Ye Olde Yew Tree Inn, Westbere, Kent

Ye Olde Yew Tree Inn, Westbere © Peter Gander

Easter Monday today and wife Fiona and I took the VW Beetle out for a spin and the dog for a walk round the 200 acre lake near the Ye Olde Yew Tree Inn, Westbere, about 6 miles east of Canterbury. I hadn’t been here since my college days about thirty years ago and the place has changed little. The Inn was built in 1348 and it’s the oldest pub in Kent. Queen Anne and the Archbishop of Canterbury are reputed to have stayed here, and Dick Turpin is purported to have evaded capture from the law by jumping from a first floor window. The pub was also used as a hospital to treat wounded soldiers during the civil war and two ghosts live here (so the website says) - “a man and a small woman”. More importantly, they sell Harvey’s Sussex Bitter here, which slipped down nicely whilst painting the postcard above. Winsor & Newton watercolours on 300gsm rough watercolour postcard. UPDATE: (May 2011) The owners Mark and Anna now have the painting inside the pub. Thanks for the Harveys you two!