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Picture source: Andy Johnson

The Ship was situated in the Market Place, Faversham. This pub was something of an anomaly when open. At the time all the pubs in Faversham were owned by Shepherd Neame or Whitbread, no free houses or pubcos back then, and in the middle of Faversham stood probably the biggest pub in Faversham at the time, The Ship, owned by Courage. I believe that both brewers made a number of attempts over the years to buy the pub to no avail. The pub however succumbed to the general slump in the trade closing in the late 1990s. It is now a mixture of retail units on the ground floor with flats above, some of the upstairs rooms had what were widely regarded as the finest examples of preserved Elizabethan ceilings. The stabling block that ran along the side back garden boundary was converted to housing and named Beddington Square.

In the film 'San Demetrio London' released in 1944 the actor Frederick Piper and Robert Beatty have a heated discussion about British beer versus American beer. The English Boatswain Fletcher tells 'Yank' Preston, Robert Beatty, he should get a decent pint of '4x' in The Ship at Faversham. I've found out that Charles Friend who wrote some of the screenplay lived in Canterbury and it is likely he would have known the oil company at Standard Quay and the pub the in Faversham and so linked the two together for purpose of the script. I'm certain the 'Demetrio' would never had got into Faversham Creek by the way or sail out!

Colin Turner (January 2019)

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