The Pubs of Bohemia – The Hearts of Oak
By David Russell, August 2010.
The Hearts of Oak was a beer house and lodging house at 116 Bohemia Road. It was tied to Breeds Brewery, Hastings, from about 1860 and by 1875 it was known as the Barleycorn.
In 1881 Mary Waghorn held the licence until Thomas Player took over in the 1890s. These were hard times and to make ends meet he also worked as an undertaker. A threat arose in 1892 when a grocer’s shop opposite started selling beer and spirits. Thomas Player opposed the licence and sent one of his customers in for some bacon, cheese and tea. The customer reported back that all he could buy was alcohol. There were no groceries. The grocer’s licence was not renewed.
Slate Club
John Standen (who lived at 35 St Paul’s Road) was landlord from 1907 until 1924 and organised the Hearts of Oak Slate Club, a local benefit society that had eighty members. A typical Christmas pay-out in 1910 allocated £1.7s (£102 today) to each member. In 1922 he was summonsed for giving a glass of beer during prohibited hours to a thirsty coal merchant who was delivering the coal. For this offence he was fined 40s. He regarded his beer house as a man’s pub. “I never admit women,” he said. However, when the police visited in 1926 to ‘establish the custom’, they counted nine females among the drinkers. The police described the tap room as “indifferently lit because there were no windows. Daylight passed into the bar through the glass door panels and the electric light was on all day.”
The Bohemia community considered the Hearts of Oak cellar to be the finest in Hastings. “In summer the beer just comes up beautiful and cool,” said the last landlord. In 1927 the pub was declared redundant. It was closed and the landlord compensated.
[photo Frank Letchford]
David Russell is interested in any Hastings & St Leonards’ pub memories and photographs. David Russell
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