Judy Middleton & D. Sharp 2003 (revised 2024)
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| copyright © J.Middleton A commanding corner site was the most popular place to build a pub in Victorian times and so the Stanley Arms is a fine example. |
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| copyright © Brighton Libraries Brighton Graphic 2 Sept. 1915 Matthew Goble, the son of the former landlord of The Stanley Arms' , lived for nearly 20 years above the pub, was killed in action on 22 July 1916 at the Battle of the Somme. |
At the time of his most famous exploit Stanley was working for the New York Times and was told to go and find Livingstone, of whom nothing had been heard for two years. On 10 November 1871 Stanley entered Ujiji at the head of a large escort, spotted his man, raised his hat and said ‘Dr Livingstone, I presume?’
In 1872 he published an account of his journey entitled How I found Livingstone followed in 1878 by Through the Dark Continent. Thus the name of Stanley as a British hero would still have been in the forefront of people’s minds when this new pub opened shortly after the latter book was published.
The Stanley Arms was erected in around 1881 and the Albion Brewery owned it from that year until 1892 when Tamplin’s took over. Remarkably, Tamplin’s continued to own the pub until 1965.
In 1887 Edward Goble was noted as the landlord and he was still there in 1910. In 1911 Edward retired as the landlord and moved a few doors away to 59 Wolseley Road. Edward and Mary Goble's son Matthew, was killed in action at the Battle of the Somme on 22 July 1916, he was 24 years old. He is buried in Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, Longueval, France.
Matthew was a gardener and worked in Broomfield's Market Garden in Portslade.
Matthew Goble's name is listed on the Roll of Honour in St Nicolas Church and on the War Memorial in Easthill Park.
Then came the long tenure of Arthur Birchfield who ran the pub from 1911 until 1940. Birchfield gained some notoriety locally when he was subject to a County Court judgement.
There is a famous old photograph dating back to the 1920s taken as a souvenir of a pub outing. The group are outside the pub while Arthur Birchfield sits in front holding his young son and his wife and grown-up daughter look out of the window. The seated man on the left was Mr Wakeham who had a glass eye.
In 1887 Edward Goble was noted as the landlord and he was still there in 1910. In 1911 Edward retired as the landlord and moved a few doors away to 59 Wolseley Road. Edward and Mary Goble's son Matthew, was killed in action at the Battle of the Somme on 22 July 1916, he was 24 years old. He is buried in Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, Longueval, France.
Matthew was a gardener and worked in Broomfield's Market Garden in Portslade.
Matthew Goble's name is listed on the Roll of Honour in St Nicolas Church and on the War Memorial in Easthill Park.
Then came the long tenure of Arthur Birchfield who ran the pub from 1911 until 1940. Birchfield gained some notoriety locally when he was subject to a County Court judgement.
In 1910 while the landlord of The Blue Anchor in Southwick, close to Shoreham Harbour, Birchfield
was hired by the English Channel swimmer Jabez Wolffe (1876-1914)
of Cambridge Road, Hove as the pilot and engineer for his
cross-channel swimming attempts. Birchfield sued Wolffe for arrears
of wages and railway expenses to the value of £14 15s. Wolffe made a
counterclaim for £13, the value of two charts and a barometer, said
to be Wollfe’s property. The Judge found in favour of Wollfe, and
ordered Arthur Birchfield to return the barometer or its value of £2. Jabez Wolffe made 21 unsuccessful attempts to swim the English
Channel, sometimes failing by a few miles and sometimes by a few
hundred yards from the French coast.
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| copyright © Royal Pavilion &
Museums, Brighton & Hove
An early 1920s photograph of draysmen and carts at the Tamplin & Sons, Brewery Depot in Brighton, the suppliers of ales to the Stanley Arms from 1892 until 1965.
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There is a famous old photograph dating back to the 1920s taken as a souvenir of a pub outing. The group are outside the pub while Arthur Birchfield sits in front holding his young son and his wife and grown-up daughter look out of the window. The seated man on the left was Mr Wakeham who had a glass eye.
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| copyright © G. Osborne Arthur Birchfield sitting in the front row, third from the left, the smartly dressed men in their 'Sunday best' are probably setting out on another pub outing. |
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| copyright ©
Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove Brighton Argus 5 January 1922
It is incredible to think that 4,500 spectators turned up to watch a team of senior citizens from The Stanley Arms play The Southern Cross in a charity football
match at Victoria Park on Boxing Day 1921. Nine days later a concert was held at St Nicolas Church Hall in Abinger Road, with all proceeds from both events being donated to 122 elderly people of Portslade.
Both events were organised by Major Sexton, an eccentric wealthy character who wore military style clothes
and lived in Queen Victoria’s former personal railway carriage in
Bungalow Town on Shoreham Beach. He was a very generous benefactor of
Shoreham, Brighton, Hove and Portslade charities, events and sports
clubs during the 1920’s and 1930’s. Major Sexton was the Vice President of the Charing Cross Hospital in London. The purchasing power of Major Sexton's donation of 10 guineas to the elderly of Portslade would be £600 in today's values.
While the Stanley Arms is still thriving today, The Southern Cross served its last customer in October 1973 and was demolished shortly afterwards for the widening of the Old Shoreham Road. |
The Second World War
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| copyright © Brighton Libraries 1906 advert -Tamplin's owned The Stanley Arms from 1892 until 1965, In 1906 the price of a pint of Pale Ale was 2 pence. |
John O’Neill was a youngster during the Second World War. He and his family lived in a house opposite the Stanley
– moreover he was a friend of the landlord’s son and often had a
sleep-over at the pub. Mr O’Neill remembers the occasion when someone
brought in a hand grenade to show off as a war souvenir: perhaps the
person thought It was ‘spent’. It was placed in the back room and
exploded suddenly – it was fortunate that nobody was injured.
Local
children had become so used to the war situation that they continued to
play in the street as usual, even after the air-raid siren had sounded.
This was not surprising because there had been several false alarms.
However, John O’Neill also remembered the time when the air-raid siren
going off was a genuine alarm. Suddenly, there was a German plane
approaching, spraying bullets up the road, and all the mums rushed to
their doorsteps shouting at their children to take cover. John and his
friend dived over a garden wall and ducked down while bullets hit the
wall. Once the all-clear had sounded, the boys climbed back over the
wall and began to dig out the bullets, which were still hot.
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| copyright © G. Osborne
VE Day Celebrations in the neighbouring Crown Road
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More Recent Times
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| copyright © J.Middleton The old pub sign depicts Stanley in the jungle with a quizzical look and a firm grasp on his pint of beer while the sun blazes down. |
In September 1997 Roy and Pat
Bond purchased the freehold of the Stanley Arms. It was Mr Bond’s first
experience of running a pub because he had worked for the railway for nineteen
years before that. There was an open fireplace in the saloon bar with a brass
coal-scuttle and brass implements. The wooden floor was original and it is
interesting to note its age was gauged by the broad width of the planks. When
the pub was renovated, the floor covering was removed but parts of it had
become so embedded in the wood that the planks had to be turned over; then they
were sanded and polished.
In 1999 there was a pub garden
where a regular had painted a colourful scene on the west brick wall featuring
a jungle scene with tiger, lion and elephant.
On 13 September 1999 there was a
party at the pub to celebrate the 25th anniversary of CAMRA,
(Campaign for Real Ale, Brighton and South Downs branch). Harveys of Lewes
produced a bottled beer with a commemorative label and there was anniversary
ale from Dark Star Brewery too. In 2002 the Stanley Arms was awarded
CAMRA’s Pub of the Year title.
Pubs have a long history of
raising money for charity and in 2001 the Stanley Arms raised some
£4,000 for charity.
After running the pub for five
years Roy and Pat Bond decided to sell up. They asked one of their regulars,
Steve Bennett if he might be interested in taking it over and the purchase was
made in September 2002. The Bennetts then moved in; the family consisting of
Steve and his wife Barbara, daughter Sam and sons Russell and Steven. It seemed
like all hands to the pump.
However, running an independent
pub is no easy task these days. Although so many Portslade pubs have gone and
so there is less competition on that score, there are many modern factors to consider.
A landlord can no longer rest his elbows on the counter and wait for the
customers to roll in; instead patronage has to be constantly sought. One
innovation at the Stanley Arms that has proved popular is cellar night,
which is held every two weeks on a Monday evening.
Independent family businesses
cannot compete in pricing with the big boys, which is one reason the ‘indies’
have to work so hard. Steve Bennett wrote a letter to the Argus with a
summary of his outgoings. Although he owned the freehold, he had to fork out
£900 a month in business rates, Sky TV cost him £1,000 a month and the
electricity bill was £400 a month. Perhaps it was all too much. He announced
his pub was up for sale. After several months on the market a sale was going
through but the Bennetts decided not to proceed with it.
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| copyright © J.Middleton These Morris dancers went through their paces outside the Stanley Arms on 31 May 2006 bringing a touch of traditional colour and music with them. |
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| copyright © J.Middleton Lady Morris dancers outside the Stanley Arms on 31 May 2006 |
Update
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| Harvey's of Lewes badge on the wall of The Stanley, with the Sussex 'motto' - We Wunt Be Druv |
The
owner had been trying to sell the pub as a going concern for some time,
but there were no takers, while waiting in the wings there were
probably eager developers wanting to turn the premises into residential
properties.
Finally,
on 24 October 2018 an on-line auction was held to settle the matter;
the winners were business partners Ashley Grout and Elizabeth Boucher –
both of them having been regular customers for years who did not want
the community to lose such a valuable asset. The auction was a
nail-biting experience for them, especially when just three minutes
before the auction ended, someone else put in a bid that was close to
their own maximum bid. When their bid won, there were mixed emotions of
euphoria plus the worry of what on earth they had done. It is
re-assuring to note that locals were very grateful for their action.
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| copyright © M. Horscroft The Stanley Arms in 2020 with its new pub sign |
The Stanley re-opened
under their management on 9 November 2018 as a free house with an
emphasis on locally-brewed ales, of which they were both fans.
Apparently, the outside sign had been missing for some years but has now
been restored. For Ashley Grout it seems that running a pub is in his
genes because his grandparents ran a pub in Hampshire, and he has many
fond childhood memories of the place.
For information on the regular events held in the pub, see 'The Stanley Arms Facebook' page
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| copyright © Mr A. Grout (of The Stanley Arms) A section of the Stanley Arms' outside entertainment area, backed by a colourful mural depicting the famous meeting between Henry Stanley and Dr Livingstone in 1871. (Mural by the artist - 'Aroe') |
For information on the regular events held in the pub, see 'The Stanley Arms Facebook' page
Sources
Argus
Argus 5 January 2019 / 11 January 2019
Brighton Graphic 2 September 1915
Directories
Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade
Mr. A. Grout (of The Stanley Arms)
Mr G. Osborne
Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
Copyright
© J.Middleton 2015
page layout and additional research by D.Sharp