WOOLPACK Pub of Smeeth

DOVER KENT ARCHIVES

Page Updated:- Monday, 19 September, 2022.

PUB LIST

PUBLIC HOUSES

Paul Skelton

Earliest 1768-

Woolpack

Open 2020+

Woolpack Hill / Church Road

Stone Hill

Smeeth

01303 814095

http://www.woolpacksmeeth.co.uk/index

https://whatpub.com/woolpack-inn

Above postcard, date unknown, kindly sent by Laurence Archer.

Above photo, 1900, kindly sent by Laurence Archer.

Above postcard, 1913, from Chris Cleave.

Above photo, date unknown, kindly sent by Jan Pedersen.

Above photo, from 13 February, 1915, showing a hunt outside the pub and the pack entering the tavern.

Above photo, date unknown, showing hop-pickers outside the pub, kindly sent by Laurence Archer.

Above postcard showing the original "Woolpack" pre 1937.

Above photo, 1937, kindly sent by Laurence Archer.

Above postcard, circa 1950s, kindly supplied by Rory Kehoe.

Above photo 2013.

Above photo, 2018.

Above sign left, July 1991, sign right 2014.

With thanks from Brian Curtis www.innsignsociety.com.

Above sign, 2018, kindly taken and sent by Laurence Archer.

Above aluminum card issued June 1951. Sign series 3 number 46.

I have also seen this pub addresses as Brabourne.

Originally built in 1603, the new Woolpack Inn was rebuilt in 1937 due to fire and ruin. New owners, Nikki and Paul Guest have been at the pub for just over a year. The pub is a family run, large, traditional village pub, with a large family garden. The pub serves three fine cask ales and good wines, as well as your usual beers and spirits. Richard Arter is the restaurant experienced chef, who produces high quality food, using locally sourced produce. The pub has sky sports, traditional pub games, regular poker nights and has live music the last Saturday of every month. It is ideal for special occasions of all kinds and outside bars can be catered for. (2014)

I believe the pub still has a mini crazy golf situated in its garden.

1987 Celebrations for 50th Anniversary.

Celebrations at the Woolpack.

An old name celebrates its 50th year.

The "Woolpack Inn" in Smeeth opened in Coronation year 1937.

Built by a local firm which still flourishes, C. I. Epps, the building carried on an honoured name with a long local history.

There has been a "Woolpack Inn" in the district since 1603. There is original was a coating inn serving travellers on the old road which ran from Ashford to Hythe. The building, on Stone Hill, Sellindge, survives to this day.

With the coming of the 'new' Turnpike which bypassed the old route, the "Woolpack" was left high and dry and so it's business was transferred to Epps Corner, Smith, hard by the village centre.

During the present century the growing motor traffic of the time caused the road junction to Woolpack Hill to become increasingly hazardous.

Then in the mid 30s there were two mystery mysterious fires at Smeeth. Both occurred together. At one, the well-known Orpins Stores was burnt to the ground. At the other the stables of the "Woolpack" were left to burn in an effort to save Orpins. It was subsequently decided to demolish this second "Woolpack" and to build a third.

The "Woolpack" has always enjoyed a good reputation in the past and this has been revived during the past 18 months for the coming of as mine hosts. We offer congratulations and best wishes for the next 50.

From an email received 21 July 2018.

"We were told by the village historian, now sadly died, a little of the history of the pub when we bought our house in 1988. (Opposite the pub.)

The single storey part of the building to the left of the pub, nearest to the camera as shown above and below, was originally the stables. Horses were stabled there for the coaches that travelled from Folkestone towards Ashford/Maidstone/London, and were exchanged for fresh horses from these stables. The local cart drivers used to complain about the proximity of the stables to the road as if their horses turned left too sharply when coming up Woolpack Hill, the cart would hit the stables.

At that time, this route was the main road between Ashford and Folkestone, the A20 of its time. The new pub was built in the 1930’s and was one of a number of pubs built throughout the County (i.e. "Black Eagle," Badgers Mount) to cater for the growing number of car owners, and its style and architecture reflects this. Unfortunately, after the war, the road between Sellindge and Ashford was widened and straightened to become the current A20, and the village, and the pub, were by-passed.

The above shows a small building/hall to the right of the pub. We were told that this building served as the village mortuary for many years where the bodies of deceased villagers were laid out before burial.

I have attached a photo above, taken this afternoon of the pub as it appears now. After Nikki & Paul gave up the pub in approx Autumn 2015, the new tenants were Steve & Julia. They renovated the pub inside and out, and painted sections of the external brickwork white, which has been met with approval by most of the villagers. During the renovation work, they removed ‘The Woolpack’ timber name board fixed to the wall above the ground floor windows at the front of the pub (shown in your 2013 photo), and discovered the original glazed stone ‘The Woolpack Inn’ sign underneath.

Steve & Julia left the pub after approx 10 months, and the new tenants, since the Spring of 2017 are Dave and Michelle.

The crazy golf is still there and still used.

Above photo showing part of their Crazy Golf Course, 2010.

Laurence Archer.

Above photo, date unknown, kindly sent by Sylvia Imray.

From the Kentish Gazette, Wednesday, 13 July to Saturday, 16 July, 1768. Price 2d

TO BE SOLD IN SEPARATE LOTS

At the “Woolpack” on Stone Hill, on Tuesday the 19th of July, between the Hours of Two and Four in the Afternoon.

A Freehold Estate, very pleasantly situated on Stone Hill, in the Parish of Sellinge; Consisting of a House now in Two Tenements' in the Occupation of Mr. Stephen Bridger and the Widow Wells, with a Barn, Stable, Close, and a good Orchard of Half and Acre, and about four Acres of Land adjoining to the said Orchard.

And likewise a Small Tenement, with One Acre of land, and a Blacksmith's Forge, laying and being also on Stone Hill, with a right of Commonage of Sellinge and Braybourne Lees. Also several other pieces of Land i9n the said Parish, Arable, Meadow, and Pasture, and four Acres of Wood-land, with very fine young Oaken Timber thereon, and Two Acres of Alders Ground enclosed with the Wood, containing in the whole Twenty-one Acres. – The tenants are at Will.

From the Kentish Gazette or Canterbury Chronicle, Wednesday 10 May to Saturday 13 May, 1769. Price 2½d.

TO BE SOLD BY AUCTION

Between the hours of three and five o'clock in the afternoon, of Friday the 26th instant, at the Sign of the “Woolpack,” at Stone Hill, in Smeeth.

A farm, consisting of two Messuages, with the Barn, Stable, and twenty-one Acres of Arable and Pasture Land, and Half an Acre of Hop-ground, situate and lying in Smeeth, near Braborne Lees and now in the Occupation of John Hams.

For further particulars, enquire of Mr. William Allen of Lydd.

Kentish Gazette, 14 January 1820.

SMEETH.

Monday se'nnight as Mr. Francis Godden, of the "Woolsack" public house, at Stone Hill, was shooting field flares, his gun burst, and lacerated his hand so dreadful that it was necessary to amputate several of his fingers.

From the Kentish Gazette, 8 December 1840.

DEATHS.

Nov 20, after a short illness, Sarah, wife of Mr. Francis Godden, of the "Woolpack," Smeeth, aged 59.

From the Kentish Chronicle, 16 July, 1864.

SHOCKING AND DETERMINED SUICIDE.

On Saturday evening an inquest was held at the “Woolpack Inn,” Brabourne, before T. T. Delasaux, Esq., Coroner, on the body of William Pellatt, a young man in the prime of life, assistant to his uncle, Mr. Francis Pellatt, a large farmer in that parish.

The deceased had been in a low melancholy way since the death of his wife, which occurred about two years ago, and upon one occasion he left home for a week, and it was not known what had become of him. At the end of this week he was found sitting on his wife’s grave in tears. He had been low and dejected at times during the whole of the intervening period, until Saturday morning, when it seemed he went to the “Five Bells Inn,” where he had a slight dispute with a party. He returned home and took down a double barrelled gun loaded with powder and shot. He placed caps on the nipples and told the woman with whom he was lodging that he was going to shoot himself. The woman ran after him into the garden, and seized him just as he had placed the muzzle of the gun under his chin, but she was too late to prevent his pulling the trigger. The unfortunate man's brains were blown clean out, and the woman was covered with blood.

The jury returned a verdict of “Insanity.” The deceased was much respected.

From the Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald, Saturday 10 August 1912.

ASHFORD. A YOUNG MARRIED WOMAN CHARGED WITH ARSON.

At the Ashford Police Court on Wednesday and Thursday Mr. Charles Igglesden was occupied with a case of alleged arson. The accused was Mrs. Mary Booth, a young woman, wife of the landlord of the "Woolpack Inn," Smeeth, who was charged with wilfully rad maliciously setting fire to certain tables, chairs, mats and other articles at the "Woolpack Inn," Smeeth, under such circumstances that if the building was thereby set fire the offence would amount to felony. Mr. L. R. Coke appeared for the prosecution.

Sergeant King stated that at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, in consequence of a message from the landlord of the "Woolpack Inn," Smeeth, he proceeded there at once. The landlord was ill in bed. Witness found five different places which had been set fire to. In the club room there was a chair smothered with paraffin and partly burnt; and there was the paraffin on the door sill and floor, extending to one and a half yards and three quarters of a yard. In the tap room a table covered with American cloth, and a smaller table, were charred and partly burnt, and the floor and five chairs smeared with paraffin; the scullery door was slightly burnt and blistered, and near by were two burnt mats and two table cloths produced; the living room table was slightly charred with paraffin and the ceiling and curtains blackened by recent smoke; the cellar bar table was slightly burnt on the top and had paraffin upon it. There was a strong smell of burning and of paraffin about the premises. Witness cautioned the accused, and asked her if she could account for the fires, to which site replied. "Yes, my husband did it." As the landlord was ill in bed and the prisoner was very much in drink, witness sent for the Superintendent of the Police. The witness added that the accused was in drink, though not actually drunk. Other evidence was taken, and on the completion of the case for the prosecution, the accused was formally cautioned and had nothing to say in answer to the charge. The magistrate thereupon committed her for trial at the next East Kent quarter sessions in October, declining to allow bail, both the police and Mr. Coke for the prosecution, objecting. Mr. Igglesden told the accused that her husband, who might have bailed her out, was not present in court, although he had been warned, and the accused replied, "It’s a shame my husband should keep me in those cells," adding that she came from Maidstone and had no other friends.

From Kent & Sussex Courier 19 November 1937.

SMUGGLERS' INN TO GO.

Once a haunt of smugglers, a famous Kentish Inn, the "Woolpack" at Smeeth, is to be demolished. A new building is to take its place.

The "Woolpack" got its name from the fact that it was formerly the bargaining place of farmers, who brought their wool to the inn on pack-horses. It is the only hostelry in Smeeth.

I have just added this pub to that list but your help is definitely needed regarding it's history.

As the information is found or sent to me, including photographs, it will be shown here.

Thanks for your co-operation.

LICENSEE LIST

GODDEN Francis G 1820-41+ (also painter age 55 in 1841)