The Chequers Inn, Smarden
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The Chequers Inn is a public house in the village of Smarden in Kent. It has been listed Grade II on the National Heritage List for England since February 1967.[1] It was built in the 16th-century and is timber framed. It was subsequently refronted in red brick and features extensive weatherboarding.[1]
The 1886 Memories of Smarden' by Rev. Francis Haslewood relates an incident in which a gang of smugglers held a gun to the head of an excise officer who entered the Chequers and demanded their surrender before riding off.[2] The Chequers is one of a number of pubs where the ghost of highwayman Dick Turpin and his horse Black Bess have allegedly been sighted.[3] In 1886 the Court Nil Desperandum society of the Ancient Order of Forresters were registered at the pub and had 90 members.[4]
The sign of the Chequers Inn was traditionally garlanded with leaves and berries from Torminalis glaberrima, a tree popularly known as the Chequers tree, every autumn.[5]
In 2024 permission was granted by Ashford Borough Council to turn the Chequers Inn into a single-family residence.[6]