DOVER KENT ARCHIVES

Page Updated:- Sunday, 12 May, 2024.

PUB LIST PUBLIC HOUSES Paul Skelton

Earliest 1607-

Crown

Open 2020+

84 High Street

Shoreham

01959 522903

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

https://whatpub.com/crown

Crown 1992

Above photo July 1992, kindly sent by Philip Dymott.

Crown

Above photo, date unknown.

Crown

Above photo, date unknown.

Crown signCrown sign 1995

Above sign left date unknown, sign right 1995.

With thanks from Roger Pester www.innsignsociety.com

Crown sign 2011

Above sign 2011.

With thanks from Roger Pester www.innsignsociety.com

 

From the https://shorehamkenthistory.weebly.com/the-crown.html accessed 6 March 2023.

Text by James Saynor.

Sitting at the north end of the High Street on the corner of the road named after it, the "Crown" may be slightly older than the "George Inn" at the other end of the village, and is thought to date from 1454. Built end-on to the street, like one or two other timber-framed buildings in Shoreham, it originally had an open hall in the centre stretching up to the roof: timbers blackened by smoke from a hearth in the hall bear witness to this. The building was extensively reconstructed in the 17th century, using many timbers from the earlier house, and a large two-storey extension was added at the rear in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Crown 1900

Early 1900s. Standing between the two gents with bicycles is the landlord's son, Harry Taylor.

​It has been known as the "Crown" since at least 1607, and was designated – along with the "George" – as a public house in the census of 1841. Other pubs in the village at the time were unlicensed alehouses. It became known as the "Crown Hotel" and you could book rooms there until after the Second World War.

Crown 1914

WW1-era. The nurse could be Nurse French who looked after the villagers from 1900-1922

Arthur Archer

Drawing of publican Arthur Archer by Charles Franklin White.

​Arthur Archer ran the pub in the early part of the 20th century, when it was a lodge for the Odd Fellows club. Members had to give a password through a special panel in a door to be admitted on meeting nights. Jessie Jeffries later became publican, and her nephew Philip Crome lived at the "Crown" as a child from the spring of 1941. His father Leonard was stationed at Biggin Hill, and Philip remembered the barrage balloons “all over the farmer’s ​field opposite the "Crown”.

​​Back in the 18th century, the "Crown" was said to be a haunt of the infamous Hawkhurst Gang of smugglers. Dodging customs officers on the main roads, smugglers would prefer the muddy, flinty lanes through remote Shoreham. Tea, brandy, lace and tobacco might be some of the contraband. The "Pig and Whistle" pub on the eastern hill was ​another staging post for the smugglers.

Violent encounters with both customs men and fellow ne’er-do-wells were common. One story tells of a Spaniard who was wounded and brought to the "Crown" to recuperate. It is said he married the daughter of the innkeeper, Mr. Squib, but was then seized and press-ganged onto a ship. By the time he found his way back to Shoreham his wife had died in childbirth, leaving the Spaniard distraught. Local newspapers claimed that the grieving ghost of the man continued to bother inhabitants of the pub two centuries later.

Crown

 

Kent Times, 28 June 1862.

Petty Sessions, Yesterday (Friday). Before W. Tipping. Esq. (in the chair), J. P. Atkins, Esq, and G. Perkins, Esq.

A temporary licence to keep the "Crown Inn," at Shoreham, was granted to Mr. W. Squib, which concluded the business.

 

 

LICENSEE LIST

SQUIB James 1832-41+ (age 56 in 1841Census) Pigot's Directory 1832-34Pigot's Directory 1840

SQUIB Elizabeth 1851-61+ (also farmer age 70 in 1861Census)

SQUIB W Mr June/1862+

MACE William dec'd to Aug/1889

MACE Mrs (widow) Aug/1889+

PRYER Richard 1891+ (age 56 in 1891Census)

TAYLOR ???? 1900+

ARCHER Arthur 19??

JEFFRIES Jessie

COOPER Paul 2019+

 

Pigot's Directory 1832-34From the Pigot's Directory 1832-33-34

Pigot's Directory 1840From the Pigot's Directory 1840

CensusCensus

 

If anyone should have any further information, or indeed any pictures or photographs of the above licensed premises, please email:-

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