From Bob Hollingsbee MEMORIES. Thursday, September 27, 2001


DENNIS Beecham, of Elms Vale Road, Dover, was very interested in the picture of the "Carrier's Arms," in a recent memories page feature - and with good reason. His grandfather, Richard Beecham was the licensee for a number of years.

Richard and his wife Sarah had 13 children, and one of them, Reuben, born in 1889, was Dennis Beecham's father.

Sadly, when Reuben was four, his father died suddenly. A doctor was called when he was taken seriously ill and he died during an emergency operation, which, Dennis tells me, had to be carried out immediately in the public house.

Richard's sorrowing widow Sarah, left with young children, carried on running the Carrier's Arms for several years afterwards.

Dennis kindly lent me his autographed family copy of the paperback book on Dover public houses by Barry Smith, of Dover, called "By the Way - Local Observations by Rambler."

Now out of print, this book packs In a great deal of information about Dover's hotels and public houses in its 70 pages, but there are no illustrations.

Barry Smith himself also phoned me about the Memories article, as did several other people. He told me he had gathered far more information than he could ever hope to include in a book during his researches.

These Included hours searching through the Dover Express files of bound newspapers which extend back to 1858.

Barry also told me he had deposited more up to date information, extending the account up to about 1997.

Writing about the "Carrier's Arms" in the book Barry said although the pub was shown on local ordnance survey maps of 1871, the earliest licensee for whom he could find a reference was Richard Beecham, whose link with it dated from 1877.

The book solves for me the mystery of why, in the old photograph sent to me by Dave Wybom, now living in Denton, Manchester, the pub had the painted sign "Waterhouse's Carriers Arms," as shown above.

Public houses myth

Evidently it is because George Waterhouse was licensee from 1903, possibly until 1932, when a Waterhouse was still listed.

Incidentally, consent was given in September 1940, to close the pub for the duration of the war if necessary, but Peter Beer obviously had other ideas. He took over in 1941 and stayed until about 1956.

As to the thorny subject of the sheer number of public houses the town once had - in Snargate Street and Commercial Quay, old photographs show it was not unusual to find rival establishments next door to each other!

Writer Joe Harman, of St Radigund's Road, whose memoirs have just been published, based on a lifetime in Dover, has presented me with a photocopy of an 1870 licensing list giving a total of 270 names of public houses, hotels and other licensed premises in Dover, taking in Buckland and Charlton.

That is the highest number at one time that he has been able to verify. That number was soon cut considerably, as Barry writes in his book, by the 1904 Compensation Act and the Licensing Consolidation Act of 1910, as steps were taken to cut down the number.

By 1919 467 Kent licences were abolished, 42 of them closing in Dover between 1904-19. Reader Andrew Palmer told me of a claim of 365 pubs in Mark Smith's Dover book published by Alan Sutton some years back.

It seems to be one of those myths, 'propagated' over a pint or two, perhaps, and given some apparent credence by appearing in print, that will probably never be laid to rest!

"By the Way," intended not as a comprehensive history but "a brief history of pubs and hotels in Dover since 1970," nevertheless includes some interesting background information, including a summary of the early breweries that were set up in the town.

But that's another subject. Suffice to say, as Barry observes, that the town played no small part in making its contribution to the development of the Kent brewing industry, but, sadly, brewing in Dover ended in 1926.