The Gospel Hall was the pitch-roofed building next to the lamp post on the left of the High Street, beyond the horse and cart. It is not known why it ceased to be used as a place of non-conformist worship, but by about 1928 it was gone. This may have coincided with an expansion of ...
Reference: WH0639
The little Swan Coffee rooms seen on the edge of this photograph were the subject of swift table-turning performed by William Finnis Watkins in 1882. The Westerham Herald of September 1st 1882 tells of the building of The Crown Hotel opposite the railway station, to be owned by Watkins and Son of Westerham’s Swan Brewery, sited ...
Reference: WH0182
This view looking west down the High Street has a dream-like quality to it, without a soul about. The photograph is badly stained giving a fog-like look with a gloomy sky, but it was actually taken mid afternoon on a sunny day as revealed by the shadows on the facade of Winterton House on the ...
Reference: WH1047
After a very long stint as the ‘brewery tap’ and then a small ‘tied-house’ the General Wolfe pub sadly closed in 2017. As the Royal British Legion clubhouse in Mill Lane has also closed and the ‘Warde Arms’ in the High Street closed as a pub in the 1970s, it is a long walk to ...
Reference: 0025
Like its neighbour the George & Dragon in Market Square, the Grasshopper on the Green was a tied house owned by the Croydon brewery Nalder & Collyer. As the advertising board on the pub roof displays, the brewers would often promote themselves through ‘Nalder & Collyer Entire’ where ‘Entire’ was a strong dark triple-blended beer ...
Reference: 0058
The Horticultural Society took themselves very seriously in 1909, and stated that “…the judges will not award prizes to such productions as may not be deemed worthy”. Prizes were always cash and at that time of Five Shillings and upwards.
Reference: WH0442
A 1903 advertisement for Benjamin Horton, the local coal and timber merchant. Horton’s coal office still survives on the old station site at the edge of London Road, currently housing a barber’s shop (2019).
Reference: WH0111
The address of the Kings Arms in the 1900s was ‘High Street’ as that was the title given to what is now called Market Square. At that time, the Green was known as ‘Market Place’.
Reference: WH0107
The Crown Hotel opposite Westerham Station was known for its fine dining cuisine, and this reputation was to carry it through until the Hotel was closed and pulled down in the late 1990s. It is amazing it kept going that long as that part of town would struggle to sustain such a large establishment without ...
Reference: 0012
Note that a Pony and Trap was available for hire, but there was no overnight accommodation in this tiny pub, the only ‘full-license’ drinking establishment in town lacking this facility.
Reference: WH0063
Note the spelling gaff on this 1900s photo postcard. It should say ‘Spring Shaws’, the name comes from a ‘Shaw’ meaning a thin but dense woodland strip of forestry grown as a wind-break and used in valleys and hill-tops alike.
Reference: WH1133
A monograph by former Westerham resident Bob Combley. Click to read the document
Reference: WH9100