Rudgwick’s past, present and future

The King’s Head, Rudgwick

The King’s Head is an iconic building both now and in the history of the village. Rudgwick is fortunate in its choice of pubs. Although the Queen’s Head is long gone and the Thurlow Arms closed, there are still five in the parish. RPS supports these with our Summer walks programme, but as always, ‘use it or lose it’.

The King’s Head is in Church Street, right by the church. When you visit the King’s Head, look for the inscribed bricks on the right, simply saying ‘Jenkins 1826’. Richard Jenkins, a shopkeeper, acquired the land and a ‘Fair Hovel’ in 1733. The latter was where the ‘standings, boards and fair stuff’ for the Rudgwick Fair were stored. This fair took place for centuries in the vicinity every year on the Monday after the feast of the Holy Trinity. The first documented reference to a pub however is not until 1799 when the vestry meeting adjourned to ‘the sign of the King’s Head’. By 1840 it was in the hands of John Jenkins, a descendent of Richard. The steps up to the door, pictured during the time when Kate May was landlady (below), are still there today.

The site is small, so the pub is unusually long and narrow, and stands between the road and the churchyard (seen through the open door in this photograph). It is believed Jenkins built the house (with its cellar at ground level at one end because of the slope of the land) to replace the hovel and provide storage in the cellar, now the pub kitchen, as he had ‘the liberty and privilege at the time of the Fair to be holden at Rudgwick in setting up the standings as usual’. 

Much of the present building is a later extension southwards. Perhaps its setting in the old part of the village and its ambience inside, including timber partitioning, suggest an older building than the 18th century.