I wasn’t any different to any other teenager growing up in Farnham. If you were tall enough you could chance your arm trying to get served in the Wheatsheaf or The Hop Bag… or wherever. Leaving school my first job was working for the office of a steel stockholding company not far from The Hop Bag. The boss was a fat Tory man called Archie who had gout and my immediate boss was a young wannabe guy in his forties called Paul Singleton with the middle name of, I kid you not, Groundwater.

I witnessed drinking and its behaviours much earlier than that as I was allowed in the Central Club in South Street. One of my best memories of that place was the juke box. One time they’d got John Lennon’s Imagine but that never got played as much as the flipside Working Class Hero. Those of you who know that song will understand why it got taken off… eventually but not before us kids had had a good giggle about it.

When I was old enough to legally drink there, it was the eighties and what I enjoyed most was the table top video games. They were in most of the pubs, the likes of Asteroids and co but Space Invaders was my favourite. Who remembers it was fourteen aliens you killed before waiting at the bottom for the Mothership to go across the top to get your big points. Once eighteen, my favourite tipple was Snakebites and rum and black chasers.

Wages were spent by the following Wednesday mostly if you got paid weekly on the Friday. My nights out were either at the Jolly Sailor or The Lamb in town; I never went in the Coach And Horses. I knew it had a reputation along the lines of Saturday night’s alright for fighting but I didn’t want to get a little action in.

On a recent visit to my hometown I saw that the Coach And Horses had gone but so had all of The Woolmead! That used to be great on Saturday mornings as there was this cafe called The Gorge with its waterfalls and stalagmyte-like caves where you’d get a cola float or a milkshake maybe before heading to spend your pocket money in Pullingers or Our Price. The above is all I could really find for The Gorge; it’s certainly no longer in The Woolmead – has it moved elsewhere?

On ShotsWeb there was a discussion that began off-topic about Farnham’s pubs and LowerBourneShot mentioned that The Eldon Hotel was no longer. I didn’t remember that but knew The Fox of course and The Cricketers. You’d pass those on the drive out to Frensham Big Pond.

On the cricketing theme, there was the Ball and Wicket at Hale (long gone apparently) but the Bat And Ball Inn is still going and there’s a website with plenty of info.

 

The Bat and Ball is a Freehouse in the true sense – A family run public house over 2 generations and run completely free of any brewers ties. We are a traditional country pub offering excellent food and drinks whilst boasting a large child friendly garden with lovingly kept flower borders. The pub has been around for over 150 years and is located close to the Surrey/Hampshire border, nestled in the beautiful Bourne valley on the South side of Farnham. We are passionate about the quality and range of our food, using locally sourced produce as much as we can. Beer is just as important to us, so we have 6 constantly changing local traditional cask ales as well as local ciders and craft beers to tempt you.

I wondered how many of the pubs and inns were still around these days. The Spotted Cow at Lower Bourne is still going. On Sundays we were either taken there because it had a playground or we went over to The Cambridge Hotel in London Road, Camberley. There I’d listen to trad jazz and have chicken in the basket and a coke (too young for ale at the time) but they were very happy times.

The Albion, still there, was opposite my old primary school. My mum worked at Martonair. That’s gone and so too has Crosby Doors!  And the Seven Stars!

Farnham was such a great town to grow up in with summers playing down Gostrey Meadows or Farnham Park or at the open air swimming pool. And there was Aldershot FC a few miles away of course! Living in The Chantreys, West Street was my main walk into town and why The Plough and The Jolly Sailor were pubs I used most although from work, sometimes I’d lunch in The Bush Hotel.

Mekki’s is interesting isn’t it seeing as Aldershot had Adam Mekki at one time playing for them. Doubt there’s a connection but others would know. Used to be The Exchange and that’s as much as I know. I can only find images of The Exchange or related pictures of a pub that I don’t know of called The Mulberry.

So these are the ten pubs I remember best that are still going, oh and remember I made a post about that singer Peter Crutchfield? Here’s a song he’s done asking where have all the pubs gone.

THE JOLLY SAILOR

THE QUEEN’S HEAD

THE LAMB

THE MARLBOROUGH HEAD

THE HOP BLOSSOM

THE WHEATSHEAF

THE SHEPHERD AND FLOCK

THE SIX BELLS

THE ALBION

THE PLOUGH

Finally, I found this article that gave a list of Farnham pub closures going way back when.

Farnham has lost lots of Pubs over the years, here’s a list of them in order by date.

Name of Pub	Closing Date	Location
Star	1790	The Borough
Goats Head	1865	Castle Street
Fox	1901	83 West Street
Bell & Crown	1902	73 Castle Street
Bridge House	1902	South Street
Unicorn	1902	120 East Street
White Swan	1903	42 East Street
Bakers Arms	1908	4 Upper Church Lane
Green Man	1909	118 East Street
White Lion	1909	11 Red Lion Lane
Garibaldi	1910	Park Row
Lion & Lamb	1910	113 West Street
Greyhound	1912	Hale Road
Royal Oak	1914	94-95 East Street
Ship Inn	1914	17 The Borough
Red Lion	1920	1 Red Lion Lane
Surrey Arms	1921	62a East Street
White Hart	1927	55 East Street
Bird In Hand	1928	43 Downing Street
Sun	1928	17 Downing Street
Rose & Thistle	1933	47 West Street
Holly Bush	1937	37 West Street
Bricklayers Arms	1939	26 Abbey Street
Lion & Unicorn	1959	28 Red Lion Lane
Fox & Hounds	1967	57 West Street
Seven Stars	2011	East Street
Swan	1680s	108-110 West Street
Bull & Butcher	1890s	69 Castle Street
White Horse	1900s	49 West Street
Cricketers Inn	1920s	36 Downing Street
Feathers	1920’s	29 Lower Church Lane
Royal Deer	1980’s	4 East Street
Black Prince	1990’s	147 Upper Hale Road
Alliance	unknown	1 West Street
Antelope	unknown	Church Passage
Army & Navy	unknown	East Street
Bear	unknown	1 The Borough
Black Horse	unknown	West Street
Bush Tap	unknown	1 South Street
Coach & Horses	unknown	Castle Street
Duke Of Cambridge	unknown	East Street
Eagle	unknown	73 East Street
George	unknown	121-122 West Street
Goats Head	unknown	14 The Borough
Hop Bag Inn	unknown	63 Downing Street
Lord Wellington	unknown	The Hatches
Mitre	unknown	84 West Street
New Inn	unknown	21 West Street
Prince Of Wales	unknown	98 West Street
Queen Street Tavern	unknown	125 East Street
Rainbow	unknown	27 West Street
Waggon & Horses	unknown	East Street
White Hart	unknown	70 Castle Street
White Lion	unknown	6-8 Castle Street