15. The Bull and George
This famous inn was demolished in
January 1981 to make way for a new Boots store. In its heyday the Bull
and George served as a coaching inn on the London-Dover road,
accommodating travellers on their journeys to and from the coast.
Probably the most famous person known to have stayed there was the noted
novelist Jane Austen. She stayed there on several occasions and
mentioned the Bull and George in letters to her family.
The Group obtained permission to keep a watch on the
demolition of the building and the subsequent redevelopment. Evidence
obtained during this work showed that the inn underwent some drastic
changes during the first half of the 19th century. The western part of
the building appears to have been sold off and is now the Halifax
Building Society. The remaining frontage was demolished and rebuilt, and
the entranceway into the courtyard at the back was also probably
repositioned during this period of reconstruction. The date of this work
may well have been c.1834, as evidenced by a chance discovery made by a
workman whilst removing a portion of the footings at the front of the
building. His pickaxe struck a glass jar, which on close examination
contained a number of interesting objects. In the jar were five coins
dated between 1826-34 which were enclosed in stamp office tickets issued
during the reign of William IV (1830-7) and a trade card issued by
Charles Messenger, the landlord at the time. The contents were then
wrapped in a parchment document dated 1834 and built into the
foundation. As the contents were waterlogged it has not been possible to
read very much of the document other than the odd word, but it has been
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conserved by Kent the
County Museums Service, and the County Archives Archives Office, and is
now with the older finds in Dartford Borough Museum.
Once the demolition was completed, access was allowed to investigate the
underlying levels. Two finely built soakaways, constructed from neatly
squared chalk blocks, were discovered. The first was located underneath
a wall situated on the west side of the wing at the back. Evidence of a
wooden plank was found, which had been laid across the disused soakaway
to take the weight of the wall above. No datable material was found in
this soakaway other than part of a cartwheel. This was lying at the base
of the fill and was probably used as a template or or guide to assist
the builder in constructing the soakaway in circular form. The second
soakaway was located just outside the north wall of the back wing. The
fill was more interesting as a small amount of datable pottery, plus a
piece of ‘Frobisher’s Stone’ (see page20) was found. At the
bottom, an early type of pewter spoon, used in late Medieval times was
found. Along the eastern side adjacent to Freeman Hardy Willis, we
located foundations formed of chalk and flint, and part of a finely
constructed cellar.
These foundations were followed up to the shop’s flank
wall and were seen to pass through it in one place. They formed part of
an adjoining property to the later Manor House of Charles (see below)
which was demolished in the early part of the 19th century.
It was hoped that our excavations would have shown evidence
of the course of the Roman road through Dartford. That unfortunately was
not to be, although a number of Roman pottery sherds were found |