Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade II listed building. Main construction periods 1800 to 1832

Monument Types

• SITE (Post Medieval - 1800 AD to 1832 AD)

Full description

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The following text is from the original listed building designation:
1. 944 MILITARY ROAD (South East Side)
No 100 (The Royal Dragoon Public House) TR 1558 SW 3/565
II
2. Early C19. 2 storeys painted brick. Tiled roof. 5 window spaces with 1 blank on the 1st floor. Windows have glazing bars intact and are set in moulded wooden architraves. Central round arched door and a plainer door to the left. The rear elevation is part weatherboarded,
Listing NGR: TR1531158096

The Canterbury UAD states that this is a Mackeson & Co/Whitbread/Shepherd Neame inn.

In an illustrated book on Shepherd Neame Inn Signs it is stated that this building is about 200 years old and is thought to have been grave-digger's cottages, 'set close by a barracks for hussar's'.

The Royal Dragoon is certainly built on the edge of a graveyard and a beer garden at the rear is sited where tombstones were removed. For this purpose the licensee needed permission from the Church Commissioners. The headstones were removed but, 'Mortal remains still lie beneath'.

The inn appears on a Licensing List in 1839 with George Kidman as innkeeper and in 1846 Joseph Hirst was innkeeper of what was then called Dragoon. A Directory in 1865 and again in 1878 listed it as Royal Dragoon.
This was one of the four inns purchased by Shepherd Neame in 1972 from Whitbread. The inn closed during the late 1990's and has reverted back to cottages.

English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

Wilmot, E., 1988, Inns of Canterbury (Monograph). SKE29737.

Sources and further reading