Castleton's Oak, Biddenden.
© P.E. Blanche 1999

About a mile outside the Village of Biddenden on a cross-roads lies the strangely named pub, Castleton's Oak. Now a Free House, it still has the windows originally supplied by Whitbread's when it was one of their chain of pubs.

This is my favourite story behind a pub name. Ebenezer Castleton was a local carpenter. On his 70th birthday, he heard that a huge oak had come down in a storm and he took sufficient wood from it to make himself a coffin, not wanting to end up in a pauper's grave. What dear old Ebenezer could not have foreseen was that he was destined to live for another 30 years before he actually had need of his handywork. Thankfully, other than a change in colour, this pub sign stays as it has been for many years with Ebenezer waiting on his oak coffin.

A quote on the back of the original Whitbread card states: