Fleur-de-Lis and Fleur-de-Lis Cottages

Fleur_de_Lis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fleur de Lis
Fleur De Lis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thomas Baily built four cottages on the corner between the High Street and Lower Green in 1855 where today we have the Fleur de Lis and Fleur de Lis cottages.   (At approximately the same time he also purchased Home Farm and rebuilt the front of the farmhouse which is dated 1855 and in the same year he built Laundry Cottage as a bakery.)   The cottages (and later the pub) probably take their name from the Fleur de Lis which forms part of the Baily coat of arms.  Interestly, the goat’s head also forms part of the Baily coat of arms, on the crest, and this was the name given to what later became the Porcupine in Leigh.

The four cottages were included in the Sale of the Hall Place Estate in 1870.  The Sales Particulars describe them as follows:

LOT 7:
Four highly ornamental and well built cottage dwellings
Brick and tile, with gables, half timbered with gardens.
No. 68 on plan and containing 0a 1r 15p
Situate in the village of Leigh, by the side of the road which divides this Lot from the Hall Place Estate,
Let to yearly tenants as follows:
Wm Hitchcock: 7 rooms and washhouse
Wm Simmons 5 rooms and washhouse
James Brooker 5 rooms and wash house
Thos. Sales 7 Rooms and washhouse
With gardens, and an oven for the joint use of the tenants.

(It is interesting that one of the two remaining cottages show tenants by the name of Brooker in the Hall Place Rent Books between 1930-1959:  whether these Brookers are connected to James Brooker above would require some additional research, not yet undertaken).

According to Lawrence Biddle’s Leigh in Kent 1550-1900 (p.129), at the time of the sale of the Hall Place Estate in 1870, of which these four cottages were part, they were bought by Bartrum and Co., brewers of Tonbridge.   This is corroborated by the 1872 Drainage Map and Report which states the owner as being Bartram and the occupiers being (13) Martin, the publican of the New Goat’s Head, (14) Simmonds and (15 Hitchcock.  The Report describes the guttering as good and the outbuildings of the Goats Head guttered and leading to the old drain.  There was a urinal which drained into the new system, with four sinks in the outhouses all connected to drains.  There were four common privies and a washhouse.

Hence, in 1870/71 the cottage nearest Lower Green was extended by a wing of similar design and it and the adjacent cottage became a public house when it took the transfer of the licence once held by the Porcupine (Goat’s Head), initially being called the New Goat’s Head.  The two other Fleur de Lis cottages to the east were later sold to Samuel Morley, date of this sale not known.

Between 1911 and 1921 the licensees of The Fleur de Lis Hotel were Polly (nee Rumley) and James Henry Jones and where Beryl Pawsey (nee Jones) was born in 1920 (see under Village Pubs in our archive), although she was only 18 months when her parents moved from Leigh.  When Polly and James Henry were licensees the Fleur was owned by the Dartford Brewery – as can be seen from the photograph above.

 

James Henry Jones and wife, Polly nee Rumley), licensees of The Fleur de Lis Hotel 1911-1921

James Henry Jones and wife, Polly (nee Rumley), licensees of The Fleur de Lis Hotel 1911-1921

 

Joyce Field (August 2015)

 

Additional Notes

Fleur de Lis Landlords from directories:
1867: George Martin shown at the Goat’s Head  (1871 census: George Martin at Goat’s Head ie Porcupine)

1874: George Martin Goat’s Head (?is this now located at Fleur de Lis site)?
1882: Luke Weston, Fleur de Lys,
1891: John Richardson, Fleur de Lys, PH
1899: Stephen R Bing-Foord, Fleur de Lys Hotel.  Noted “house for cyclists, dinners supplied,
moderate terms.  Splendid fishing in river Medway”
1903:  Stephen R Bing-Foord, Fleur de Lys Hotel
1911-1921  James Henry and Polly Jones,  Fleur de Lys Hotel
1922:  Richard (Dick) Albert Smith, Fleur de Lys Hotel
Mid-1920s:  Mr Offen ?
1930, 1934, 1938:Mrs Florence Coates with husband, Tommy, Fleur de Lys PH*
1939-1951  Detail to come
1952  Grace and Albert Grantham (from Register of Electors)
1953-2009   Details to come
Chris & Sue
Craig
2009- Oct 2013  Nigel Stokes
2013 on  John and Joanne Masters and Family

*  It was said that you could always get a drink out of the official opening hours by going round the back.  One version of history says that Tommy (originally from the Old Kent Road) ran off with his very young barmaid.  During WW2, Leigh Special Constables used to meet and drink in the Fleur.