The Street

(Stourmouth)

Rising Sun circa 1950.

Photo taken from Stourmouth web site. Date unknown.

In 1891 Stourmouth was still a busy community with a population of 330. The Smallwood family lived at the rectory opposite the church, catering to the souls of the locals, while the village school (closed before the 1950's and used for some years as the village hall) catered to their minds; School Lane today is a row of houses and bungalows.

In 1891, Stourmouth boasted a post office and a grocer's shop. The small brewery was in full swing, and a beer house called The Plough, as well as the Rising Sun public house (which was a bakery built in 1372 and beer house from 1695 until 1865 when the bakery closed). The Rising Sun is still in operation, managed (as of 2000) by a couple from Littlebourne.

(The following details taken from a passage by Maggie Baldwin of her recollections from between 1950-70.)

The Rising Sun is on the south side of the road. When the landlord Mr CHAPFIELD died, the licence passed to his daughter and son-in-law Mr and Mrs Denis AUSTIN. The old pub consisted of a small snug and, through an entrance in the right hand corner facing the front of the building, the tap room; this was a wooden floored room with just a few wooden tables and benches, a dart board and a small billiard table. The locals frequented this room. Next door were a couple of cottages which, today, are incorporated into the pub itself. At the end of the cottages Mr Austin had a wooden garage and a wall - all that remained of the thatch-roofed Rising Sun Cottage which burned to the ground before I was born. The land at the side of the pub up School Lane, and behind it, was enclosed as a large, private garden where the Austins grew vegetables. A side gate and path from School Lane lead to a stable door with a bell which served as an off-licence.

History of the Rising Sun

The first part of the building was erected in 1372 during the reign of Edward the Third. It was originally a bakery owned and worked by the Monks of the Diocese of Canterbury.

The building continued as a bakery, passing through different owners until it came into the hands of Edgar Rake, baker and brewer, in 1682.

Edgar Rake applied for, and was granted, an ale and cider licence on the 4th April 1695. In 1708 and 1709, building work was carried out and a much more modern structure was erected, but unfortunately, Edgar Rake died before it was completed. In 1709 Jeremiah Bedley, baker and common beer seller took over the new premises. He was granted a licence to sell liquor and named the premises "The Rising Sun."

From the date of registration in 1709 until 1865, all the Rising Sun Keepers were bakers, who worked the old bakery as well as running the Inn. This had one exception, Keeper Thomas Lucke who came here in 1776 is described as a beer seller, baker and ferryman. For The Rising Sun was for many years known locally as the Ferrymans Inn, where the ferrymen who worked the ferries across the mile wide estuary to the "Crown" (Cherry Brandy House) at Sarre, came to meet.

The Inn remained in the hands of owner-keepers until the turn of the nineteenth century when it was purchased by the fore-runners of the Whitbread Brewery who sold it in 1977 when it again became a Free House.

The Rising Sun has seen and undergone many changes since it was built but its historic atmosphere remains unchanged.

In 2001 The Rising Sun was extensively renovated and upgraded to the exacting and high standards that currently prevail.

LICENSEE LIST

BAXTER John 1874-84 dec'd

BAXTER Sarah 1884+

ELGAR George 1899+

ADAMS Frederick William 1913+

CHATFIELD Mr Ruben 1934+

AUSTIN Dennis 1974+ Fremlins

From the Post Office Directory 1874

From the Post Office Directory 1882

From the Kelly's Directory 1899

From the Post Office Directory 1913

From the Kelly's Directory 1934

Library archives 1974