Sunday, 22 November 2015
Black Bull 1990s
Folkestone Herald
11-5-1990
Local News
A fun charity evening at the Black Bull pub raised £573
for muscular dystrophy victim Tony Mathews. The money will go towards the
maintenance of Tony`s wheelchair and a holiday in Disneyland. Money was also
raised for Muscular Dystrophy. Special guests included Tony`s mother Helen
Mathews, London marathon runner Ian Moore, and Cheriton shopkeeper John
Tapping, who is buying Tony`s wheelchair. Tony will be getting his chair on
Monday, and family and friends are now trying to raise enough money to send the
10-year-old to Disneyland. Anyone wishing to help can make donations to the
Tony Mathews Appeal at the National Westminster Bank, Europa House, Sandgate
Road.
Folkestone Herald
18-1-1991
Local News
Pub regulars are laying claim to strips of wallpaper as
mementoes of their soon-to-close local. Drinkers at the Black Bull pub will be
bidding for the decor in an auction tomorrow from 8.30 p.m. The next week
builders will move in and start transforming the pub into a steak house and
bar. Money raised from the auction will go to the William Harvey Scanner Appeal.
Folkestone Herald
25-1-1991
Local News
Crowds filled the Black Bull for a last big knees-up
before it is turned into a restaurant. And the regulars at the Canterbury Road,
Folkestone, boozer bought up all their favourite parts of the pub and managed
to raise £622 for charity. Everything was auctioned off including the carpet
and even the wallpaper.
Landlady Maureen Coles said “One piece of the carpet is
on its way to Australia. One of our regulars bought it, and he`s going these,
so if he gets homesick he can look at it and remember his local pub. It was
great that the Black Bull`s last night was such a success”.
The money raised will go to the William Harvey Scanner
Appeal and Barnardo`s.
The pub is being turned into an upmarket pub and restaurant.
Folkestone Herald
16-7-1998
Advertising Feature
Maureen Coles returned as manager to the Black Bull, in
Canterbury Road, Folkestone, in October, 1997. She had worked at the pub
previously, and having spotted its potential set her heart on running it. Maureen
said “The Black Bull is a lovely pub. When I worked here before I knew that I
could really make a go of it. It is a friendly, lively place where families can
enjoy a few drinks and our superb food – at reasonable prices. Although it is
large, the bar area has a very comfortable, relaxing atmosphere, making it feel
very cosy”.
The pub boasts a separate dining area, ideal for large
parties and families with small children. On the menu is a wide range of
dishes. The famous 32oz. steak is very popular, as are the dishes available on
the specials board, which changes often.
Maureen continued “We have found our “all for one” menu
has been extremely successful because you can have a 3 course meal for just £9.
You get a choice on every course, and all starters are £2, main courses are £5
and all desserts cost £2. Our two course Sunday lunch is also very reasonable.
Our roast is all home cooked, we use fresh vegetables and cook our potatoes in
the traditional way. You can then follow that with the sweet of your choice.
It`s delicious and costs just £5. Children`s meals start from just £1.45. I
have the support of extremely good staff, who are friendly and professional. I
have worked hard to make the pub a success, and I am very pleased the pub has
been highly recommended by the Kent Tourist Board”.
In the main bar area there are pool tables and a big
screen showing all the major sporting events. The Black Bull also has a very
large garden and barbecue area – an ideal place to enjoy a drink with friends
and family on a sunny day.
Folkestone Herald
26-11-1998
Local News
Television smash Changing Rooms has got a lot to learn
from the bar staff at Folkestone`s Black Bull pub. For the pint-pulling pair
were more than happy to pool their tips money to give the pub`s restaurant a
facelift while their landlady boss was on holiday.
Wendy Reeves and Liz Stanley, who work at the pub on
Canterbury Road, decided it was time the eating area was revamped. And so, with
the help of other staff and customers, they worked hard to finish redecorating
before Maureen Coles returned from a two week holiday in sunny Spain. Liz said
“The dining room area really needed brightening up and we thought it would be a
nice surprise for Maureen”. Wendy added “Before we started it was grubby and
tatty as it hasn`t been redecorated for years. The wallpaper was brown and we
repainted it a light blue colour, with a butterfly frieze all around the edge.
The night before we were expecting Maureen we stayed up until 4 a.m. finishing
the painting and laying the tables in the dining room”.
Customer Duncan McLennan said “We are like a big family,
so I was happy to help. I came in here one day for a pint and someone put a paintbrush
in my hand – it was a case of all hands to the pumps!”
Maureen was astounded and when she saw what had been done
she said “I was completely overwhelmed and couldn`t believe what they had done
for me”.
Brewery Tap 1980s - 1990s
South Kent Gazette
15-6-1983
Local News
A former pub landlord was found
dead in a pool of blood in a graveyard on Wednesday afternoon. Mr. John Knight,
aged 63, was found by a resident of a nearby estate that backs on to St.
Michael`s Church, Tenterden.
On Friday his wife Joan said from
the couple`s home at Kingstone Court, Shorncliffe Road, Folkestone, he was a
well-known and well-liked man around the town. Mr. Knight spent many years as a
publican in Folkestone. Around 1971 he took over at the Brewery Tap in Tontine
Street. He then moved to the Valiant Sailor, which he left nearly 18 months ago
shortly after a fire wrecked the pub. For a year Mr. Knight took on the lease
of the bar at Folkestone`s Courtland Hotel.
Police are investigating his
death and there is to be an inquest. A post mortem has been held but there are
no suspicious circumstances.
Chairman of the Folkestone and
District Licensed Victuallers` Association, Mr. Vic Batten, said he was
shattered to hear the news. Mr. Batten, who runs the Jubilee pub, added “He was
a well-known and a loyal member of the licensed trade”. When Mr. Knight moved
to the Capel pub a lot of his customers followed him even though it was out of
their area, said Mr. Batten.
Fellow publican and friend of Mr.
Knight, Mr. Stanley Dawkins, of the Ship, Folkestone, said “John was a great
man, and his customers thought the world of him”.
The funeral is likely to be in a
few weeks` time.
Folkestone Herald
24-6-1983
Local News
The funeral of publican John Knight was held on Tuesday. Relatives and friends gathered to pay
their last respects at St. Michael’s Church, Tenterden. It was at the church that Mr. Knight,
63, of Kingston Court, Shorncliffe Road, Folkestone, was found dead in a pool
of blood two and a half weeks ago. Police are investigating his death and there is to be an inquest.
His widow,
Joan, is distraught by his death. She said she would like to have a memorial
service for him in Folkestone in about July. Mr. Knight spent many years as a
publican in Folkestone. He took over the Brewery Tap in Tontine Street in
1971, later moving to the Valiant Sailor at Capel. He left there nearly 18
months ago shortly after a fire wrecked the pub, and for a year took on the
lease of the bar at Folkestone’s Courtland Hotel.
South Kent Gazette
6-7-1983
Inquest
A former pub landlord badly in debt slashed his wrist and
died on the grave of his two former wives. John Knight, aged 63, former
landlord of the Valiant Sailor pub at Capel, killed himself at St. Michael`s
churchyard, Tenterden, late on June 7. His partly-clothed body was found in a
pool of blood with his left wrist slashed. The rest of his bloodstained
garments lay around him.
His third wife Joan told Coroner Mr. Ralph Vaughan she
had no idea of his financial troubles. It was only after his death that she
discovered he owed money to Whitbread brewery, the Inland Revenue, VAT
authorities and his bank. Mrs. Knoight told the inquest at Tenterden “He was a
nervous man and would never worry me with unpleasant things. He never talked
about his financial problems”.
Mr. Knight`s body was found by the grave, where his first
two wives are buried by a resident of a nearby estate, Mr. Colin Roberts, who
was putting potato peelings on a compost heap when he looked over his garden
fence and saw the body. A police search uncovered a bloodstained razor blade
between cigarette papers in Mr. Knight`s jacket pocket.
Consultant pathologist, Dr. Noel Padley, said Mr. Knight
died from lack of oxygen as a result of blood loss from his wrist. Dr. Padley
said cuts above one eye and along the jaw were probably caused by Mr. Knight
falling on some nearby barbed wire.
Mrs. Knight, of Shorncliffe Road, Folkestone, said her
husband`s manner was strange a week before she last saw him. He said he was
going to visit his brother at Kingston, Surrey – the first time they had been
separated in their three year marriage. Mr. Knight had been taking sleeping
pills and showed her how to deal with the boiler, a task he always did. “I
think he was preparing for his death”, she said.
A few months before the couple left the Valiant Sailor
last May, a fire wrecked the bars. Mrs. Knight said this disturbed her husband
greatly and he would wake up some time afterwards saying he could smell smoke.
Mr. Vaughan`s verdict was Mr. Knight took his life while
the balance of his mind was disturbed.
Mrs. Knight said her husband was a kind and caring man.
He always played Father Christmas for the children of Capel and would help
anyone in trouble.
Before taking on the licence of the Valiant Sailor Mr.
Knight used to run the Brewery Tap in Tontine Street, Folkestone. After leaving
the Capel pub he had the lease of the bar at Folkestone`s Courtland Hotel for a
year.
Mrs. Knight plans to hold a memorial service for her
husband in Folkestone in a few weeks.
Folkestone Herald
22-3-1985
Local News
A pub landlord claims his business will die if the
council does not demolish the fire-gutted building next door. Edwin Giles, 38,
landlord of the Brewery Tap in Folkestone`s Tontine Street, claims the Stokes
Brothers greengrocer`s is an eyesore, a health hazard and a ruin that will dry
up the pub trade he`s built up over the last two years. “The place stinks, it`s
making my cellar stink and it`s driving my customers away”, he said on
Wednesday. “The place should be demolished because it`s a health hazard. People
will come up Tontine Street and when they see it they won`t come any further.
We`re all fighting to make a living and we`ve got this eyesore. They should get
the bulldozers on it”, he added angrily.
Fire ripped through the timber-framed shop killing one
man and injuring two firemen last month. Mr. Giles said he was amazed the
council were prepared to leave the building in its current condition.
Greengrocer Bill Lane, who has rented the premises for
the last six years, told the Herald he was in the process of clearing out the
rubbish and shutting up the shop. He added he was attempting to sell off
undamaged goods but didn`t know when he would finally pull down the shutters on
the business.
A spokesman for Shepway`s Environmental Health Department
said no complaint had been received from Mr. Giles. “If a complaint is made to
us we will respond by visiting the site in the normal way”, he said.
Folkestone Herald
26-7-1985
Local News
A publican deserted his pub and locked the doors behind
him. At the weekend regulars at the Brewery Tap in Folkestone`s Tontine Street
found the premises closed at opening time. And brewers, Whitbread, say it could
be weeks before another tenant is found to take over. Edwin Giles, 38, has
experienced difficulty running the business since the departure of his wife,
Caroline, 36, and their four children. Caroline left her husband last month.
A spokesman for Whitbreads, Mr. John Norton, told the
Herald “The licensee has left unexpectedly, and we have no-one to run the
Brewery Tap. It is certainly an unusual situation which we hope can be resolved
as soon as possible”.
Earlier this year Mr. Giles and his family were evacuated
from the pub when the adjacent greengrocery store was set alight. Since then he
has complained about the burnt-out shop driving custom away. In March he told
the Herald “The place stinks, it`s making my cellar stink and driving customers
away. We are fighting to make a living, and we have got this eyesore”, he said.
Folkestone Herald
2-8-1985
Local News
Whitbread, the brewers, said this week that the Brewery
Tap in Folkestone`s Tontine Street would remain closed until a suitable tenant
could be found. Last week the Herald reported the disappearance of landlord
Edwin Giles. Since then the pub has remained closed to trade. A spokesman for
the brewery said candidates for the tenancy were being interviewed.
Folkestone Herald
11-11-1988
Local News
Two brave pool players became as bald as billiard balls for charity.
Builder Grant Leizert and cycle-shop work Nick Price, decided to part with
their locks after a suggestion over the pool table at their pub, the Brewery
Tap in Tontine Street, Folkestone. The 18-year-olds charged £1 a hack at
their hair, and raised £300 for Cancer Research.
Landlady Doreen Steinberg said “It was a great
evening and everyone had a good laugh. My daughter, Teresa McLoughlin,
is a hairdresser, so she tidied up afterwards, but one of the sponsors, fresh
from the Doner Kebab shop, bought along his own cutter - a huge knife for the
Greek meat. He gave Grant and Nick a real hair-raising time”.
Folkestone Herald
26-6-1992
Local News
A publican has failed to get a licence for bands to play
for most of the day up to midnight on his premises.
Martin Foulkes, of the Brewery Tap in Tontine Street,
Folkestone, asked Shepway Council`s entertainment licensing sub-committee for
clearance for live music from 11 a.m. until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
He also wanted the licence for 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Mondays to Thursdays and 7
p.m. until 10.30 p.m. on Sundays.
A letter of objection had come from the St. Michael`s
Street Residents` Association, who feared noise problems.
Mr. Foulkes told the committee “We would need to keep the
noise levels down anyway so people could talk to us at the bar. We are not good
lipreaders!” He said the hours of the licence would not be used every week but
would give customers more time to enjoy the music and drink up.
The sub-committee granted him an indoor licence for just
7 – 11 p.m. from Monday to Thursday, 7 – 11.30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 7
– 10.30 p.m. on Sunday nights.
Folkestone Herald
27-8-1998
Local News
Three Folkestone watering holes have new owners after the
sale of more than 250 pubs owned by brewing giant Whitbread.
The Royal Standard and the Two Bells, both on Canterbury
Road, and the Brewery Tap at Tontine Street have been sold to Avebury Taverns.
Martin Foulkes, landlord of the Brewery tap, believes the
new ownership could have positive effects. He said “No changes are going to be
made to the pub for three months, but then Avebury Taverns are talking about
introducing some new beers”.
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