for some time, the landlord told
the court that his son, then aged 15, sometimes helped with the bookwork and
entered figures into the account book. It was then that Judge Margaret
Cosgrave stopped the trial and directed the jury to find Willis and Edwards
Not Guilty.
She explained to the jury “The case against these defendants must depend
upon the accuracy with which figures were taken down from the till roll into
the day cash book and from that into the accounts. And in
view of the evidence which you heard to the effect that the son had made all
the entries into the day book, there is no safe evidence on which I can ask you
as a jury to convict either defendant. I am
therefore going to direct you to enter verdicts of Not Guilty on all counts
against each defendant”, she said.
After the jury had returned the Not Guilty verdicts, Judge Cosgrave discharged
Willis and Edwards. The charges had alleged that the defendants
jointly stole £217 belonging to Mr. Letts, between June 25 and July 26, 1977. Then,
separately, Willis and Edwards were each charged with four thefts of
unspecified sums of money from Mr. Letts during the same period. These were
alternative charges to the joint allegation, Mr David Voelcker, prosecuting,
had explained to the jury, and the total amount involved was £217.
Folkestone Herald
13-6-1981
Local News
About £1,000 is believed to have been stolen from the
Globe public house during a break-in on Tuesday night. Thieves broke into the
building in The Bayle, Folkestone, and forced open a safe, taking the contents.
Landlord, Mr. Ron Letts, refused to comment on the raid.
South Kent Gazette
5-8-1981
Local News
A youth who stole £1,107 in three burglaries in
Folkestone may be sent to Borstal.
A 15-year-old admitted three accusations of burglary at
Folkestone Juvenile Court last Monday and was sent to Crown Court for sentence,
with a recommendation for Borstal training. A fourth accusation, of burglary at
the Ambassador Hotel on The Leas, was denied, and this was adjourned.
Inspector Ron Young said the boy broke into The Globe
pub, in The Bayle, took the keys from the pocket of the publican, Mr. Ron
Letts, while he was sleeping, and opened a safe containing £1,000. Other people
were implicated in the burglary, but so far no-one else has been apprehended.
The Folkestone boy stole another £17 from chartered accountants in Westcliffe
Gardens and broke into a hut on the site of the new Sainsbury`s supermarket in
Wellington Gardens. With additional claims for stolen cigarettes, a gold watch
and chain from Mr. Letts, there is a total compensation claim of £2,676, said
Mr. Young. The boy has previous findings of guilt for
offences earlier this year.
Defending, Mrs Susan
Watler said that six weeks in a detention centre and a supervision order had failed
to stop the boy committing further offences. He is
beyond his parents’ control and magistrates should consider putting him under a
care order in a secure home. Because he is
easily influenced by older people, it might have a bad effect if he was sent to
Borstal, she said.
Magistrates ordered
the boy to be held in custody until his Crown Court sentencing to prevent him
committing further offences.
Folkestone Herald
22-8-1981
Local News
While publican Ron Letts slept a 15-year-old burglar took
the key to his safe from his trousers pocket. The young villain netted £1,000,
coins and jewellery in the raid on the Globe pub in The Bayle, Folkestone. But
on Monday the youth was sent to borstal for breaking into the Globe and two
other crimes.
Sentencing him, Judge Thomas Edie said “I am sorry to say
that at the age of 15 you have become an accomplished burglar and you are in
need of discipline and training”.
The youth had been sent to Maidstone Crown Court after
admitting the pub break-in, burgling a chartered accountant`s, stealing £17,
and entering a building hut, intending to steal.
Prosecuting, Miss
Gill Hammerton said he broke into the accountant’s on May 31, taking money
from a desk and a collection box for the blind.
Later the same
evening police saw him climb over a wall of the Sainsbury’s building site in
Folkestone. Questioned later that
night he admitted both offences. He was bailed, but on June 9 broke into the
pub during the middle of the night. Arrested on June 30, he told police older
youths had also been involved in the raids at the pub and the building site.
Folkestone Herald
2-9-1983
Local News
A modern pizza restaurant could replace Folkestone`s
Guildhall pub. Pizza Hut (U.K.) Limited have submitted a planning application
to Shepway District Council. A spokesman said if the company gets the go-ahead
it will preserve the character of the pub when installing oak booths and
tables. The company has 26 Pizza Huts in London and is searching for new sites
all over the country. It is not a fast food chain but a full service restaurant
which caters for 20-year-olds to families with young children, said the
spokesman.
But the plans mean that landlady Mrs. Maude Lewis and her
daughter Eileen will have to leave the Guildhall`s bar and move to the nearby
Globe in The Bayle, Folkestone. The pair were told about a month ago that after
31 years they would have to move. The pub`s brewery is Whitbread, of which Pizza
Hut (U.K.) Limited is a subsidiary. “It was quite a shock”, said Eileen, but
added “If it had to happen at least we are lucky enough to go to The Globe”.
The Globe`s present landlord, Mr. Ron Letts, is retiring
in September.
Folkestone Herald
30-9-1983
Local News
After 27 years as landlords of the Globe pub, Ron and
Barbara Letts are set to enjoy life on the other side of the bar. The couple
bade farewell to their regulars at a retirement party on Monday but said they
would more than likely pop back now and then. It was a hectic day as Ron and
Barbara prepared to move out and new landladies Miss Eileen Lewis and her
mother Mrs. Maude Lewis, of the Guildhall Hotel, Folkestone, took over. Neither
Ron nor Barbara were sorry to leave the pub in The Bayle, Folkestone, and said they
were looking forward to doing nothing. The couple moved to a flat in Guildhall
Street. A decanter and six glasses was presented by Mr. John Norton, area
manager with Whitbread Fremlins.
The Guildhall Hotel is closing, but a company called
Pizza Hut (U.K.) Limited has submitted a planning application to Shepway
District Council for permission to turn the pub into a modern pizza house.
Photo from Folkestone Herald
Folkestone Herald
3-2-1984
Local News
The towels have gone up over a century of pub history as regulars supped
their last pint and turned their eyes to watering holes anew. After more years
than the most devout regular cares to remember the proprietors of the Guildhall
in Folkestone have sounded the final bell on the old pub, and what was once the
delight of the drinking classes is to be turned into a licensed pizzeria.
Pubs may come and fads may go, but British landladies live on forever
and although it`s time at the Guildhall the licensee Mrs. Maud Lewis will
continue serving pints at The Globe in The Bayle, assisting her daughter
Eileen, who is licensee there. “I have been here 32 yeras and there have been
some good times. It`s sad the old place will not be as it was but I shall be
helping my daughter at The Globe and I expect to see many old friends there”,
said Maud who is now 73.
On Friday Mr. John Kidson, managing director of Whitbread Fremlins,
presented Maud with a cut glass decanter and glasses to mark her long service
at the Guildhall. During the lunchtime ceremony she was also presented with a
colour television, given as a mark of appreciation by Folkestone and District
Licensed Victuallers` Association and Ladies` Auxiliary. Mr. Kidson praised the
50 years of service Maud had given to the licensed trade and in particular to
her 32 years behind the bar of the Guildhall.
But the highest praise of all came from locals who thronged the bar on
Friday and also attended a wake on Sunday evening. "I have been coming in
here ever since Maud took over. Now Maud is going to help out over at The Globe
I shall be going over there”, said Mrs. Audrey Brandon. who works at a nearby
furniture store. “It’s another landmark gone but at least we shall be able to
preserve some of the pub’s atmosphere. It is the people that make that”.
Folkestone Herald
24-2-1984
Local News
Non, nein, or however you want to put it, Shepway
drinkers have given the thumbs-down to Common Market tinkering with the price
of a pint. Brussels bureaucrats have said that Britain discriminates against
wine in favour of beer and have asked for a harmonisation of prices. But with
one eye on the budget, drinkers and licensees alike suspect that is 1984
doublespeak for a thumping increase in the price of a pint.
First into the counter-attack against whatever Whitehall
and Brussels have in mind is Folkestone and District Licensed Victuallers`
Association, which says the price of a pint is already too high, and if any
adjustment is to be made, wine costs should be cut. “I`ve been here 15 years,
and in that time I have seen the price of a pint of beer double inside five
years and the number of customers fall off” said Vic Batten, Chairman of the
association, and innkeeper at the Jubilee on The Stade, Folkestone. “In
January, 1979, mild was 30p a pint, and out two bitters 34p and 38p. A pint of
mild now costs 66p and the bitters 72p and 74p respectively. You can go into
any pub in the area and they will tell you the same thing, and it amounts to
this – the higher the price of a pint, the more the average person is put off
from visiting their local. The ridiculous thing is that in this country we aret
axed more heavily on drink than in any other country in the Common Market with
the exception of the Irish Republic”.
As the lounge bar of the Jubilee cleared at the end of
the lunchtime session Mr. Batten`s grandson, three-and-a-half months old Thomas
came down with his mum to see what was going on. Rapid calculations revealed
that, assuming prices rise on the current scale, Thomas will be tipping back
pints at more than £12 a time – if there are any pubs open by the time he is
20.
One of the last customers to leave was fellow-publican
and ex-journalist, Brian Potter, now licensee at the Clarendon in Tontine
Street, Folkestone. Said Brian between mouthfuls of ale “If nobody says or does
anything then I reckon they`ll get away with pegging wine at the price it is
and harmonising the prices by jacking up the price of a pint. What Vic says is
dead right. The average bloke is beginning to realise the cost of a pint of
beer has already been increased out of all proportion. I mean, have your wages
doubled in the last five years?”
Opinions of the same sort were voiced by Mr. Danny
McNeill, late of Balloch, Scotland, and now not-unacquainted with the bar of
the Globe in Folkestone`s Bayle. “If the people who fixed the prices could
stand in here and listen to what people are saying, their ears would burn”, he
said. “There’s definitely something wrong with the
pricing when you can get a super strong lager in Scotland for less than 70p. It
seems to me that the brewers and the government are pricing themselves out of
a good thing”.
Folkestone Herald 12-9-1986
Local News
The funeral service of Folkestone’s most famous former pub landlady,
Maud Lewis, took place on Wednesday. Maud - who died last week aged 75 - was
landlady at the old Guildhall pub, until it closed in 1984, for 32 years. For much
of the last two years of her life she helped her daughter Eileen at the Globe
on The Bayle. In all, she gave over 50 years` service to the licensed trade. When she
retired from the Guildhall, Maud received many gifts and presentations from
grateful regulars and friends. Members of the Guildhall Street
Traders’ Association gave her an inscribed powder compact and the Folkestone
and District Licensed Victuallers Association presented a colour television. She built
up a solid following during her time at the pub. As one regular said when the
Guildhall closed “I have been coming here ever since Maud took over. Now she is
going to the Globe I shall be going over there. It is people that make a pub’s
atmosphere”. Maud was buried at Herne Bay following a funeral service at Folkestone
Parish Church.
 |
| Photo from Folkestone Herald |
Folkestone Herald
31-7-1987
Local News
Folkestone now has two Guildhalls. One, the historic
former Town Hall – the other, the town`s newest pub. The Globe public house in
The Bayle has been renamed The Guildhall. In a brief and very damp xceremony
the Mayor, Kelland Bowden, unveiled the new Guildhall sign to the cheers of
revellers and a trumpeter, before going upstairs to make a closer inspection of
the sign.
The mother of landlady Eileen Lewis, Maud, used to run
the old Guildhall pub, in Guildhall Street, which is now a Pizza Hut
restaurant.
Mr. Bowden said “I think it is appropriate that the name
of the old pub should follow Eileen. I used to use the old pub when I was
young”.
Landlady Eileen said “It`s a dream come true to have the
Guildhall back. I`m just pleased the opening went without a hitch. I was sure
that the curtain was going to get stuck on the sign”.
Folkestone Herald
7-8-1987
Letter
I was most interested to read your report on the renaming
of the Globe, and in particular reference to “the town`s newest pub”.
Whilst I appreciate Eileen Lewis` nostalgia for the old
Guildhall which she and her mother ran admirably for many years, I do feel that
the end result is wrong. I, like many others, regret the passing of the
Guildhall, but cannot help but feel that it would be better to have put the
Globe on the map, so to speak, which I am sure Eileen was capable of. Call it
what you will, it will always be the Globe, a much older “house” than the
Guildhall was, and can never be the Guildhall.
The earliest reference to the Guildhall is in August,
1870, when the then occupant Mr. Andrews applied for a spirit licence, and it
was quoted in evidence that he had occupied the house for two years without
complaint, thus giving us 1868 as the earliest known date for the Guildhall.
The Globe, however, could boast a much older history. The earliest reference to
it is in 1855, and two years later there is reference to the licence being
transferred to Sarah Hambrook from Thomas Maycock. This Mr. Maycock ran the
Globe as a wine and spirit merchant, but had a room referred to as the public
room, where drink could be consumed on the premises (this can be verified), and
there is evidence that he had done so since 1848, when the premises were
erected. Incidentally, there are still descendants of Mr. Maycock living in
Folkestone today. Indeed, Dr. C.H. Bishop states that the Globe is probably
built on the site of a much older inn.
So, to quote a reference elsewhere, it was felt by Eileen’s “locals”
that “a slice of history” had been lost with the closure of the Guildhall, a
much older “slice of history” has been lost with the passing of the name of the
Globe.
E. D. Rooney,
Mead Road,
Folkestone.
 |
| Photo from Folkestone Herald (Circa 1919) |
Folkestone Herald
28-8-1987
Local News
The recent renaming of the Globe public house in
Folkestone has roused a host of fond memories for one woman – she was born
there. Joan Mann, of Stanley Road, Cheriton, came kicking and screaming into
the world shortly after the First World War.
Her grandfather, Alfred Fox, was the licensee of the 19th Century pub,
now named the Guildhall, shortly after the turn of the century, and remained the
pub’s landlord through the First World War. Mrs. Mann
said “I remember my grandfather as a jolly old man, and very popular in the
pub. He was a teetotaller and it was only after his retirement in the early
20’s that he touched a drop or two of brandy. Mrs. Mann
supplied us with the photograph showing regulars and staff outside the old pub
and what a smart lot they are. Eagle-eyed readers might spot the
little white dog in the background.
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