Friday, 9 October 2015
Railway Bell 1970s - 1990s
Folkestone Gazette
19-2-1975
Obituary
Mrs. Elsie
Reader, landlady of the Railway Bell public house in Dover Road, Folkestone,
for almost 30 years, has died, aged 81. Mrs. Reader was born in Elham, and her
husband took over the public house in 1945. A funeral service at Hawkinge was
conducted by the Reverend W. Foster.
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| Photo from Folkestone Gazette |
Folkestone Gazette
25-3-1975
Local News
Landlord Harry Reader believes he is the longest serving publican in
Folkestone. He retires soon after having been mine host of the Railway Bell,
Folkestone, for 30 years. Mr. Reader, aged 67, has been given a good send-off by his Ind-Coope colleagues.
Eight Folkestone publicans
got together and presented Harry with an inscribed clock at a surprise meeting in the saloon
bar of the Railway Bell on Wednesday. When he moves to a new home at East Cliff, Folkestone,
he plans to spend his time gardening and taking photographs.
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| Photo from Folkestone Herald 11-2-1978 Shows Railway Bell 19-10-1940 |
South Kent Gazette
22-11-1978
Local News
Empty tankards brought few cheers at four Folkestone pubs
when beer kegs and bottles ran dry. Regulars had to make do with fruit juice
and spirits as a result of a brewery workers` strike at Ind Coope. The brewery
supplies local pubs including the Black Bull, Nailbox, Morehall and Railway
Bell from its Aylesham depot. After missing three deliveries, pub supplies
dwindled last week to nothing.
One landlord said his trade had been cut by 50 per cent, and another claimed his darts league and pool players had
turned to lemonade and Coke.
Now customers will be
finding what their right arms are for again. The 14
workers at Aylesham agreed to return to work yesterday. A spokesman for the brewery said the strike by a total of
1,750 production and distribution employees was over a pay claim. Most of the other workers agreed to return to work on
Monday.
South Kent Gazette
25-11-1981
Local News
Cheers ten times over was the cry when a group of
sponsored walkers set out on a pub crawl to help the Kent Association for the
Blind. Ten pubs were visited, and on Thursday walk organiser, postman Dave
Garrod, handed over a bumper cheque for £1,210 to association deputy secretary
Les Ellis.
Mrs. Olive Hallett, landlady of the Railway Bell, in
Dover Road, Folkestone, received an award for the most cash raised. Her
customers collected over £350. It was a double night of success for the pub,
with regular Mike Kingston winning an award as the highest individual
money-raiser by raking in £222.
South Kent Gazette
27-4-1983
Gravesend Crown Court
After being struck in the face with a broken bottle by a
man in a pub, Michael Reece needed 25 stitches in his wounds, a court heard.
Sean Coyne, 23, and Mr. Reece were playing pool in the
Railway Bell in Dover Road, Folkestone. Trouble broke out as they chalked up
their names, Gravesend Crown Court was told on Tuesday. Before it finished
Coyne had broken an empty bottle and hit Mr. Reece in the face.
Mr. Simon Buckhaven, prosecuting, said that according to
Coyne the incident started when Mr. Reece nudged him. Coyne started a short
fight and another and another brief fight outside the toilets was stopped by
one of the pub`s customers. Later Coyne picked up an empty bottle from a crate,
and broke it against a toilet wall. He rushed past the publican into the bar
and struck Mr. Reece in the face with it. Before the two men were eventually
separated there was more fighting. Mr. Reece was taken to hospital with wounds
on his face and neck. Seen by police, Coyne, who bore some bruises, admitted
being involved in fighting, but at first denied using a bottle. Next day he
admitted what had happened, and said “He was antagonising me. He really got on
my back. I have never been so mad in my life, and I just did it”.
Coyne, of Tyson Road, Folkestone, admitted wounding Mr.
Reece on February 4 last year. His Not Guilty plea to a charge of intending to
cause grievous bodily harm was accepted.
Sentence was postponed for a psychiatric report and Coyne
was bound over until then.
For Coyne, Mr. Elikkos Georghiades said he had been
epileptic since boyhood and showed signs of possible brain damage. Further
reports were necessary before sentence was passed, both in the public interest
and Coyne`s own, he submitted.
Folkestone Herald
9-12-1983
Local News
A cheque for more than £1,000 was
handed over to the Kent Association for the Blind on Thursday, thanks to the
efforts of local postman David Garrod and a band of thirsty walkers. The money
was raised during a charity pub crawl organised by Mr. Garrod in August, when
84 people went on a 10 mile trek from Folkestone to Hythe and back, boozing all
the way. They visited ten pubs en-route with varying amounts of sponsor money
riding on them.
After handing the cheque to
K.A.B. representative Mr. John Crook at the Railway Bell in Dover Road,
Folkestone, Mr. Garrod said he was delighted with the result. It was the third
year running that the sponsored crawl, which has now become an annual event,
has raised more than £1,000. He said he had first held the walk in 1978 when
just himself, his wife and a couple of friends took part. They raised £70, but
it started the postman thinking about the fundraising potential of such an
event. Now he is determined to continue the yearly crawl, but says next year it
will be held in July rather than August to avoid clashing with a number of
other sponsored events which are held in the town.
Folkestone Herald
23-8-1985
Local News
Angry about missing a ferry, Adrian Hall hurled a stool through the
window of a pub, a court heard last Wednesday.
Thirty-year-old Hall was preparing to leave the Railway Bell pub in
Dover Road, Folkestone, after having a couple of drinks in the saloon bar. He picked up his haversack, shouted
something, then picked up a stool and threw it through a side window. Landlord Edward Hallett and some
customers chased Hall, said Jackie Morey, prosecuting at Folkestone
Magistrates’ Court. Mrs. Morey
said she understood Hall got into the back of a lorry and stayed there until
the police arrived. After
seeing Hall hiding in the parked lorry, they took him to the police station and
questioned him. Asked why
he threw the stool he said it was bad temper caused by the frustrations of
being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was then asked if he had missed a ferry or something. He replied “Yes”
and said that he should have been in Germany. Told he could have hit two elderly women sitting near the window, Hall
said he did not mean to hit anyone, he aimed at the window Mrs. Morey said Hall had already given
Mr Hallett £20 towards the £56.75 cost of repairing the window.
Hall, who comes from Devon, admitted destroying the window. He was
given a one-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £36.75 compensation.
Folkestone Herald
5-6-1987
Local News
Regulars of
the Railway Bell Pub in Dover Road, Folkestone, recently completed a marathon
darts game where the final score totalled 323,000,064. A team of 10
people including licensees Mike and Wendy Roberts spent an exhausting 12 hours playing,
starting at 11 a.m. in the morning and continuing until 11 p.m. closing time. Around £500
was raised from the game, and this will be donated to the Les Adams appeal, an
International Charity - which will finance a holiday for handicapped children.
Folkestone Herald
28-8-1987
Local News
The British Heart Foundation was £200 richer this week thanks to the
efforts of regulars at a Folkestone pub who played pool for 12 hours. Six
regulars at the Railway Bell, Canterbury Road, were sponsored by family and
friends. The marathon match started at 11 a.m. and ended with the last orders
bell at 11 p.m. that night. Mike Roberts, landlord of the pub said “It was a
good turn out especially as there was lots going on in Folkestone that same day”. Mike chose
the British Heart Foundation as the charity as his father-in-law suffers from a
heart condition. Mike and his wife Wendy are moving to Scotland at the end of
the week so they can be nearer to him.
Folkestone Herald
11-3-1988
Local News
Red-faced pool player Keith George is still
squirming about the day he stopped the yellow ball from jamming the table. For he got
his hand trapped in the pocket of the pool machine and became the centre of a
full-scale rescue operation while his mates just carried on playing. Pub
regular, Keith, of Westbourne Gardens was trying to stop a yellow ball that
kept getting stuck in the machine, from falling into one of the holes. But when
he put his hand down it got painfully lodged and wouldn’t come out. Watching
the spectacle was a full house at the Railway Bell pub in Dover Road on
Saturday. People had packed in to see the local band Tom and Jerry. Relief
manager Sylvia Colboume tried washing-up liquid but with no success, so the
fire brigade was called. Eventually Keith was cut free and was
taken to William Harvey Hospital for treatment to his hand.
Folkestone Herald
24-6-1988
Local News
Still smiling after 24 hours of continuous darts, the ladies of the
Railway Bell on Dover Road were on double top form last Saturday. Landlady
Susan Bridle and her team of hardy players started their marathon at 8 p.m. on
Friday night. They raised £90 in a raffle, and hope for another £500 from
sponsorship. The hard-earned money is to go to the William Harvey Hospital baby
care unit and to the National Schizophrenia Fellowship Folkestone Group.
Susan Bridle said
“We stayed out of the Telethon fever because we felt that our efforts would be
swallowed up in the masses and would not have a noticeable local effect. We are
hoping to present the money personally when we have collected it. We were all very pleased with the way the
event went, although we’re a bit stiff now”.
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| Photo from Folkestone Herald |
Folkestone Herald
19-5-1989
Local News
Our super readers lost their hair and their dignity to
help raise over £2,000 for the Herald`s William Harvey Appeal. The fun began
when students from South Kent College took to the streets in weird and
wonderful outfits for a sponsored walk from Folkestone to Hythe, Over 130
joined in and those who didn`t handed over £3 “fines”.
Meanwhile at the Railway Bell in Folkestone, landlord
George Bridle organised a fund fun night, with regulars lining up to have their
heads shaved, wrestle with an Alsatian or play one-armed pool. He said “The
ladies with the razors were a bit nervous, and quite a few plasters were used
–but it was all good clean fun”. George himself was one of the sponsored
baldies, and he added “It`s a bit cold now, but the best thing is you can wash
your face all over. The only trouble is, I don`t know where to start when I
have a shave in the mornings”.
The pub was packed right through to closing time, and new
sponsors were continually found and promises of money soared to more than
£1,000. Organisers also ran a raffle with prizes ranging from French lagers to
Hagar the Horrible T-shirts. George added “The whole evening was one big party,
and the pub was just teeming with people enjoying themselves. But the most
important thing is the amount of money raised. Everyone was great and we are
all over the moon with the cash we collected. Thanks everyone”.
Folkestone Herald 20-7-1990
Local News
Shepherd Neame has bought four pubs in Shepway from Ind
Coope. It was part of a £5.85 million deal for 33 public houses in Kent, London
and the south east. The pubs taken over in Shepway are: Britannia Inn,
Shorncliffe; Harvey Hotel (sic), Folkestone; the Nailbox, Shorncliffe; and the
Princess Royal, Folkestone.
Note: It was Railway Bell and not
Harvey Hotel.
Folkestone Herald
30-10-1992
Local News
The manager of a pub has been left baffled by the theft
of his sign.
Michael Lowe, who runs the Railway Bell in Dover Road,
Folkestone, locked up as usual on Saturday night and put his clocks back. An
hour later his wife thought something outside was missing, and when Mr. Lowe
checked the sign had gone. “God knows where it`s gone”, said 46-year-old Mr.
Lowe. “It was 15 feet off the ground and it took two men to get it up there. It
must have been well planned. Whoever took it had to get a ladder, unbolt it and
lower it down. If it had just blown down in the high wind and someone had
picked it up it would have hit one of the cars parked nearby first. But nothing
was heard or seen by anyone. It`s a complete mystery why anyone would want it,
unless they`re a connoisseur or railway freak”.
The 4ft x 3ft. Sign, which Mr. Lowe said was worth £250,
was hand-painted by an artist and had only been up for two months. It depicts a
steam engine, the Railway Bell, on a red background.
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