Looking east towards town with Crown Hotel on the right opposite the Station. Notice the sign warning motorists they are approaching a School
Reference: 0006
The car closest to the pavement and the one half out of shot on the left are Model T Fords. The doorway with the curtained window on the left of the photograph was the site of the ‘Ostlery’ of the establishment where horses and carriages would have been booked some fifteen or so years before ...
Reference: 0015
The flags are very likely to celebrate the coronation of Edward VII in August 1902
Reference: 0013
Site of Crown Beerhouse, closed in the 1930s. As the name implies, Beerhouses had a much reduced license compared to pubs and could only sell ales, stout and fruit cordials
Reference: 0056
6th Jan 1908, from the Harry Streatfeild collection. Note that today’s Market Square was known as the High Street at that time.
Reference: WH0085
This tiny little photograph is the only known copy of the Kings Arms snapped on 12 May 1937 at the time of the Coronation of King George VI. Hopefully someone will see this on the site who has a better copy…
Reference: WH0088
Photographed in 2010, the Kings Arms looks remarkably like it did in 1890 apart from a bit of contemporary branding.
Reference: WH0089
It appears that Joe Jenner gained an introduction to Churchill as early as 1922, when the Churchill’s were temporarily living at Hosey Rigge, awaiting the finishing of structural alterations to Chartwell, their recently purchased home. Jenner was summoned to the house where Churchill asked if he could be driven to London. Only too pleased to ...
Reference: 0021
Royal Standard scratch darts team 1959. From the left, John Martin Snr, Bill Pointon, Ned Funnell, George Sawyer, Cyril Istead, Yorkie Townsend, Gordon Newell, John Martin Jnr
Reference: WH0096
Note the ‘Hotel Department’, alongside accommodation, were offering well appointed Coffee, Billiard and Smoking Rooms, while the ‘Commercial Department’ advertised Hot & Cold Water Baths – quite a novelty for the day! At that time, the Hotel had its own coachhouses and stabling in the rear yard.
Reference: WH0104
This ‘Carte de Visite’ would have been handed out to visitors of Barclay and Perkins’ Kings Arms to advertise the establishment in the days before the arrival of the Westerham Herald. The front of the ‘Carte’ proudly states ‘Omnibuses daily to Caterham’ while on the back (next photograph) are details of all services provided by ...
Reference: WH0105
Parking was clearly not a big problem in the 1920s
Reference: 0054
This booking form dating from between the wars, gives some account of the facilities on offer to the traveller in a less regulated and more primitive era with no central heating and a charge for hot water, garaging and servants.
Reference: WH0106
This photograph dates from the late 1920s or early ’30s and shows that the two ‘Darenth Cottages’ attached to the Old House at Home had been pulled down by that time.
Reference: WH0097
Frank ‘Joe’ Jenner ran his taxi and chauffeur business from some old stables and a tiny office in the yard of The Kings Arms Hotel. Standing here beside one of his prestige vintage steeds, a 1921 Sunbeam saloon. During Ernest Blackton’s time in the late 1920s, Wolfe Garage had run a taxi service from the Kings ...
Reference: 0022
This solid Victorian drinking establishment owned by the Watney Brewery and the barbers shop next door was pulled down in the late 1930s to be replaced by a ‘Faux Tudor’ style pub owned by Watney Combe Reid. This ‘new’ pub was itself closed and demolished in the late 1990s and was replaced by a row ...
Reference: 0024
This section of the old High Street has seen a fair amount of change over the years. Originally the site of a little row of shops, these were razed to the ground in the 1880s to accommodate a new public house owned by the Watney brewery company, called The Rifleman. This in turn was knocked-down ...
Reference: WH0078
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
Known in the 1890s as the ‘Old House Inn’, this photograph shows the pub completely devoid of advertising apart from a name on the lamp above the door. It was unusual at that time for the Brewery not to promote themselves with large hoardings on the roof or adorning the front of the building. Originally ...
Reference: 0023
