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| Now don't miss that unique carved wood panel ceiling in this part of the bar. It is in fact made of cork and has been in place for at least 50 years. This end was built on as the billiard room, details are below. | If you want to, look around the walls, they are like a history book but if you are a normal person, now is your chance to enjoy a jolly good pint of beer and a chat, as people have been doing in here for hundreds of years before you. |
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This inn known by the name and sign of the Bull was built during the reign of Richard II, in 1385. Though this original structure was considerably smaller than the present day edifice.
The house began trading under the sign of the Bull not long after it was built, but it was not until 1495 under the licencing enactment of Henry VII, that the house was granted its first licence. Before that it had been lawful for anyone to keep an ale-house without licence, for it was recognised as a means of livelihood not prohibited by law. Unfortunately the names of those who served ale here before 1495 are unrecorded for parish records do not begin until 1558, however the first keeper recorded under licence is one Mawer Beecher. It is impossible to determine how long he kept the Bull, but one can almost be certain that he died here, for in 1552, it was his son Elisha who was granted a wine licence for the house under the terms of the licencing legislation act of that year.
Elisha Beecher was still here in 1560 and 1562, but 1570 the Bull was kept by Henry Crass, a shoemaker of Wrotham Parish. Crass died here in 1581, whereafter the widow Crass took over the Bull and kept it until her death in 1596. In 1601, the Bull a "hospicum situate and lyeing wythin the parith of rootham, was sold with its wine licence to Jacob Grundy, inkeeper of Gravesend. When he died in 1638 the Bull passed to his son John and Richard, shipbuilders of Gravesend. In 1641, Richard Grundy purchased his brothers share of the Bull, but in 1649 upon his death it passed back to John Grundy heir to the estate of Richard. The following year he sold the inn to Nysall Hodsholl esq. who in that same year of 1650 leased it to Isaac Shoebridge, an inn keeper of Sevenoaks. He served as keeper here until his death in 1673, whereafter his widow Nyomi was granted a lease and kept the Bull until 1678, the year in which she died whereafter her daughter Susannah took over.
In 1682, she married William Evenden, a clothier of Wrotham Parish. In 1685, Cecily Hodshole widow and relict of Nysall sold the Bull to Joseph Matthews, a surgeon of Wrotham with William and Susannah Evenden in occupation. By 1702 William Evenden was the sole licencee, his wife having died in 1700. However by 1703 it was John Saker who was drawing ale at the sign of the Bull, and he continued to do so, until 1730 during which time the inn was sold on two occasions. In 1718, Richard Matthews sold it to Richard Crow, surgeon of Wrotham and he, in 1730 sold it to Hectar Crosby, a victualler of Sevenoaks.
Hector Crosby kept the house until 1753, when he sold it to another innkeeper called John Clifford. During his time here in 1761, the first of two incidents connected to the nefarious activity of smuggling involving the Bull, took place. On the evening of 6th October 1761, three smugglers were fired upon at Fishermans wharf Gravesend, during the course of which one of them, William Styant was mortally wounded. His companions carried him to Wrotham Heath where he was found to have expired. Leaving the body of their friend on the Heath the other two made their way to Wrotham, where they took refreshment at the Bull Inn. However a party of dragoons following close behind discovered the dead man and went to the Bull and arrested the two smugglers called Hide and Stanford. They were later sent for trial at Maidstone and eventually hung on Penenden Heath.
In 1772, John Clifford sold the Bull to Francis Gibbon brewer and maltster of Wateringbury. They leased the Bull to Solomon Brigden. He was still here in 1784 and witnessed the advent of faster mail coaches. The Bull had long been a coaching house but with the improvement of highways and speedier coaches, it became an established staging point. During the height of the coaching era the Bull underwent many changes the existing stables were enlarged to cope with the added volume of team changing that took place here, whilst the inn itself was altered by way of addition, an upper room was converted to a customs office so that His Majestys excise officers could receive and sort the mail delivered by coach.
In 1786, Jeremiah Shadwell took over as keeper of the Bull. He was the brother of Lieutenant Colonel Shadwell, leader of a smuggling gang that used Wrotham as a staging point for contraband ran in from the coast. The gang was known to have frequented the Bull on numerous occasions. On 1st June 1799 the gang leader Shadwell was shot by an army deserter in the inn. His associates persued and captured the deserter and his companion and duly beat them to death. Jeremiah Shadwell may have been involved in the incident which would explain why he left the inn so suddenly for by the end of June 1799, one John Micklefield was keeping the house and did so for well over the first quarter of the 19th century.
In 1822, whilst in his hands a billards room was added to the property, which Micklefield advertised as the Bull Commercial Inn and posting house, excellent facilities with reading room, billard room and good stabling. In 1833, Richard Gibbon sold his brewery to Frederick Ceney a coal merchant of Wateringbury. He became Frederick Ceney and Son brewers and maltsters coal merchants and brick manufacturers of the Phoenix Brewery. Frederick Ceney Junior kept the Bull until 1851 when he handed over to John Goddard Morgan, he in 1857 to Henry Spencer, he in 1863 to Thomas Bowles and he in 1872 to James Edward Shrubsole. During his time here he also kept the Borough Green Hotel. In 1890 he was succeeded by John William Trepess, he in 1894 by Walter Rowe, in 1897 by John Whale, he in 1902 by Mrs E. Hudson, she in 1904 by John Willis, he in 1906 by Henry Maguire and he in 1908 by Henry Short Millet, who kept the house for the duration of world war, I at its close he was succeeded by Alfred John Cape, he in 1921 by Edward Swift he in 1929 by John Cleary, he in 1933 by John Dykes and he in 1936 by Harold Prince.
For much of the second world war the Bull was the haunt of fighter pilots stationed nearby. The Bull remained in the hands of Frederick Ceney & Sons Brewery until 1960 when they sold out to the Whitbread Fremlin Brewery. They eventually sold the Bull as a Free House. To-day it is owned by John Michael Dunnell and his wife Elaine.