LICENSE FOR 367 YEARS

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 August 1932, Page 10

LICENSE FOR 367 YEARS

OLD INN’S HISTORY. For 367 years the Three Daws, of all inns the quaintest in this countiy of quaint inns, has without a break held a license (states the Gravesend correspondent of the London Daily Mail. , , Standing at the river edge at the foot of the narrow cobbled High Street, it has foi* centuries served as a home from home for Thames pilots, been the haunt of smugglers, and was regularly raided by the old naval press gangs. . , It is older than Shakespeare s house, than many well-known ancient buildings, and is wonderfully pres er.But Gravesend remains unmoved. There are no signposts pointing the way to the Three Daws, no railing to protect the timber/walls from injury, no signs at all of that respect which is due to age—-especially great age. I found the landlord, Mr. Herbert Shearing, in the bar. He was apologetic, saying: “Yes,'l know a little about the old house; but, you see, I have only been here 16 years, so I am still rather a stranger.” , ' The counter of the .bar was protected by a sheet of pewter-like metal, rubbed thin and bright by the elbows of countless seamen during the last 400 years. Mr. Shearing told me: “An authority on metal once offered to replace this counter with one of best mahogany and pay £lOO in addition, in exchange for the old one. According to him the metal contained a higher proportion of silver'than there is in the present coinage.” » I glanced along the 20ft. of twofoot wide counter, trying to calculate how many sixpences it would make. At a rough guess I should say 2000. PILOTS’ ROOM. Among the maze of shelves and taps were many now unused, for they were designed for spirits. Apparently spirits were drunk like beer in the old days, for they were drawn from barrels, not bottles. Behind the bar was the pilots’. room, at one time exclusively reserved for Thames pilots. For hundreds of years they have met here to swap yarns—and such yarns, too —of ships’, adventures in all parts of the world, of captains and admirals, sails and steam. In the ceiling a com pass is fixed, and there is a constant going and coming of bronzed men with oilskins and peaked caps. Night and morning always finds at least two or three there, and the yarns have to bo heard to be believed.

Then the landlord began to enjoy himself. We started to look over all the rooms For two minutes I had lost myself. Up one staircase, through three or four rooms, and down aiiother into the kitchen. Up another staircase, through more rooms, and down again to the kitchen by another staircase.

There were six separate staircases ovei - 30 rooms, and cupboards and windows all over the place at very odd intervals. Passages and staircases twisted and turned, ceilings curved in all directions, the floors were all at different levels, and great beams showed here and there. Originally—that was before 1565— this was five cottages. They were built by unemployed ships’ carpenters out of wood cut locally. No tinie was spent in drafting plans in those days. Windows, doors and beams were made to fit as the work went on. The result is that no window or door is tho same size, all being made to fit the hole they have to fill. It is an ideal house for hide and seek, so much so that when press gangs were looking fox - mexx to man the Navy in ,1798 (Nelson’s time), this order was by the Admiralty: “The Three Daws is never to be raided by press gangs except with two press gangs, as so many seamen escape through its tortuous passages.” Cellars run underneath the whole house.

Situated at a strategic point on the rxvex - froxxt and by the old Dover Road, these cellars were of great assistance to smugglers. It is believed that if the walls of the cellars wex - e pulled down, bricked up under-ground passages would be found.

There was the pothouse, where the pewter tankards used to be cleaned; the kitchexx with its open fire; the chimneys up which a maxx could climb but it would take a book to describe all the oddities of the Three Daws.