QUEENS ARMS Pub of Cowden

DOVER KENT ARCHIVES

Page Updated:- Thursday, 01 February, 2024.

PUB LIST

PUBLIC HOUSES

Paul Skelton

Earliest 1841

Queen's Arms

Open 2024+

Hartfield Road

Cowden Pound

https://whatpub.com/queens-arms

Above photo, date unknown.

Above photo, 2010.

Photo taken 23 April 2011 from http://www.flickr.com by Harry the Hand.

Above sign, left, May 1993, sign right 2013.

With thanks from Brian Curtis www.innsignsociety.com.

Kelly's Directory of 1903 gave the address of this as in Markbeech.

This is a Listed Grade II historic pub built in 1841 by William Longley of Pound House, the name commemorating the Queen’s Royal West Kent Regiment.

From the Kent and Sussex Courier, Friday 23 January 1874.

Tonbridge Petty sessions. Tuesday, January 23rd.

Cowden. Unjust Weight Case.

Robert King, publican and grocer, of Cowden, pleaded guilty to having on his premises, at Camden, on the information of Mr. Francis, a 7lb weight 1 and 3 quarters once unjust, and he was fined £1, and 11s. 6d. costs.

From the Kent and Sussex Courier, 11 February, 1880.

LICENSING BUSINESS.

Temporary authority was granted to Robert Morse with respect to the “Queen’s Arms,” Cowden Pound, until next transfer day.

From the Telegraph 23 January 2013.By Simon Holden.

The Queen's Arms, Edenbridge, Kent.

People who run good pubs generally have a lot of respect for the old ways. But few take it to such extremes as 88-year-old Elsie Maynard, landlady of the Queen's Arms since 1973. Ever since Elsie's father Henry took over the tenancy in 1913, the family has refused to go with the flow. Newfangled nonsense like lager, jukeboxes and flavoured crisps never crossed the threshold. But at a time when 12 pubs every week are closing, this time-warp has thrived.

Only one type of beer is sold on draught, Adnams Bitter, and there are never more than six optics. Cash goes into coffers and crisps are limited to salted only. Opening hours remain resolutely restricted and the pub only went decimal in the Nineties.

The brewery, Admiral Taverns, can do little about Elsie. They inquired about her plans a few years ago. “I shall only be leaving here in a box,” she told them.

Elsie explained why the pub has thrived. “The secret of running a successful pub is to be nice to the customers and listen to what they say,” she says. “People love the pub because we know them all, we've known their fathers and their grandfathers.”

Elsie is keen to point out that the Queen's Arms hasn't been neglected, just loved and left intact. “The public bar hasn't changed since the Thirties, the only difference is that we added toilets. You used to have to go outside and use an iron pot at the back.”

Her stance on one topic in particular will delight ale buffs and horrify many others. “I've never had lager here and never will,” Elsie says. “In the first place it was too expensive and my customers couldn't afford it. Real beer is made with hops.”

Nor will her hostelry become a gastropub while she is around. “Never, I like the old fashioned way. All we've ever done in the way of food is bread, cheese and pickles. I did the pickles myself. One year I did 200lbs, I started in the August and just kept going. It was a lot of jars, but I sold them all.”

The Queen's Arms has been frequented by several less desirable people down the years, most notably the “acid bath murderer” John Haigh who dispatched at least six victims in the Forties. Local vet and pub historian John Hawkridge says: “He would turn up in a smart sports car with his latest girlfriend. He travelled from Crawley and liked the pub because it was quiet and in a pretty part of the world.”

Hawkridge often works behind the bar and, like other volunteers, does not get paid. He is joined by Dave Wood, who looks after the cellar, and Tim Bates, the “timber man”, who keeps the fire going in winter.

The pub's future is uncertain, as Elsie acknowledges. “I hope it is still a pub in a 100 years' time but I think the brewery will sell it,” she said.

From http://www.courier.co.uk January 18, 2013. By Jane Bakowski

Celebration at the pub where time stands still

TO MOST it is Elsie's Bar, a tiny beacon of light on a cold winter evening.

But for those whose memories reach back further, the extraordinary Victorian pub on a country crossroads between Cowden and Markbeech will always be Annie's Bar. Never mind that the former landlady died 40 years ago, or that her daughter Elsie has stamped her own indomitable personality on the place in the years between; time moves slowly here, and change needs decades to settle.

Elsie's mum Annie behind the same bar in the 1950s.

As regulars gathered on Sunday to celebrate the centenary of the family's stewardship of the place officially known as the Queen's Arms, in Cowden Pound, Elsie looked back to January 1913, when her grandfather, Henry Long, first gained the licence.

REGULARS: Jim Bates, John Stretton, Chris Munday and Rodney Agate.

"It was hard to get in those days because there were pubs closing down even then.

"But he was successful, and when he died it passed to my parents, Annie and Kenneth Maynard. When my father died of pneumonia in 1940, my mother took over and I worked alongside her."

Above photo showing Elsie Maynard serving Roger Marples with Chris Excell looking on, taken on 26 February 2001 by Roy Denison.

Elsie would spend the rest of her working life at the pub.

"I was born upstairs and I've never wanted to be anywhere else. I haven't been abroad – never wanted to – and the furthest I've travelled is to Salisbury to see my cousin. But I wouldn't stay the night because home was always on my mind. That's why I've never been interested in marrying, I'd rather be here."

It has taken a community effort to keep the 88-year-old's business alive. For as the threat of closure gathered over the pub, originally owned by the Tunbridge Wells-based brewer Kelsey, a steady stream of local people came forward to help keep it going. Manned by a rota of volunteers from all around the area, it has become not so much a pub, more an act of faith.

CELEBRATION: Cowden Pound with cousin of Elsie Maynard and helper Jean Lamprell behind the bar.

"I've known Elsie all my life," said Mary McGlew who, along with her daughter, Jane, mans the bar for several nights every week.

She added: "I remember sitting outside in the car as a child while my parents were inside. I'd toot on the horn and they'd bring out a bottle of lemonade. You couldn't come in until you were 18 because Annie knew all our ages."

The same applies today, a notice outside declaring firmly: No children's room and, equally uncompromising: Lager not sold here, the Maynards having decided, years ago, that they had no room for customers with a taste for the nasty fizzy stuff.

Lorry driver Rodney Agate is another regular you sense still feels the excitement of finally being allowed into the bar after a childhood spent waiting outside.

"Annie would come out and talk to me in my pram, but I had to wait 18 years to get inside," he said.

Retired vet John Hawkridge, who has compiled a short history of the pub, said: "Mary is the driving force but we all do our bit because we know this place will never be repeated. I help in the bar but others look after the fire or the beer, so it's really well run."

He added: "It has hardly changed. A man came in the other day after 40 years and was amazed to see the crisps still stored in the same biscuit tin. And the clock on the wall is the first thing Elsie's grandfather bought when he took over in 1913."

Above photo, crisps box.

The bar has always welcomed musicians, headed these days by folk group Elsie's Band, which has been performing there for many years. Morris dancers drop in on St George's Day, too, and regulars like to mark traditional festivals like Burn's Night and Pancake Day.

In the past, the pub served a mainly agricultural and service community including, at one time, 32 butlers from the big houses in the area.

"We had lots of Canadian soldiers here during the war," recalled Elsie who, despite being less mobile these days, is never more than a stone's throw from her bar.

"And later we'd see people who still carried their Army handguns from the war. We'd ask them to leave them outside or put them in a plastic bag behind the bar until they left."

Looking back on a family business which has shaped her family's life for a century, Elsie has no doubts she is in the right place. "I'd be happy to do it all over again," she said.

The pub is also locally known as "Elsie's."

Above photo showing Elsie, pre 2017.

From the https://www.telegraph.co.uk By Simon Holden, 23 Jan 2013.

Pint to pint: Queen's Arms, Edenbridge.

People who run good pubs generally have a lot of respect for the old ways. But few take it to such extremes as 88-year-old Elsie Maynard, landlady of the Queen’s Arms since 1973. Ever since Elsie’s father Henry took over the tenancy in 1913, the family has refused to go with the flow. Newfangled nonsense like lager, jukeboxes and flavoured crisps never crossed the threshold. But at a time when 12 pubs every week are closing, this time-warp has thrived.

The brewery, Admiral Taverns, can do little about Elsie. They inquired about her plans a few years ago. “I shall only be leaving here in a box,” she told them.

Elsie is keen to point out that the Queen’s Arms hasn’t been neglected, just loved and left intact. “The public bar hasn’t changed since the Thirties, the only difference is that we added toilets. You used to have to go outside and use an iron pot at the back.”

Her stance on one topic in particular will delight ale buffs and horrify many others. “I’ve never had lager here and never will,” Elsie says. “In the first place it was too expensive and my customers couldn’t afford it. Real beer is made with hops.”

Nor will her hostelry become a gastropub while she is around. “Never, I like the old fashioned way. All we’ve ever done in the way of food is bread, cheese and pickles. I did the pickles myself. One year I did 200lbs, I started in the August and just kept going. It was a lot of jars, but I sold them all.”

The Queen’s Arms has been frequented by several less desirable people down the years, most notably the “acid bath murderer” John Haigh who dispatched at least six victims in the Forties. Local vet and pub historian John Hawkridge says: “He would turn up in a smart sports car with his latest girlfriend. He travelled from Crawley and liked the pub because it was quiet and in a pretty part of the world.”

The pub’s future is uncertain, as Elsie acknowledges. “I hope it is still a pub in a 100 years’ time but I think the brewery will sell it,” she said.

From the https://www.telegraph.co.uk By Saffron Alexander, Jul 2015.

Pub landlord reels in customers with fake bus stop.

After erecting a fake bus stop outside his pub, the "Gallipot Inn" (East Sussex) has received customers from all over Kent.

The fake bus stop has brought in customers from all over Photo: The Gallipot Inn.

A pub landlord has come up with a novel way to attract more customers.

John Hawkridge, owner of the Gallipot Inn in Upper Hartfield, placed a discarded bus sign it in front of his pub, with a pub flyer in place of the usual timetable.

He told the East Grimstead Courier that he found the sign in a hedge: "I found the sign outside the "Queen's Arms" in Cowden – it had been taken down because the stop was thought dangerous – so it had been stuck in a hedge for a year, I just moved it and put it outside."

To his surprise, not only did customers start waiting outside the bus stop, the local bus company - Metrobus - replaced the flier with an official bus timetable and began recognising it as part of the route.

Gallipot Inn 2015 Upper Hartfield SUSSEX

The Gallipot Inn (Facebook)

Hawkridge said: "I just thought it would be good to have a bus stop by the pub. I put it there, I put in my own sign, and a couple of customers started queuing up and buses started stopping.”

"We are now getting customers bussing in from Tunbridge Wells and Crawley."

Although the bus stop remains unofficial, bus drivers are happy to stop if hailed outside the Gallipot Inn. Metrobus is currently lobbying East Sussex County Council to make the stop official.

Metrobus spokeman Nick Hill said: "For many years, buses have stopped on request on a ‘hail and ride’ basis near the Gallipot Inn and we have been asking the county council to install fixed stops to make it clearer to potential passengers that buses stop there."

"Unfortunately the council has been unable to do this. While the stop provided by the pub is welcome, it hasn’t been formally recognised by the council and is therefore unofficial, but buses continue to stop in the vicinity."