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Picture source: Dave Fletcher
The Lord Nelson was situated at the Kings Ferry Bridge.
My grandfather died in the Lord Nelson following a heart attack he suffered while navigating a sailing barge through the Kings Ferry bridge. He was taken to the Lord Nelson and a doctor sent for, but he died shortly after. The year was 1906.
Jim Britton (January 2020)
My uncle was landlord of the Lord Nelson for several years up to the time of its demolition for construction of the new bridge and, as a lad, I visited the pub on several occasions with my grandmother. Frank Hopgood had been a merchant seaman but came ashore after suffering a severe leg injury and with his partner, Bertha,moved into the Lord Nelson as it kept him in touch with seafarers whose ships berthed at Ridham Dock. At some time in the mid 1950's a local farmer gave Bertha an orphan lamb which she managed to hand-rear. The sheep became something of a pet and had free range of the downstairs including the bar where it became something of a celebrity because of its liking for beer. It would regularly lick out the slops trays and then provide some entertainment by emptying any glass set in front of it by one of the drinkers. Sadly it came to a sticky end when, in its usual state of inebriation, it fell down the open hatch to the cellar and broke its neck. When the Lord Nelson was demolished Frank and Bertha took over the Fox and Goose in Bapchild where they remained for a number of years in the 1960's during which time he once stood, unsuccesfully, as a labour candidate in the local Council elections He died in the early 1970's while landlord of the Fruiterer's Arms in Rodmersham.
Tony Hazell (April 2021)
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Other Photos
Still from the 1953 film, The Long Memory, starring John Mills	Picture source: Tony Milne