Jolly Farmers B&B and Self-Catering

History

Jolly Farmers is steeped in history. It was built around AD 1590 as a substantial thatched farmhouse. Later in approximately the 1700s an additional smaller brick-built cottage was built, for servants and farm workers, later believed to have also served beer, as an additional overflow from the pub.

Originally there were 2 ponds, one at the bottom of the garden to the West (filled in 1960s) and one that remains presently now part of the adjacent cottage, “Homestead”. It is believed these ponds were dug out to provide original building material, such as wattle & dawb and to make bricks. Jolly Farmers originally became known as “Gates Yard” (probably due to being adjacent to the gates to the common) and was a thriving business with a Stud, Piggery, barns, productive gardens, a smokehouse, cart lodges, stables & mill (part of the estate until AD 1913, demolished 1934), also land either side of Watson’s Farm lane opposite, growing grain, presumably which was milled at the mill on the Green, known locally as Mill Green.

Jolly Farmers' original cart-lodge was believed to have been built around the time it became a beer-house. You can still see evidence of the old brackets that are believed to have hung the original sign. The lodge had stables at the rear, backing on to a yard.
The lodge was converted into a garage in 1997 and in 2006 a Classic Workshop. In Summer 2011 it was professionaly converted into our luxury 4-star self-catering Gates Lodge..

The Beer House

The abolition of beer tax in 1828 saw a huge rise in “Beer Houses”. It is believed that the Jolly Farmers became a Beer House shortly after this time, when it was named “The Cherry Tree Inn” until around 1840. The absence of today's mechanised farming and long licensing hours (often from 8.00am to well into the night!) without the need for a full public house licence meant that there was an abundance of customers.

Downstairs you can see the cellar /tap room or keg room adjacent to the lounge which used to have just a small hatchway serving beer. Outside there were 3 entrance doors. In 1885 Jolly Farmers was bought by Steward & Patteson. It was extremely popular in WW2 with American airmen, there being many WW2 airfields nearby.

In 1967 Watney Mann bought out Steward & Patteson and Jolly Farmers was closed on 6th November 1968 on economic grounds. Jolly Farmers was limited somewhat because it was small, only had a licence to serve beer, (not wines and spirits, although we have found reminants!), and it just was not practical to diversify into food. At the end, the yearly beer sales were only 35 ¾ barrels and only a couple of regular customers remained, like “Whippy Brown” from Silverley’s Green.

USAF Lighter, Half & Quarter Dollar,beer token & 10c

Victorian & George V Pennies & Ha'pennies

1928 Steward & Patteson beer tops

Early 1800s - 1900s glass bottles.

Doubleday, Costings & S&P beer bottles

c1900s Walker's "S" Kilmarnock Whisky

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