5464 x 3640 px | 46,3 x 30,8 cm | 18,2 x 12,1 inches | 300dpi
Date de la prise de vue:
4 novembre 2020
Lieu:
Kingsgate Bay, Broadstairs, Thanet, Kent
Informations supplémentaires:
The "Captain Digby" is possibly one of the oldest drinking houses in Thanet. Lord Holland originally built it as a ‘Bede House' between 1763 and 1768. This was a place for drinking and entertainment by Lord Holland's guests from the impressive Holland House some hundred yards to the south.The name Captain Digby comes from Robert, a nephew of Lord Holland who commanded a warship of the English fleet in 1759. It is recorded that when Lord Holland died he left a sum of money so that Captain Digby's health could be drunk every year by the customers. Also in his will was a sum to provide a bottle of wine to every young woman within the parish about to give birth. Sadly both these provisions seemed to have lapsed through the years! By 1797 the ‘Kentish Gazette' records that the tenant, Mr Herbert, welcomes numerous guests from all the Thanet towns arriving by horse at the ‘Noble Captain Digby'. On 18th October 1861 the larger part of The Captain Digby fell over the cliff in a severe storm. A gentleman's magazine of that date reports, “The Noble Captain Digby fell into the sea, except part of one wing where a servant boy slept”. The last remains of the ‘Noble Captain Digby', a flint gazebo situated right on the edge of the cliff, fell into the sea below during the winter of 1998. The flint rubble was used to build flower planters in the gardens at ‘The Pavillion' on Viking Bay, Broadstairs. In 1816 the Captain Digby was recreated some yards away from the original site in the stables of the original Bede House. The present day building is almost the same as the 1816 building but through the years has undergone several alterations such as the restaurant, which was added in 1973. I am informed that this was a Truman tied house at the time. Beneath the inn is a large subterranean cavern reputed to have been used by local Kingsgate smuggler, Joss Snelling and his infamous gang. Up to a few years ago one could reach the beach below by going through a trap door in the cell.
