This website is currently in beta. If you wish to go back to the current site please click here. To provide feedback or find out more about this site, please click here.

Pubs & Clubs
Events
Beers & Breweries
Pubs & Clubs
Events
Beers & Breweries
Join Us
Good Beer Guide
Heritage Pub

Red Lion, Snargate

Snargate, TN29 9UQ (Directions)
No email address
No website available
Improve This Listing

Superb, unspoilt, multi-room 16th century smugglers' pub which has been in the same family for over 100 years and a continuous GBG entry for over 40 years. The pub passed to the next generation in April 2016 but is still universally known as Doris's.

Decorated with posters from the 1940s and the Women's Land Army, it has a nationally important historic pub interior. It is on the road which separates Walland Marsh from Romney Marsh between Brenzett and Appledore.

Although ancient hand pumps adorn the marble topped bar counter, these are not in use and all ales and cider are served on direct gravity dispense from casks behind the bar. Food is limited to basic bar snacks.

A beer festival is held in June over the nearest weekend to the Summer Solstice with a mini festival in October around Halloween. Cash and card payment accepted here.

Historic Interest

CAMRA National Inventory

Information for this venue is provided by the Ashford Folkestone & Romney Marsh Branch of CAMRA
Previous Names
Shepherd & Lamb
Premises Comment
Operator
Independent
Local Authority
Folkestone and Hythe District
Last updated
07/03/2024
Last surveyed
22/07/2021
Pub ID
ASH/4042
Asset of Community Value

Three star - A pub interior of outstanding national historic importance

Listed status: II

A great rural classic, run by the Jemison family since 1911. A century ago the pub consisted of just a small public bar (left) and a tap room (right). The former retains its old counter with, unusually, a white marble top on which is a pewter housing for a set of four hand-pumps dating back to 1870 (but unused as beer is now drawn from casks behind the bar). Three walls of this room have boarded panelling. Beyond the partition at the back is a second room, formerly living quarters, but part of the pub since the 1990s when the screen was moved further back. After the Second World War the tap room was converted into a shop which survived until 1974. In the early 1980s it was brought back into pub use with a new quarry-tiled floor and is now a room for games which includes toad in the hole and table skittles. You can’t miss the extensive World War II memorabilia: this pub was situated in a militarily sensitive area at that time. Good old-fashioned outside loos.

General information about historic pub interiors

A rare survivor - completely unspoilt with no modern trappings. Part 17th-, part 19th-century cottages with two public rooms. It has been in the hands of the Jemison family since 1911 and is beautifully run. Nineteenth-century facade to perhaps with eighteenth-century or earlier work behind. The left-hand part has the servery (with white marble top and pewter casing for the hand-pump stand) and another room behind. Lots of Second World War memorabilia and interesting pub games.

The pub originally consisted of the small public bar on the left and a tap room on the right. The dimly lit little-altered bare boarded bar on the left with '1' on the door retains its old wooden counter with a marble top and a set of four hand-pumps (on a pewter housing) dating from 1870 but last used 90 years ago: all the beer is now drawn from casks behind the bar. There are old bar shelves, tongue-and-grooved panelling and a brick fireplace which was replaced in 1936. The part-glazed partition at the rear which is hooked onto the beam was until the c.1984 some three feet closer to the front of the pub i.e. hanging from a different beam and abutting the counter. It has a door numbered '2' but is always open. Beyond the partition is a bare wood small room, formerly living quarters.

On the right is the tap room, which, after the Second World War, was converted into a shop that survived until 1974. In the early 1980s it was reopened with a new quarry-tiled floor and is now a room for games are played, including toad in the hole and table skittles. It has a door from the entrance lobby with a '3' on it and in a bare wood passage at the rear: there is another door with a sliding hatch.

General information about historic pub interiors
Premium Access Required

You must be a Digital Subscriber or CAMRA Member to be able to view specially curated GBG descriptions

Premium Access Required
Seen some incorrect or missing details? Improve this listing.
Opening
Monday
Closed
Tuesday
Noon-15:00 & 18:00-21:00
Wednesday
Noon-15:00 & 18:00-21:00
Thursday
Noon-15:00 & 18:00-21:00
Friday
Noon-15:00 & 18:00-21:00
Saturday
Noon-15:00 & 18:00-21:00
Sunday
Noon-15:00 & 18:00-21:00
Spotted an error with the opening times? Let us know

Current beers

This Pub serves 3 changing beers and 1 regular beer. Usually one or two others from local brewers

Regular and recently seen

Red Lion, Snargate

Add it to our list and share what's currently being served!.
Are you a CAMRA member? Contribute by submitting a beer score
Spot a Beer
Submit beer score
Do you know what Regular beers or changing beers this Pub serves? Let us know
Your scores
Join CAMRA to access beer scoring and view scores for other pubs.
Become a member.
Retrieving scores
You have no beer scores submitted.

Facilities
Garden Garden
Parking Parking
Dog Friendly Dog Friendly
Games Games
Includes Toad in the Hole, Bagatelle, Table Skittles inside and Bat & Trap outside
Real Fire Real Fire
Features
Real Ale Real Ale
Real Cider Real Cider
Double Vision
Real Heritage Pub Real Heritage Pub
LocAle LocAle
Beer Festival Beer Festival
Held in June and October
Quiet Quiet
Transport
Close to bus routes (10m)
Stagecoach: 11B
Closest station (1700m)
Appledore (Kent)
Directions
On B2080, 1 mile Northwest of Brenzett
Are these pub facilities or features correct? Let us know

Nearby

View All
Black Lion, Appledore, Kent. (Pub, External, Key). Published on 28-07-2015
Black Lion
Real Ale Available
Pub
2.1 miles - 15 The Street, Appledore, TN26 2BU
Good Beer Guide
(External, Key). Published on 26-02-2016
Bell Inn
Real Ale Available | Real Cider Available
Pub
2.4 miles - Ashford Road, Ivychurch, TN29 0AL
(Pub, External, Key). Published on 31-05-2015
Woolpack Inn
Real Ale Available | Real Cider Available
Pub
2.5 miles - Church Lane, Warehorne, TN26 2LL
Woolpack Inn, Brookland. (Pub, External). Published on 12-11-2011
Woolpack Inn
Real Ale Available
Pub
2.6 miles - Beacon Lane, Brookland, TN29 9TJ
Ferry Inn, Stone in Oxney. (Pub, External). Published on 12-11-2011
Ferry Inn
Real Ale Available | Real Cider Available
Pub
3.0 miles - Appledore Road, Stone in Oxney, TN30 7JY
Dukes Head, Hamstreet. (Pub, External). Published on 12-11-2011
Dukes Head
Real Ale Available
Pub
3.1 miles - The Street, Hamstreet, TN26 2HE
Rose & Crown, Old Romney. (Pub, External). Published on 12-11-2011
Rose & Crown
Real Ale Available | Real Cider Available
Pub
3.3 miles - Swamp Road, Old Romney, TN29 9SQ
Star Inn, St Mary in The Marsh. (Pub, External, Key). Published on 13-11-2023
Star Inn
Real Ale Available
Pub
4.7 miles - St Mary in the Marsh, TN29 0BX
Pub front. (Pub, External, Key). Published on 01-12-2023
White Horse
Real Ale Available | Real Cider Available
Pub
4.8 miles - Ruckinge Road, Bilsington, TN25 7JX
Pub front Six Bells. (Pub, External, Key). Published on 01-12-2023
Six Bells
Real Ale Available
Pub
5.0 miles - Bethersden Road, Woodchurch, TN26 3QQ

The Good Beer Guide 2024

With an unmistakable cover design, we are excited to announce that the foreword for this year’s Good Beer Guide has been penned by Bruce Dickinson, frontman and lead singer of Iron Maiden. © Campaign for Real Ale – Bruce Dickinson...

Home
© Campaign for real ale 2023 - 2024