Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Demolished old house near Vigo turning.



This, doubtlessly once imposing, house stood at the point where Harvel Road and the main A227 Gravesend Road meet. It has now been demolished and rebuilt upon.

Vigo Inn customers 1952

Just found the picture below on the national Archives. Wouldn't it be wonderful if someone recognised their relatives?
Picture found here


A little history on The Vigo Pub

Date Unknown
 

Licensee List
  • JEAL Jeremiah 1841 - Jan 1854 dec'd (also farmer age 80 in 1851)
  • MANLEY 1871-1901+ 
  • LIVERSAGE Robert William 1911+ (age 42 in 1911)
  • LEWIS George Charles 1913+ 
  • ATKINS Walter 1922+ 
  • ASHWELL Vernon Stuart 1938-39+ (age 48 in 1939) 
  • ASHWELL Lillian 1970 - 1982 (aged 81 in 1982)
  • ASHWELL Peter 1982 - ?
It looks like the Vigo Pub has closed once again (as of June 2014), but here below is a little history taken from their website. 

Allegedly there has been a pub on this site since 1471, and parts of the existing buildings are said to date from that time. First known as the Upper Drovers, but given its present name by a sailor returning from the 1702 Battle of Vigo Bay, when England & Holland fought Spain in the War of the Spanish Succession. The sailor used his share of the treasure, captured during the English victory under Admiral George Rooke, to purchase the inn.
In 1930 the pub was taken over by the Ashwell family. During the Second World War Mr & Mrs Ashwell were host to many of the servicemen from both the Wrotham pre officer cadet training camp (on the site of the present Vigo Village), and air force personnel from the Battle of Britain West Malling Air Station (now Kings Hill).
After the death of her husband Vernon in 1970, Mrs Lillian Ashwell ran the pub for many years herself. She was a formidable but very popular local character. She became the first lady president of a rugby club in England, when in 1968 some pub regulars formed Vigo RFC, whose first matches were held in the field at the back of the pub.
Although long since moved to their own ground at Swanswood Field, the memory of Lillian Ashwell is still held in high regard at the club.
Another game played at the pub is that of Dadlums. This is an old English game of table skittles, and the 1966 Watney Book of Pub Games lists the Vigo Inn as one of the few venues where the game was played. The pub still boasts one of the last remaining Dadlums tables in the country, thought to be over 150 years old. It is good to see the game is being revived, with a local team playing fortnightly matches on Sunday evenings.
At the time of her own death in 1982 aged 81, Lillian Ashwell had been working behind the bar for 52 years and was possibly the oldest working landlady in the UK. The Vigo Inn passed to Mrs Ashwell’s son & daughter in law, Peter & Peta. A few changes were made including an interior refurbishment, but the essential character of the place was not altered. It even became one of the first No Smoking pubs in Kent, before the Government’s UK wide ban was introduced.