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Forge Lane
West Farleigh
Above photo, date unknown. |
Above photo, circa 2011, by Darkstar. |
 
Above sign left 1953, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe. Sign right 1955 from
Kent Inns a Distillation by Anne Roper & H R Pratt Boorman. |
 
Above sign left, 1970s, sign right undated.
With thanks from Brian Curtis
www.innsignsociety.com.
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Robert Greenham wrote to me in September 2026 with the following:-
Several years ago I visited the then owner of the house which had
been the owner, and he still had the original Whitbread inn sign in his
back garden and kindly allowed me to photograph it in colour. The sign
was in two pieces and in a very poor condition. While one side of it was
intact, the other side had had the main image (the figure) separated
from it, and this figure was propped up against a fence! It had lost
even more of its colour than the figure on the first side, although some
details showed more clearly. (Sign above left).
I offered to take the pieces away and restore the whole sign but the
owner told me he was going to do this himself. Unfortunately I never
heard anything further from the gentleman, and so I am trying to
recreate the image of it as it would have been originally. Having used
AI recently, the best it could do with what I had was what you see in my
first attachment, which was derived from what you see in my second
attachment. You will see that the figure's coat was red in colour. Green
was the colour of the plain background, despite the AI creation
annoyingly not showing this.
On your webpage the sign shown on the left is correct one, and I
attach a better quality copy I have made of this. The only problem with
it is that it doesn't show the coat as coloured red!
Best wishes,
Robert Greenham. |
The sign is actually in two layers, as shown above. |
Above sign showing a reconstruction of the original produced by AI, via
Robert Greenham. |
Above photo, date unknown, showing the dart team.
Left to right, back row: Claude Foster, Bert Jeffreys, Ernie
Thompsett, Les Rickwood, Bob Jeffreys, Fred Noakes, Jim Dawdon.
Front row: Joe Dicker, two unidentified members, Jack Bowen and
Jennifer Foster. |
Above cardm 1953, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe. |
The "William Wilberforce" had been a tied house, within the estate of
Frederick Leney's Phoenix Brewery, Wateringbury., when it was then called
the "New
Inn." Exactly when the pub became the "William Wilberforce" isn't yet
known but it may have been in 1937, as this was the 150th anniversary of
Wilberforce taking up the cause of abolition. The local connection comes
from the invitation that Yorkshire-man, William Wilberforce MP, accepted to
take up the arguments against slavery in Parliament. The invitation came
from the anti-slavery "Testonites" who were landed gentry, clergy and other
worthies from the nearby village of Teston.
William Wilberforce once lived in the Old Rectory before he died. Two of
his sons were also vicars in East Farleigh, and are buried in St. Mary's
Churchyard.
Originally a native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he was Educated at
St. John's College, Cambridge, and began his political career in 1780. In
1785, he became a born-again Christian, which resulted in major changes to
his lifestyle and a lifelong concern for social reform and progress. He
became a Member of Parliament for Yorkshire (1784–1812) for an independent
party and is known as a politician who lead a movement to stop the slave
trade.
The pub was obviously named in his honour, but I do not yet know what
years it was serving beer.
Local knowledge required please.
LICENSEE LIST
FOSTER W B 1953+
http://www.closedpubs.co.uk/williamwilberforce.html
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