High Street, Poole, Dorset
The King’s Head (6 High Street) was previously called the Plume of Feathers which can be traced back to 1678 but it may be much earlier, it is the second or the oldest public house in Poole that is still operating. The building was built, or rebuilt, about the same time as the Antelope Inn, some time in the fifteenth century. It may even have originally been the Feathers Inn, which is mentioned in an ancient record, and if this could be proved it would pre-date the Spanish attack on Poole in 1405 by Don Pero Niño.
The King’s Head was involved in the smuggling trade for in 1678 the Customs Collector for Poole was dismissed for fraud whilst collaborating with a gang named after its leader, John Carter, a local merchant. The Carter gang wore masks, carried swords and generally terrorized the local inhabitants. They were known to use the King’s Head to hide their goods.
In 1877 the King’s Head was offered for sale as a free house and was purchased by Hall and Woodhouse. The inside of the building has been re-modelled and refitted many times and has lost most of its medieval appearance. The front wall which is made with stone, was re-faced in brick in the eighteenth century, this wall today is nearly 24 inches thick, the roof timbers are still the originals, and are of the same pattern as Scaplen’s Court next door. In 1954, when building work was taking place, in one of the rear rooms which still has an original square pattern plaster enriched sixteenth centery ceiling, a void was found in the walls of the room, and at first it was believed to be a Priest Hole, but it was later found be a consequence of re-building, hiding the remains of a spiral passageway which led to the first floor from the bar room downstairs. Today the plaster on the wall, in the upstairs room has been removed reviling the original medieval stone work and what remains of the stone spiral stair in the wall. The 1979 renovations revealed several stained glass window pains and the glass used is believed to be smoked cathedral glass which today is irreplaceable; the windows were saved and used in the front door, in a following renovation they were removed, and now are presumed to be lost.
Other pieces of very old clear glass, and two remaining pieces of stained glass were incorporated in a door which covers the entrance to the spiral stair. The two stained glass pains are signed and dated one with the inscription, William Milner Juniors November 8 Custom 1738 House Poole. The other is signed J Bristow 1789.
The inn sign shows Henry VIII who is said to have stayed at the King’s Head when visiting Brownsea Island to view the building of its fort. It was also the favourite drinking house of Augustus John, the leading portrait painter of the 1920s, whose sitters included Thomas Hardy, T.E. Lawrence and George Bernard Shaw.
A Dickinson Robinson Group product by J Arthur Dixon, Tel 0983 523381.
The front card is postmarked Bourneouth-Poole, 1988, the one behind is postally unused.
High Street, Poole, Dorset
The King’s Head (6 High Street) was previously called the Plume of Feathers which can be traced back to 1678 but it may be much earlier, it is the second or the oldest public house in Poole that is still operating. The building was built, or rebuilt, about the same time as the Antelope Inn, some time in the fifteenth century. It may even have originally been the Feathers Inn, which is mentioned in an ancient record, and if this could be proved it would pre-date the Spanish attack on Poole in 1405 by Don Pero Niño.
The King’s Head was involved in the smuggling trade for in 1678 the Customs Collector for Poole was dismissed for fraud whilst collaborating with a gang named after its leader, John Carter, a local merchant. The Carter gang wore masks, carried swords and generally terrorized the local inhabitants. They were known to use the King’s Head to hide their goods.
In 1877 the King’s Head was offered for sale as a free house and was purchased by Hall and Woodhouse. The inside of the building has been re-modelled and refitted many times and has lost most of its medieval appearance. The front wall which is made with stone, was re-faced in brick in the eighteenth century, this wall today is nearly 24 inches thick, the roof timbers are still the originals, and are of the same pattern as Scaplen’s Court next door. In 1954, when building work was taking place, in one of the rear rooms which still has an original square pattern plaster enriched sixteenth centery ceiling, a void was found in the walls of the room, and at first it was believed to be a Priest Hole, but it was later found be a consequence of re-building, hiding the remains of a spiral passageway which led to the first floor from the bar room downstairs. Today the plaster on the wall, in the upstairs room has been removed reviling the original medieval stone work and what remains of the stone spiral stair in the wall. The 1979 renovations revealed several stained glass window pains and the glass used is believed to be smoked cathedral glass which today is irreplaceable; the windows were saved and used in the front door, in a following renovation they were removed, and now are presumed to be lost.
Other pieces of very old clear glass, and two remaining pieces of stained glass were incorporated in a door which covers the entrance to the spiral stair. The two stained glass pains are signed and dated one with the inscription, William Milner Juniors November 8 Custom 1738 House Poole. The other is signed J Bristow 1789.
The inn sign shows Henry VIII who is said to have stayed at the King’s Head when visiting Brownsea Island to view the building of its fort. It was also the favourite drinking house of Augustus John, the leading portrait painter of the 1920s, whose sitters included Thomas Hardy, T.E. Lawrence and George Bernard Shaw.
A Dickinson Robinson Group product by J Arthur Dixon, Tel 0983 523381.
The front card is postmarked Bourneouth-Poole, 1988, the one behind is postally unused.