A long closed pub and an eagerly awaited re-opening

At the beginning of September last year, I wrote a post entitled Friday in Tonbridge. It was basically a collection of photos, plus a write up of some of the pubs, restaurants and independent shops at the northern end of Tonbridge High Street.

Unsurprisingly, given the highly localised subject matter, the post didn’t attract any comments, but I thought about it again on Sunday afternoon when son Matthew and I took a brief stroll around this part of the town.  This was after we’d been for a brief drive over to Wateringbury – don’t ask me what for, as it’s all rather complicated!

We parked up close to Tonbridge Parish Church, which is dedicated to St Peter & St Paul. It is an attractive building constructed out of local sandstone and is said to date back to Saxon times, although personally I find that hard to believe. The tower was built in the 14^th Century, but most of the church is fairly recent, following restoration and extension work during the late Victorian period. 

Now here comes the confession; during the 35 years that I’ve lived in Tonbridge, I’ve never once set foot in its parish church, but with places of worship closed because of the Covid-19 restrictions, Sunday was not the time to make my first acquaintance. Also sadly closed, and for the same reason, was the Rose & Crown; Tonbridge’s largest and most prestigious hotel.  

I wrote a piece about this historic old inn here and mentioned it’s the hotel of choice amongst our Japanese board members when they come over for meetings. I don’t know when they’ll next be over, but there are rumblings that hotels and guest houses could be allowed to reopen early next month. If this happens it will be welcome news indeed to those of us wanting to spend a few days away from home.

From the Rose & Crown we headed over to Tonbridge’s historic castle. There seemed plenty of visitors spread out across the castle lawn, but all keeping a suitable distance from one another. Matthew then wanted to take a wander around the Slade area of the town, to have a look at one of Tonbridge’s long closed pubs. 

The Stag’s Head in Stafford Road has been shut for the best part of 10 years. The building is still standing, but it looks very sad and un-cared for. The pub was close to the original site of Tonbridge market, and was always particularly busy on market days. The market itself relocated several years before the closure of the Stag’s Head; the traders having accepted an offer to sell their town centre site to a group of developers. 

Houses now occupy the ground where the market traders once plied their wares. The market’s new site is one of the railway car parks and is a rather bleak and windswept location – especially in winter. Footfall and trade are now a fraction of what they were back in the market’s heyday, but such is the price of "progress."

Returning to the Stag’s Head for a few moments, it’s sad to see this once thriving pub now empty and falling into disrepair. Rumour has it the former landlord is still living there, having shut up shop following the death of his wife. I’m not sure how true this story is, but I have fond memories of the Stag. Back in the day it was the first pub in Tonbridge to stock Timothy Taylor’s beer and rather unusually, it was Best Bitter that was stocked, rather than the much more common Landlord.

I’m sure the pub could still be saved, given enough cash and a pair of

sympathetic hands. There are plenty of attractive Victorian cottages in the Slade area, many of them renovated to a high standard, so there would be no shortage of customers. Instead, the local punters will probably gravitate to the Ivy House which, when I wrote my piece last September, was undergoing an extensive renovation.

A look at the Ivy House was next on our agenda. The pub’s new owners had originally planned to open at Easter, until that nasty little virus threw a spanner in the works. The Ivy is now open, but only for people

to collect pre-ordered take-away food. We walked past and could see through the open door that the place had been refurbished to a high standard. The on-line take-away offering looks good too, especially the burgers.

The Ivy House is one of the oldest pubs in Tonbridge and in recent years has had rather a chequered history combined with lots of different owners.  It will be good if the new people make a go of it and I’m pretty certain they will, given their proven track-record elsewhere in the area. I’m looking forward to having a drink there, once the current restrictions are lifted, and finding out for myself.