Oldest Pub in Hastings continued...

By Steve the Beermeister 

It gets more interesting the more I look into this, but which pub is the oldest in Hastings, following the closure of the King's Head, the previously well-acknowledged oldest pub?

In my blog of 7th December, I mentioned that Alan from the Stag Inn, All Saints Street, had had a 'hissy fit' after he partially read (I presume, either that, or he has difficulty understanding the English language) my article in the Hastings Independent of 21st November, writing in to the following issue complaining about my article, which had started with the Anchor as the 'baseline' in my quest to find the oldest pub in Hastings. 

Jim Breeds commented on that blog "I shall share these posts to my Hastings and Area Facebook page this afternoon. We may get some opinions on there :) - for which I was grateful, but this received the usual assertions with no evidence to back them up, some people think it's one, some t'other. Cheers anyway, Jim! 

As I said before, Alan used the Shepherd Neame website to support his argument, which says "The Stag is the oldest pub still open in Hastings... with whitewashed walls and oak beams, the pub dates from 1547... The front is in Georgian style, added by the Victorians... There are two bars. The front is the most commonly used and features the famous "mummified" cats... they were found in a chimney on the first floor during the 1940s... There is no historical evidence, but it is popularly believed they belonged to Hannah Clarke, a witch, who is said to have occupied the Stag in the earlier part of its existence."     

However, I have recently had a reply to my enquiry from Shepherd Neame who told me "Our records for the Stag only go back to 1859 when it was already a pub, and similarly our records for the Anchor go back to 1804 when it was already a pub." So, the brewery has no evidence to support their assertion that the pub dates from 1547 as a pub, though, as I've said before, I have no doubt that the building was originally older than the Anchor.

Indeed, following his own extensive research, David Russell's 'Register of Licensees for Hastings & St Leonards 1500-2010' states that license records for the Stag go back to 1835, when Samuel Heathfield held the license. For the Anchor they go back to 1798, when Anne Thwaites held the license. Furthermore, there is no evidence that the Stag had a license before that time, and it wasn't until 1838 that Samuel applied for a 'full license'. 

The introduction of the idea that a witch lived there is interesting, and may well offer support for the assertion that the Stag has been a pub for a lot longer. The practice of walling up a cat, with the animal sometimes still alive, is known to have been a medieval precaution against evil spirits.  

Dr Marion Gibson, Professor of Literature at Exeter University, whose research investigates the relationships between writings about magic and the supernatural and those about identity, spanning the period c.1500-present, says that cats "were often put into walls as some kind of good luck charm. It seems to have been quite a widespread practice across the European continent." 

During the medieval era hundreds of women were accused of witchcraft and executed, and many of those women were brewers or 'brewsters'. The visual features associated with witches date from the time, the cat, a bubbling cauldron, the broom and pointed hat, yet they are all symbols associated with brewing beer too.

A cat could keep vermin at bay that may eat malted barley, the bubbling cauldron or 'kettle' is the vessel in which the ingredients are boiled. When the brew cools down, yeast lands on it and ferments the sugars, creating a dramatic froth. 

The broom could be used to sweep up, but anyone selling beer was required to display an 'ale stake' above their door as a sign that beer was on sale. An ale stake was a wooden pole with a bunch of twigs tied to the end. Indeed, hanging foliage above a door as a sign to proclaim the sale of alcohol dates back to Roman times. 

Finally, a pointed hat was a practical way of being noticed. Women with surplus beer would go to the marketplace to sell it, or a middle woman known as a 'huckster' would act as an agent to sell the beer. They wore the pointed hats to make themselves prominent in a market crowd. 

Anyway, my point today is, I still cannot assert, with certainty, which pub of these 2 is the oldest building continuously used as a pub! But perhaps I shan't need to, and maybe we'll never really know, though I still have a few other hostelries to consider. More soon... ish, cheers!   

The Oldest Pub in Hastings

By Steve the Beermeister 

This is a slightly re-written article that was published in the most recent Hastings Independent, and I found it wasn't such an easy question to answer: what is the oldest pub in Hastings? When I first decided to write this, I thought it would be a 'doddle', silly me! Up until a few years ago, most Hastingers would point to the Kings Head, on the corner of The Bourne and Courthouse Street, as the oldest pub, but since it closed down I found a number of different opinions, depending on who you talk to.  

How shall I define the oldest pub? Well, I'm adopting the 'oldest continuously used as a pub building' as my baseline, and any advice providing guidance would help me out, though how to define Hastings isn't so easy either!  I'm taking the Anchor Inn as my baseline, the hostelry that most people I have talked to accept as the oldest, in the 'old town' anyway... 

Starting with the Grade II listed Anchor Inn in George Street then, whose name is believed to originate from boats mooring outside the pub when the sea used to come up to its front door... Different sources say the Anchor has existed since about 1600, or 1680. The British Listed Buildings website says the interior and main architectural features are dated from about 1810-20, so there's the experts view. However, there is definite evidence the Anchor Inn was licenced in 1798 to Anne Thwaites, and it certainly appears to have been around for at least a hundred years before that. 

Not always a pub, the Anchor has previously been used as a court house, which helps to support stories that the bar is 'haunted', indeed, some say the Anchor is the 'most haunted' pub in Hastings, though that used to be said of the Kings Head too! But there are many colourful stories about its past, and from not so long ago.    

The landlord, Dennis Kingham, and his partner Sara, have run the Anchor for 3 years now and, coincidentally, he told me he used to run the Kings Head when I interviewed him recently. The Anchor Inn is a cosy 'traditional' pub, with an inglenook fireplace, wood burner and wooden floors, and, if you haven't already been there, then you should certainly visit if you are interested in the pub and brewing trades and local history. 

Dennis has worked in the trade for 45 years, indeed, when he was the landlord at the King's Head he was the first publican in the country to bring a cash machine onto the premises. Also, with his cellar management history, he knows how to look after his ales, including 3 'regular' Shepherd Neame beers, that is, Bishops Finger, Spitfire and Master Brew, and one guest, often Whitstable Bay Pale Ale. I had a pint of the Bishops Finger on my last visit, an old favourite of mine, and it is still a very good strong darker bitter. 

They also have an excellent reputation for food, mostly sourced locally, eg they serve freshly caught fish from 2 nominated Hastings boats, RX389 and RX1066. Indeed, on Sundays, tables for 'roast' lunches are highly sought after, so, if you want a ghost of a chance of eating there, it is wise to book ahead! 

As I suggested above, there are a few other opinions as to the oldest pub in Hastings, consequently, very much more to come from me still, cheers!