The Blue Bell Beltring

The Blue Bell was situated on Beltring Road opposite the Whitbread Hop Farm at East Peckham. It is a Grade 2 listed building and the original building dates back to the 17th century and was apparently first licenced in the 1750s. In 1792 the inn was leased to Maidstone brewers Seager and Page. After numerous mergers and acquisitions it became a Fremlins pub in 1929.

At one point Fremlins is said to have painted “Fremlins” in large white letters on the function room roof, to annoy Whitbread who had bought the hop farm on the opposite side of the road in 1920! Ironically, it was to be a Whitbread pub in 1969 until its closure in 2009.

Throughout the 19th and 20th century the pub was known variously as The Bell, The Bell Inn, The Bell Hotel and finally from about the 1930s the Blue Bell. The pub passed through the hands of many landlords during this era.

By the 1950s the Landlord of the Blue Bell was Mr Stuart Butchers and there are several newspaper reports about the resident donkey, Neddy, who was well known in the area for enjoying a pint of beer. A picture on the front cover of the Kent Messenger in April 1957 showed Neddy enjoying a pint in the bar.

On 9th August 1963 the Tonbridge Free Press reported the same donkey, now named Gold Top, was brought into the bar every time a customer offered to buy him a pint. During an average visit he apparently downed 6 pints. It is rumoured that on one occasion a coach party of over 30 all bought him a pint each and he was still sober. During the summer months Gold Top gives children rides at the local fetes.

A week later it was reported that chicken thieves allowed the donkey to escape from his paddock at the pub. He was found walking along the railway line. Fortunately, he was rescued before the next train came down the track.

In 1977 the Maidstone Telegraph reported that John and Susan Christie who had taken over the Blue Bell in August 1976 were gradually collecting a lot of memorabilia about the days when London hop pickers invaded the area every year. Hundreds of families moved into temporary accommodation at the Whitbread Hop Farm nearby and the Bell was their local. Local residents reported that the inn used to close its doors during the September picking period and everyone was served through a window at the side of the pub. Deposits were charged for glasses and beer was served from a tin bath to speed up the order process.

In September 1991 when a new landlord was being sought the pub was described as having a derelict oast house at the back suitable for conversion into a restaurant. Facilities included a separate function room, large beer garden, car park, catering kitchen and two bars. Private accommodation consisted of 3 berooms, a lounge, bathroom and attic room. The Capital requirement was £177000.

In the 1990’s The Blue Bell now owned by Whitbread was part of the Wayside Inns chain of 16 pubs which In 1994 ran a promotion where customers could collect a card of a Wayside Inns pub sign visited. The cards depicted a picture of the pub sign on the front and some information about the origin of the pub on the back. inn sign. Following on from the Whitbread Inn sign compaign these cards became very collectable and still are today.

Sadly for the pub, in July 1998 the bypass around East Peckham was opened and the pub lost a lot of passing trade due to the road changes.

Over the years there were reports of sightings of spirits or ghosts within the building and there was also clairvoyant information of a spirit in the restaurant area. There were ghostly tales of unnaturally quickly expiring batteries in clocks and some photographs taken in the hall were deemed worthy of investigation. The story of a dream concerning a boy crawling through a hole in the attic had been said to be close to an account of a boy jumping out of a window on the upper floor.

In 2006 “Ghost Connections” a small team of professional people who investigated the paranormal received reports of the sighting of spirits within the Blue Bell. The landlords Derek and Mandy Radburn invited them to spend a night in the pub and using all the equipment available to them they found nothing significant. Their report suggested that the possible closure of the pub was having an influence on the staff and that normal ‘friendly’ activity had ceased as a result which might explain why little was experienced on the night the team visited. It had been intended to investigate the attic area, although due to circumstances beyond the team or tenant’s control, this was not feasible on the night.

However, Ghost Connections did record that there was an amount of information forthcoming of a clairvoyant/psychic kind, but as they conducted scientifically based investigations Ghost Connections did not publish them.

The Blue Bell closed its doors in 2009 having been out of action for a while following a fire in the adjacent hall/function room. After the granting of planning permission building work started in 2013 to convert the pub and oast into dwellings and to construct three houses in the grounds. The Blue Bell is now a private residence called Blue Bell Cottage.

Article by Meryl Flashman with acknowledgements to Heritage Paddock Wood and the Find My Past newspaper archive.

The Blue Bell

Foalhurst Wood