The Shrew Beshrewed
© P.E. Blanche 1998

This most peculiar Pub name relates to the habit, at one time, of placing nagging or scolding women in a chair and ducking them in the river! There was, until quite recently, an example of a "ducking chair" in the nearby Town of Fordwich which was how the name was derived. Of course, it had not been used for many years. There is still an example of such a chair over the River Stour in Canterbury which can be seen from the King's Bridge. I am nowhere near brave enough to say anything about the rights or the wrongs of this practice!

The Pub was closed several years ago and is now a used car dealership. It stands just to the West of the Village of Hersden, once mainly a mining community where many of the men were employed at the now closed, Chislet colliery. Although many local men eventually found work in the Kent coalfields, there were also many that came from Wales and the North of England to work here. For genealogists, this is one of the villages where that stray family might be found.