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Monument details
| HER Number: | TR 15 NE 1146 |
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| Type of record: | Monument |
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| Name: | The Nightingale. 55 New Ruttington Lane. |
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Summary
Much damage was done to this area during the war and there was considerable post-war reconstruction. It is not possible to pin point exactly where The Nightingale was. The directory was clear that the inn was No 55 New Ruttington Lane/corner of Clyde Street.
| Grid Reference: | TR 1539 5830 |
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| Map Sheet: | TR15NE |
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| Parish: | CANTERBURY, CANTERBURY, KENT |
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Monument Types
- INN (Post Medieval to Modern - 1838 AD? to 1925 AD)
- SHOP (Modern to Unknown - 1925 AD?)
Full description
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This Inn was the NORTH STAR from 1838-1867 and the address was given as 55 Ruttington Lane/ corner of Clyde Street. It became the NIGHTINGALE in 1867 after Florence Nightingale (the lady with the lamp) had taken a team of nurses to the Crimea and they had helped to save the lives of many soldiers who were fighting in the Crimean War.
In 1878 the innkeeper was Isaac Bourne and in 1900 James Harris. The NIGHTINGALE closed in 1925 and for a time the inn was turned into a grocers shop. The street directories named Richard Clark as innkeeper in 1862, 1865 and 1867.
Much damage was done to this area during the war and there was considerable post-war reconstruction. It is not possible to pin point exactly where the NIGHTINGALE was. The directory was clear that the inn was No 55 New Ruttington Lane/ corner of Clyde Street.
A brief news item in the Kent Messenger dated 13th June 1985 is of interest:
"Claims used to be served in some inns as a subtle means of encouraging customers to drink. This would seem to be the explaination for the discovery of a quantity of clam shells on the site of the old NIGHTINGALE INN in New Ruttington Lane. Some three tons of these shells, each weighing up to half a pound were dug up by men engaged in making foundations for a block of council flats. It seems that the shells are at least 40 years old."
Wilmot, E., 1992, Eighty Lost Inns of Canterbury (Monograph). SKE29747.
Sources and further reading
| Cross-ref.
| Source description | | --- | Monograph: Wilmot, E.. 1992. Eighty Lost Inns of Canterbury. |
