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ship building
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A report to the Council of State in 1651 stated ‘the causes of injury to the trade of the ancient town, the multiplication of strangers and the superabundance of beer houses are alleged as the chief impediments to the prosperity of the market’. Early in the eighteenth century we find; the Two Brewers (now the Queen’s Head) the Ship without Landgate (no longer in existence) and the Dolphin, Gungarden (pulled down in 1837) for the enlargement of the Rye Union Workhouse. |
| However, in general the number of inns and alehouses was falling. The billeting of troops in the town was at times a source of difficulty. Many Acts of Parliament were passed over the years that attempted to control the problems of excessive drinking. This had an effect on the number of inns and alehouses in the town. In 1830 another statute was passed, popularly known as the Duke of Wellington’s Beerhouse Act. This Act enabled any householder assessed to the poor rate, on payment of two guineas a year, to obtain an Excise licence to retail beer from his own dwelling either ‘on’ or ‘off’ the premises. This was an attempt to reduce the abnormal amount of spirit drinking, but resulted in a considerable increase in the number of alehouses. |
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At the beginning of the twentieth century a number of inns were closed down because the police opposed the licence. Those affected by this were; the Foresters Arms and the Swan, both in the Mint, the Jolly Sailor in Church Square, the King’s Arms in Cinque Ports Street, the London Stout House (formerly Sawyers Arms) in Ferry Road, the Borough Arms in the Strand, the Tower Inn in Landgate and the Oak in the High Street, amongst others. Frank Palmer Sources Records of Rye Corporation, Dell 1962 |
