Pub history

A colourful history

We believe the White Horse Inn was built around 1835, though we only have anecdotal evidence for that. It has lived through both world wars and much more.

The spring in the cellar

In the cellar there's a natural spring, which trickles through the second-to-bottom step. A little channel carries the stream around the edge of the cellar to the lowest point. It keeps the cellar at almost exactly the same temperature and humidity all year round, which makes it a great cellar for keeping real ales.

An old photograph of the White Horse, before the horse was painted on the roof

The white horse on the roof

The pub stood for some 70 to 80 years with no horse on the roof. The painting was commissioned by Mr Cardwell, who we think owned the Star Brewery and kept racehorses of his own.

During the Second World War the horse was covered over so enemy pilots couldn't use it to navigate. It returned after the war, at first painted facing the wrong way, and was finally corrected into the slightly chubbier, bigger horse than the pre-war design.

The shape of the horse is a great way to date photos, etched glasses and beer mats, because the pre-war and post-war designs differ quite a lot.

A pre-war team photograph with a motor coach outside the pub; the pre-war horse is on the roof

From a book loaned to us by Chris, who was born in the White Horse

Innkeepers and blacksmiths

The original White Horse building was the house of the Christian family, then known as Mount Pleasant, on the site of the present Brick House at the top of North Road, which still has the old cellar. The road then curved round the front of that building, some distance north of where it runs today.

The earliest record of the innkeeping business is from 1838, showing John Griffiths as owner and Mrs Philadelphia Oxley as innkeeper, on a site some 50 yards south of the original old inn, which was then demolished except for the cellar. In 1866 that house was rebuilt as The Brick House.

Philadelphia continued as innkeeper until her death in 1859. Her will leaves:

“one half or share in freehold public house, blacksmith shop & 2 small plots of land (1 & 1/4 acres) in occupation of Ric Oxley & George Burgess. The saleable value being £500 & annual rents £26”.

Her daughter Elizabeth also inherited a share of the property, and Ric Oxley became innkeeper as well as blacksmith. The Oxley family register records, in 1862:

“Received £5 of Ric Oxley to give up one room to hire in the house of the White Horse Inn, left to me by my late mother & that I have no other claim upon the said Ric Oxley”, signed Elizabeth Bowner.

The beerhouse licences for Warbleton in 1886 show Richard Oxley holding an off-licence as well as the beer licence. Ric Oxley died in 1892, aged 76. In the 1891 census he is described as retired, and Edward Pankhurst is listed as innkeeper.

Trouble at the Horse

Tom Beale, born in Bodle Street in 1886, remembered his grandmother saying that Mrs Oxley kept the White Horse very well and knew how to manage most of the men who drank there. After her time, things were often very rough at the inn. Tom recalled:

“There was nothing to do for young men like me except go to the White Horse. There was always fighting there. I don’t like fighting I don’t but my brother Will was a devil for a fight. He was six foot two was Will and as thick round as a barrel, but he didn’t fight unless he was forced into it. It was Jim the well digger what was the worst. We were standing at the bar one night was me and Will and the well digger came up to us and framed up to Will. Will hit him once. His head went through the panel of the door…”

Jim dodged the next punch, and Will’s fist went through the other panel. The landlord nailed two boards across to keep the draught out, and they stayed there for years until Mrs Brett had a new door put in. Back Lane, now North Road, had a rather unsavoury reputation in those days.

The Star Brewery years

In 1886 the Star Brewery of Eastbourne bought the premises. Edward Pankhurst was innkeeper and wheelwright until his death in 1901, aged 44. Edward Brooks followed, then Alfred Pankhurst in 1910, Edward’s brother and also a wheelwright, who went bankrupt. Walter Marshall told how Alfred got the bailiffs drunk at the inn while his wheelwright’s tools were moved to Longview Cottages.

William Alexander Cardwell, the owner, held the alehouse licence in 1915, but Fred Brett was landlord for longest, from the early 1920s until 1951. His grandson Chris Wells tells how the police were always trying to catch him out for not closing on time. Tipped off about a raid, Fred held a “private party”, took the money out of the tills and supplied the drinks himself. When the chief inspector tried the back door, Fred knocked him out with his one good arm; the other had been blown off in the First World War.

In court, Fred argued it was a private gathering of friends and family and he was only guarding his property against intruders. Asked what weapon he had used, he held up his other arm. The case was dismissed. He wasn’t known as “Fred the Fox” for nothing.

Fred Brett and his daughter Nancy in the Model T Ford outside the pub, with locals gathered

Fred, Nancy and the war years

Fred is said to have been the first man in the village to own a motor car. His daughter Nancy remembered that when the roof was re-tiled just before the war, the sign writer copied a picture of Mr Cardwell’s horse but made a mistake, leaving the hind part lower than the front. It was too hard to alter, so they waited for it to fade.

During the war the White Horse was at the centre of village life, including as the collection point for iron railings for the war effort. Nancy and Fred watched from outside the pub as a fighter pilot’s parachute came down near Rabbits Farm and was shot at by a German aircraft; Nancy said it was the most terrible thing she ever witnessed.

Nancy married Harry Wells in 1950, and they ran the White Horse until the autumn of 1963. She had lived there for 43 years.

Into the free house era

Courage took over the Star Brewery in the 1960s. Frank Mayhew was landlord until he died in October 1971, and his widow carried on until the following spring. The pub then closed for a year, until the Ramsdens bought it and it became a free house. It’s said the beams were added during that refurbishment to make it look more traditional.

A Ramsden-era beer mat: Michael and Fay Ramsden welcome you to the White Horse Inn

The Star Brewery

1777Founded as the Golden Hop Brewery, using the waters of the nearby Bourne Stream.
1886The Star Brewery Company is formed to acquire the business of William Alexander Cardwell.
1965Taken over by Courage, Barclay & Simonds, with 43 tied houses at the time.
1967Brewing ceases. The main brewhouse, built in 1876, is demolished in 1971.
TodayThe Star Inn on Star Road, Eastbourne, is all that remains of the old brewery site.

If you have any information about the history of the White Horse, or any photos, we’d love to hear from you.