The White Dog Inn

Ewhurst Green

East Sussex

This Inn known by the name and sign of the White Dog was built in the eighteenth year of  Elizabeth I , in 1576, though the original structure of the building has at different intervals of time undergone extensive alteration, both internally and externally.

When first built, the property was a dwelling house forming part of a considerable farm estate.  The property consisted of a main tenement, with a stable block and a large tract of land.  By 1602 a blacksmith’s forge has been added to the property and is included in the sale inventory of that year when the widow Maudistly Heath sold it to Isaac Hollobone, a farmer and blacksmith of Flimwell parish.  Hollobone still occupied the house in 1617, but is described at this date as an occupied farmer and grazier whilst his wife Elinour is called a blacksmith, as are two of his sons, Jacob and Daniel.  Another son Jonah was, like his father, described as a farmer.  By 1621, only the widow Hollobone is recorded here, with son Jacob.Daniel Hollobone is recorded at this date as a blacksmith of Northiam, though no trace could be found of Jonah Hollobone in the county of Sussex.  Elinour Hollobone died in 1642, whereafter the property passed to son Jacob, who is still described at this date as a blacksmith and again in 1644.  However, in 1646, he is described as an ale house keeper and blacksmith, so between the two latter dates he had obtained a licence to sell ales from the house, which at first bore no title other than that of ale house in Ewhurst Green.  However, by 1661, the year in which Jacob Hollobone sold the house, it had come to be called the “Castle at the Green”.

In the year of 1661, the house was purchase by Christopher Boggs, an Innkeeper of Newenden, who kept an Inn in that parish called The White Hart.  He kept the Castle, still restricted to an ale house, until his death in 1684, whereafter it passed to his daughter Emelina.  In 1690, she became Emelina Grace by marrying William Grace, a bell-hanger and blacksmith of Rye and in 1693 sold the Castle to Thomas Newble, a cutler of Rye.  It is quite possible that he carried on with his original trade during the time he was here, for he is recorded as a cutler throughout that time and he may have even traded with the soldiers stationed in and around Bodiam Castle>.  Newble kept the Castle until 1712, when in that year an indenture shows that he made the Castle ale house over to his nephew Peter Wakering, a gunsmith.

In 1715 Wakering sold the house to Richard Godding.  In 1725, he applied for and was granted a wine licence for the house and in 1729, made a successful application to sell spirits from it, which at the hearing he registered as the Castle Inn.  He kept the house until 1791, when he sold it to Jacob Sargant, a brewer of Hawkhurst.  In that same year he leased it to William Groves who kept the house for fifteen years, but appear to have been dogged by ill fortune.  In 1751, his daughter Mary entered the house of correction at Beckley (now part of the Royal Oak) for bearing an illegitimate child.  In 1753, his son Thomas entered the same institution branded an idle person and 1755 Groves himself was fined 4 pounds 10 shillings for selling ales of illegal measures.

When he left in 1756, he was succeeded by Joshua Hickmott.  No leass than five other Hickmotts were to keep the Castle at different times.  The first, Joshua, kept it until his death in 1784, whereafter his wife Jessica took over until her own death in 1792, the lease being taken up by  her son Thomas, a saddler by trade.  Two Hickmotts were to follow in later years.  Thomas Hickmott kept the Castle until 1811.  In that year the Sargant Brewery of Hawkhurst sold the Castle along with the Horse and Groom, the Bell, the Merry Harriers and the Swan, all Sussex Inns, to William Smith of the Lamberhurst Brewery.  They installed one Thomas Hartup the elder into the “Castle” on a lease and he kept it until his death in 1846, whereafter his son Thomas senior took over until 1857, when he left the Castle to take up the tenancy of the White Hart at Cripps Corner.

In that year of 1857 one Richard Harmer took over the Castle.  He is recorded as having lived here with his mother Elizabeth and his sister until 1865, when William Hickmott succeeded him and kept it until his death in 1892, whereafter his widow took over until 1895, when William Wells took over.  He kept the house until 1912, when he was succeeded by Bertram Bateup.  In the same year the Castle was purchased by the Beards Brewery of Lewes.  In 1914, Bateup was conscripted and succeeded her by Philip Daniel Hickmott, a blacksmith by trade, who kept the house for the duration of the First World War.  At its close in 1918, Bertram Bateup returned to the Castle and the house stayed in the stewardship of his family until 1960, also being run during that time by Samuel Kemp (Bert’s stepson) and by Bert Kemp, Samuel’s brother.

In 1960, Bill page, a builder by trade, came to the Castle and stayed until he emigrated to Australian in 1963 when James Proctor acquired the business and was her until 1969 when he was succeeded by Paul and Pauline Collins.  The Castle had now become a freehouse.  During their stay the pub was extended to include the restaurant and the name was changed the The White Dog Inn (they had two Pyranean mountain dogs).  They moved on in 1976, when they were succeeded by Tim Knowland, and he in 1985 by Richard Hayward and Tina Rainbow.  In 1992 ownership passed to Val and Andy Walters and then on to Roger Clarke-Payton.  The White Dog Inn was then acquired by John and Sue Newton and subsequently by Simon and Tracy Thomas. Since February 2008 Bill and Jacqui Tipples have been the licensees.