Ship Ahoy, Tollesbury. Gowers Postcard No.243 posted before 1910.
The 17th Century inn was formerly named 'The Crooked Billet', then variously as 'The Hoy' and the 'Ship Ahoy'. It was closed after the First World War. Once part of the Guisnes Court estate, it was a rendezvous for smugglers with their illicit cargoes.
The building, along with Old Hall marshes, is now owned by RSPB, bought as a result of the Eric Morecambe Memorial Appeal in 1985. Old Hall, Tollesbury.
Ann Jones wrote (May 2014):
This was the home where my Great Grandfather Richard Banyard grew up. He was born in 1865. His parents were Richard Banyard and mother Sarah maiden name Walford, who also lived in Tollesbury. Young Richard was 8 when his mother died, and 14 when his father died in 1879 so we have not yet checked the census as to whether his father had already left the pub when he died. We do know that young Richard went to live with his uncle John Banyard who we think was a grocer in Tollesbury.
Photograph used in Tollesbury Past by Keith Lovell, plate 62.

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Recollections from Fred Garrod

Date: Before 1910