The Four Chesnuts

The Four Chesnuts, 234 Oving Road

Many visitors to this pub must assume the licensees can’t spell – surely the pub should be called ‘The Four Chestnuts,’ with a ‘t’? However it turns out that the spelling is quite deliberate.

It was spelt without a ‘t’ in the early  nineteen century, although a ‘t’ was added in more recent times. About thirty years ago the pub was taken over  by Jeff Glass and Carol Thackeray, and they decided to revert back to the original spelling, telling a local reporter that they liked the idea of going “back to ye olde English,” – adding, “The new signs are staying as they are, even if people say they are not spelt correctly.” And so it has remained.

4 thoughts on “The Four Chesnuts

  1. I’ll ask my source to contact you concerning your further query. I can’t give out his name because of data protection laws.

  2. Thank you for the response. I must have mistaken the years as the names don’t seem to match.

    I wonder if it was earlier or later. I was told it was around the turn of the century, but he was in the army at that time and also did not meet his wife, who described the pub, until around 1906.

    His name was William Albert Norman or Chapman or perhaps Foot.

    Is there a published list I could look at?

  3. I’ve determined they were as follows – in 1906 the landlord was W C Bowles and in 1909 G S Lewis

  4. My great-grandfather is believed to be the landlord of the Four Chesnuts in the early 1900’s. I can account for him until the end of 1905 and then from May 1909.

    Does anyone have information regarding the landlords of the pub between 1905 and 1909?

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