Above postcard after Sept 1903. Kindly sent by Stuart Axford.

Above postcard after 1923. Kindly sent by Stuart Axford.

Above photo 2007 by Pam Fray, Creative Commons Licence.

Above photo 2010 by Chris Whippet, Creative Commons Licence.

Above photo, date unknown by Darkstar.

Above sign, April 1986.

With thanks from Brian Curtis www.innsignsociety.com.

From an article written by Stuart Axford.

A deed dated 1730 records a field of just over an acre on this site as part of a farm at “Bostal Green” owned by Captain Richard Clement. This was purchased by William Court in 1809, and he built a cottage and stable on the site.

By 1843 the property was known as the "Jolly Sailor," even though Court’s occupation is listed as a gardener rather than a beer house keeper. Nonetheless, it seems likely that he took advantage of the Beer House Act of 1830 which would have entitled him to sell ales, stout and cider from the property.

Presumably, given how remote the site was at this time, his target market was the men stationed at the nearby Seasalter Battery.

Interestingly, William Court’s son James Wyatt Court, who was born at the house in 1843, was to become Whitstable’s first aerated water manufacturer, and would later build the family soft drinks business of J. W. Court & Son in Deal, which would endure until 1927.

The land was subsequently sold to a Francis Seaman, and on 21st February, 1877, the freehold of “a beerhouse, situate on the road leading from Hernhill to Whitstable, and known as the "Jolly Sailor," with stable, barn, and other buildings, and 14 acres of arable land” was one of the lots submitted to public competition at the "Ship Hotel" in Faversham by a Mr. S. Walker of London. It was sold for £1,400 to Mr. Arthur Curling, although the building seems to have remained unoccupied for some time. The census of 1881 lists the building as unoccupied, while that of 1891 does not list the building at all.

Mr. A. Curling, of Lamberts Land Farm, was still the owner of the "Jolly Sailor" in May 1882, when the pub became the source of some debate with the Blean Highway Board. The Board required Curling “to cut away the brickwork at the corner of the building to the extent of three inches, and to place in the drain adjoining the house two pipes with a brick heading”. It was this act which gave the pub the distinctive, shaved off corner appearance which it still has today.

The Jolly Sailor pub itself was subsequently advertised as to let (available at once, contact A. T. Curling, Yorkletts) in the Whitstable Times of 11th October 1890, while the same edition advertised for sale “14 Acres of growing clover, on land adjoining the “Jolly Sailor,” in the parish of Seasalter, in lots of half-an-acre each, By order of the Executors of Mr. William Frostick, Deceased.” This suggests that at some point after the sale in 1877 the beerhouse was separated from its 14 acres of land.

In 1898, the pub was sold to Flint & Co. of Canterbury who extended the building some time after 1903. It was later acquired by Fremlins, who were acquired by Whitbreads in 1967. Herbert Harris was the landlord from 1914 for 36 years, through two world wars, and was succeeded on his death in 1950 by his widow Lily.

The pub closed in 2009 and was converted into a private house, with a second private house since having been built on the site of the car park and beer garden.