4th January 2024 • The HERALD • Page 19 v F @heraldpublishing v SP DECORATING Painting & Decorating Specialist Simon Perks Tel: 07889 091420 Email: simonperks@rocketmail.com • Interior & Exteriors • Wallpaper Hanging • Prompt & Reliable Service • Free Quotations & Expert Advice • Fully Insured Approved by Trading Standards Waterside Carpet Cleaning PROFESSIONAL CARPET CLEANING! Using Prochem Equipment and Materials • SPOT/STAIN TREATMENT • Fully Insured 023 8066 0878 or 07770 337917 www.watersidecarpetcleaning.com GOLD WANTED BEST PRICES PAID We want to buy your unwanted quality jewellery Gold Jewellery, Antique & Modern, Diamond Rings & Gem Sets. Including Good Quality Watches, Rolex, Omega, Longines etc. CASH in your old, broken or unwanted jewellery – NOW!!! It could be worth more than you think! Contact Amberley Jewellers: sales@amberleyjewellers.co.uk or pop into the shop: 10-11 The Marsh, Hythe, SO45 6AN amberleyjewellers.co.uk Send your local news to The Editor, The Herald, 2 High Street, Hythe SO45 6AH the Pubs That Came Before It the next year and had been built on what is now the graveyard of St. John’s Church. But the chapel soon became obsolete, being too small and of a poor construction. It was pulled down in 1874 when the larger St. John’s Church was built to accommodate the growing population of Hythe. e Rodney Inn was also a venue where tenders were to be submitted for the attention of e Hythe Hard Committee in 1844. Applicants had the opportunity to bid for the contract to build a hard and landing place including a toll house for ferry customers. is was before the pier opened in 1881. e toll house eventually opened when the pier did, and still exists to this day. It’s now the Waterside Tours o ce next to the pier entrance. On the topic of tenders, the Rodney Inn was subject to one itself in May 1845. But this was to be a demolition job, not just for a construction project. An advert in the Hampshire Advertiser invited “tenders for the work to be performed in taking down the Rodney Inn at Hythe and erecting a new inn on the same site”. is meant that the sixty year old pub was to face a similar fate to its predecessor e Montague Arms: being knocked down for a bigger and better successor. e Drummond family announced the opening of the new establishment in August 1846. e new building dwarfed what had been there before and was aptly named ‘ e Drummond Arms Hotel’, o ering accommodation, a licensed pub, post o ce, stables, and coach house. A party was held in celebration of the opening, where “seventy gentlemen sat down to a sumptuous dinner… and a most delightful evening was passed”. As with its predecessors, e Drummond Arms was the venue for auctions, even up until the early 1950’s when property auctions were held in one of the many rooms. Contrary to some references you might read online, it did not open as a courthouse, but it did become the venue for court cases a decade a er opening as a hotel. Hythe’s Petty Sessions were held in one room from 1857 to 1894 where magistrates would sit and adjudicate over local cases that were deemed to not require a jury. Cases included arbitration, arson, assault, bastardy examinations had four bedrooms, two sitting rooms, and a housemaid’s room. e second (top oor) had six bedrooms. One of the rooms would also be advertised as a tearoom in the early 1900’s, which proved popular with families coming o the ferry to visit the New Forest. In the 1920’s and 30’s, billiards was also played inside the public bar. The outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 saw some of the hotel rooms turned over to accommodate men of the National Fire Service. Side buildings attached to the hotel were converted into a fire station. ese remen at e Continued from page 18 Drummond Arms in 1930’s (ruling on the parentage of a child), drunkenness, poaching, the , and even one instance of rape. e hotel would stay in the Drummond family until 1895, before being sold to the Romsey brewery Strong & Company. It was a truly magni cent venue with three ground oor sitting rooms o ering views across the water, a large club room, reception room, public bar, kitchen, scullery, and pantry. e rst oor Continued on page 20
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