Prince of Wales

Above photo, circa 1890, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Above photo, circa 1900.

Above photo, 1915, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Above photo, circa 1930s.

Above photo, circa 1930s.

Above photo, 1975, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Above photo, circa 1980s.

Above photo, August 1994. Left to Right, Pete Bacchus, young lad is Dane Austin, next Shane Wilson, then Stuart surname unknown.

Above photo, date and name unknown.

Above photo, date and name unknown.

Above photo 2007.

Above photo, 2018.

Above sign left, July 1991, sign right, June 1999.

Above with thanks from Brian Curtis www.innsignsociety.com.

Above sign 2015.

Above Dinner and Dance ticket held at the "Punch Tavern," Sturry, 1974.

Above Dinner and Dance ticket held at the "Ship" Upstreet, 1977.

Above Dinner and Dance ticket held at the "Marine Hotel" Tankerton, 1979.

From and email received, 6 July 2020.

My step-grandfather, Daniel Payne, was the licensee from, I believe, some time in the 1930s, until 1956, when he died. My grandmother, Annie, went to the Prince sometime in the 1930s as housekeeper. She married Dan Payne in 1940. My father took on the tenancy after Dan died until 1959.

As a small boy I was sent to live with my grandmother at the Prince, from 1939 to 1942, to escape the bombing in London. In 1944 my parents, with me, moved to Herne Bay, so the Prince featured prominently in my life for 20 years.

This drawing shows the Prince in 1940, when I was living there, aged 4.

The main bar was in the centre of the front - just visible inset under the Shepherd Name sign. It was very small. To the left, with the bay window, was the Tap Room - much bigger than the main bar, and where darts and dominoes were played. Drinks served through a hatch. The door under the covered porch led into the separate Tea Room. This provided direct access in the afternoons to tea, when the pub was otherwise closed. During opening hours when it effectively became the Ladies room, it allowed access for the ladies without having to go through the main bar. The door and window to the right of the picture served the small general store that my grandmother ran.

Upstairs were just bedrooms. No bathroom, and outside toilets.

This is Annie and Dan Payne, taken in 1956 in the back garden of the Prince.

Me, on the left, with my cousin outside the Tea Room door, 1947. Scruffy, but always with a tie!

I stayed at the Prince on the eve of my marriage to a Beltinge girl at Herne church in 1958.

Yours sincerely,

John Briggs.

From a local paper circa 1980.

Anger at trade down the drain

Villagers at Chislet and Hoath are angry over delays in a £400,000 main drainage scheme which has closed roads and, they claim, lost business for traders.

Mr Ken Chapman, landlord of the popular Prince of Wales pub at Maypole, Hoath, said this week he had lost a considerable amount of trade.

The contractors, Bowzells, are working for the Southern Water' Authority, whose agents are Canterbury City Council. They started work last summer.

Maypole Road was closed last October, Mr Chapman complains, but it was intended to reopen it after eight weeks when the work was completed.

“I have lost a hell of a lot of trade,” he said. “People have to make a detour of two miles right round Marshside and come up a narrow little lane to my pub.

“Brewers also have to make a detour. The road was opened up at Christmas when the workmen had a fortnight’s holiday.

“Traders started to use the road again, then it was closed again. We were told the work would be finished before Christmas."

Mr Chapman said he had tried to get in touch with the engineer in charge without any success.

He would protest to Cllr John Heddle, the Bridge-Blean county councillor.

“I could organise a petition as long as my arm,” he added. “People are sick and tired."

Mr Maurice Huffey, the site agent for Bowzells has offered Mr Chapman a ray of hope.

The weather had caused the delays, he said, and the rain had made the ground difficult to work on.

However, the work at Ford Hill had been completed and the road was due to be reopened in a day or two.

Maypole Lane would also be reopened at the end of this week or the beginning of next.

Then the road outside the Prince of Wales pub would be closed for further work.

Mr Huffey explained: “We regret any inconvenience to residents, but the prime cause of the delays has been the wet weather."

A Kent County Council spokesman said that any road closure orders could only be made for six weeks, and it was possible the villagers had mistaken this when they thought the work would be completed in that time.

Applications had to be made to extend a closure order after six weeks.