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Detail Pages
Red Lion, Romney Marsh
Snargate
Postal town: Romney Marsh
TN29 9UQ
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 9½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Blue Scrumpy left this review about Red Lion
This country pub set in Kent marshland has long been one I've been looking forward to visit. When the day finally came, it did not disappoint.
The building looks a bit ramshackle with plenty of foliage hanging over it and what looks like a derelict outbuilding to the right-hand side having a 'Ladies' sign on it. Poor ladies! We never did locate the gents.
Inside, there are 3 small rooms. The main bar area is to the left, with a room just behind and the third room off to the right. The marble bar top is mounted by 4 antique handpulls that apparently have never been used, but are nevertheless originals. Given that they were the wrong side of a perspex screen from the server, they won't be used anytime soon. All 4 handpulls were clipped to show the beers to those entering the pub.
Goacher's Fine Light Ale & Old 1066 Ale were the 2 beer options. Cider was Nightingale Tenterden Cider, Kent Cider Company Henderson's Rhubarb Cider & Merry Moon Strawberry & Thyme Cider. All are served direct from the cask, with ciders dispensed from boxes on the bar top.
The walls are lined with old posters and pictures, giving the pub a bit of a cluttered feel, in a positive way. One corner of the main bar area was being used for various tourist pamphlets advertising local points of interest, which gives you an idea of the typical custom the pub gets. Indeed, there were just a couple of elderly locals in one corner, a couple from Lichfield on holiday in another corner, with ourselves getting warm from the open fire. This is the sort of pub where everybody can engage in friendly conversation, without any TVs, music, fruit machines or the like.
The pub has been owned by the same family for over a century and the current landlady clearly has many stories to tell whilst you enjoy your drink.
Long may pubs like this one survive. For me, they are great way of stepping back in time to see how we used to live and how those locals lucky enough still do!
On 20th January 2022
- rating: 9
[User has posted 2452 recommendations about 2451 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about Red Lion
After a couple of abortive attempts down the years, I finally made it out to this long-term target pub, located on the rather bleak (extremely bleak on the foul day I arrived) marshes of Southern Kent. The pub is comprised of two old cottages knocked together to form a three room layout which has only seen minimal alterations over the years. You enter into the left hand side of the building, which is the main bar area. It’s a bare boarded room with a small, candy-cane paint scheme servery on the left hand wall. Some smashing old wooden beams run across the sagging ceiling, a brick fireplace stands on the wall opposite the bar looking like it might still be the pub’s only heat source, chairs without tables line the perimeter walls and an old banknote collection can be seen pinned to the ceiling. As you might expect of a traditional Kentish house, hops line many of the walls and there is also an ancient looking cash register on the bar and an interesting collection of WWII memorabilia on the walls, the latter courtesy of the pub’s former landlady, Doris Jemison, who served in the Women's Land Army in the war and whose family have run the pub for over 100 years. Unusually, at the end of the bar, there is a merchandise stand selling local beer and produce plus a few Red Lion themed bits – an indication that this pub is a genuine tourist attraction, pulling in punters from all over the UK and beyond. The rear wall is liberally plastered with old Good Beer Guide stickers and CAMRA certificates, all attesting to the pub’s commitment to providing great beer as well as an interesting heritage interior. A door beyond the servery leads through to a rear room, also bare boarded, with some benches serving a few long tables under muted lighting with more hops and traditional rural-themed paintings on display. An upright piano stands at the front of the room, beneath an obscured window lined with all sort of stuff including cuddly toys, horse brasses, various models and the like. A passageway opposite the bar, lined with old newspaper articles and pub photos, leads through to the games room which has tiled flooring and two long tables with bench seating. Traditional pub games such as table skittles and toad in the hole were being enjoyed by a family group on my visit and I think I spotted a dartboard too. There is a nice fireplace to one side of the room and a hatch on the end wall, which perhaps dates back to the time when this part of the pub was used as some sort of village store.
There are some nice old handpulls on the bar counter, but all the beer seems to come straight from the barrel, with options on this visit comprising Goachers Mild, DSB (the pub’s house beer) and Gold Star, plus a real cider, with a few more ciders available from boxes further along the bar. The Mild was fantastic and I enjoyed sitting in this main bar room listening to the great chat between the locals and some folk visiting the area and taking in all the interesting bits around the pub.
This is a great pub that really rewards those who make the effort to get all the way out here to visit. The interior is so well preserved it was easy to imagine what a busy evening would’ve looked like in here decades ago and the breadth of material collected throughout the pub makes repeat visits a must. The unkempt nature of such an unspoilt interior may be off-putting to some, but this is a must-visit place for anyone interested in historic pubs.
On 3rd July 2019
- rating: 9
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Will Larter left this review about Red Lion
Good to see the pub open again, though sadly the long-time landlady died earlier this year. It remains in the family and from previous descriptions, nothing else appears to have changed - bar a few photos of Doris displayed in the main room. There are four real ales and a cider served directly from the barrels behind the bar, among which I was pleased to see Goachers Fine Light and Real Mild. We arrived towards the end of the afternoon session, so couldn't stop long, but we promised ourselves a second visit (we were staying at Newchurch, a few miles away). Unfortunately the pub is closed between 3pm and 7pm and we never quite managed to be sober enough after our evening meal to make it - or at least, to make it there and back safely.
Date of visit: 31 August 2016
On 21st October 2016
- rating: 8
[User has posted 3745 recommendations about 3482 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about Red Lion
Thankfully this pub remains unchanged since previous reviewers' visits; indeed I don't reckon it's changed in the past 100 years, let alone the handful of years covering the previous reviews. In fact it's been in the ownership of the same family (the Jemisons) since 1911, and this has no doubt been the reason why it has not been interfered with over the years. When we were in on Sunday lunchtime Doris Jemison was sitting in the bar, chatting with chums and letting a couple of youngsters manage the bar - and who can blame her? There's a mass of miscellaneous and some times positively bizarre bric a brac all over the place (and too diverse to describe adequately), including traditional pub games in the room on the right that used to be a shop until the 1970s.
As you might expect, it is Grade II listed, and is of course on CAMRA's National Inventory of pubs with unspoilt interiors. There are handpumps on the bar counter, and although they are clipped, they haven't been used for many years and are seemingly now used to advertise the ales that are available on gravity dispense. We had a green hop ale from Tonbridge Brewery, which was in excellent nick and very welcome on a mild and sunny October afternoon.
This is another destination pub. There really is little other reason to visit Snargate. If you are the sort of person who appreciates traditional pubs serving decent ale, then if you can get here you won't be disappointed.
On 13th October 2015
- rating: 10
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Aqualung . left this review about Red Lion
I first discovered this place back in the mid 1980s as part of a reprehensibly shambolic cycle tour of pubs serving Biddendon Cider.
The only real difference between then and now is that the beer has a higher profile as I think there was just one or possibly two beers then.
Visiting this pub is like being taken back in time by Doctor Who or visiting the set of a period drama.
With the demise of Ridleys, King & Barnes and Brakspear there are very few unspoilt country pubs left in the South and this is arguably the best one. Having visited the Spoons near Eastbourne station on the way down the contrast could not have been greater.
On my visit there were three beers on and a medium Double Vision cider. The three beers were Goacher's Light & Imperial Stout and Westerham Special Reserve. All three were in good condition and served straight from the cask. They were all £3.00 a pint which is only 10p dearer than the Long Man beer tried a couple of hours earlier in the Eastbourne Spoons. The 7.4% cider was £3.30.
The only minus point is that it shuts at 15:00 even on a Saturday, but to be fair they didn't have any staff other than the mother and daughter. The stroppy teenager from my past visits appears to be running the pub now.
There seems to be some confusion about how far it is to walk from Appledore Station. In my opinion it's a "long" mile.
If you haven't visited here yet then what are you waiting for?
On 8th June 2014
- rating: 10
[User has posted 2143 recommendations about 2143 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
. Wittenden left this review about The Red Lion
Doris’s, a thankfully unchanging pub on the Rhee Wall in Romney Marsh. I hadn’t been in for about twenty years before passing one sunny February Saturday lunchtime. I was welcomed by the company, and respectfully took my place to one side of the fire in the bar. The other two rooms were unoccupied. (When I first visited ,the room to the right was some kind of shop.)
Others have spoken of the timelessness and uniqueness of the Red Lion: here, for once, these qualities are not forced ,not some sleight of designers’ hand, but the result of generations of use and affection.
As a free house Doris’s stocks some interesting beers-I think lager and keg are noted for their absence. Locally, it is noted as a source of my favourite Goacher’s ales, and I was pleased to see their Mild, Gold Star and Imperial Stout available on gravity, together with Double Vision Cider. I gather the regular beer festivals are worth finding.
A pub in a million, far from the dead hand of corporate Britain: a marvel.
On 10th April 2013
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 283 recommendations about 282 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve Thorpe left this review about The Red Lion
Not much more to add really apart from the one mile walk from Appledore is a little misleading as I'm sure its at least double that but don't let that put you off. Go - you really must!
On 2nd September 2010
- rating: 10
[User has posted 130 recommendations about 126 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
E TA left this review about The Red Lion
This traditional Kentish country pub is one of a rare breed, an endangered species. It is a small independent locals' pub with charm, history and personality in every corner, unspoilt by contemporary pressure. The larger room was empty when I went in which left the main bar with me and 4 others in it. I was welcomed into the conversation by the regulars and left feeling that I'd had a great experience. I stuck to the Goachers Mild, which was excellent, but there were 2 other beers on which I will try next time I'm down this way. Thoroughly recommended.
On 12th March 2010
- rating: 9
[User has posted 3285 recommendations about 3250 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
john mcgraw left this review about The Red Lion
This is a classic pub where time has stood still.No musak,no machines and no food, just good beer and conversation.One very small front bar with a couple of equally small seperate drinking rooms with one being dedicated to the land army.There are several real ales on gravity and a couple of ciders straight from the cask.This pub is a gem and I believe it is on the CAMRA Inventory list of pubs.One mile walk from Appledore railway station.Not to be missed.
On 8th September 2009
- rating: 10
[User has posted 2044 recommendations about 2025 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Red Lion
This is a unique and special place which I won't try to describe - just go and see for yourself... PS - The Goachers Imperial Stout has been called "sublime", but I have to say that I thought it was rather better than that!
On 27th March 2009
- rating: 9
[User has posted 8117 recommendations about 8117 pubs]