The Chaser Inn

 

The Chaser Inn at Shipbourne takes its name from the pub's long association with the Fairlawne racing stable where the late Peter Cazalet trained steeplechasers for the Queen Mother and other leading owners. But it did not start as The Chaser. It was built as the New Inn in 1880 by Edward Cazalet when he bought the Fairlawne Estate after retiring in his forties from the family business in Russia.

He at once set about modernising the village, pulling down the rather elaborate Italianate church (circa 1772) and the adjoining ancient Bull Inn, where for centuries local affairs had been decided by a manorial court.

He upset the villagers with the speed of his changes, but pressed on, replacing the old smithy with new cottages, building a new church in the sturdy English style, then the New Inn next door. Local organisations used to meet in the pub's Club Room (now the main restaurant) and stirrup cups were served to the West Kent Hunt until traffic took over the main road. The New Inn remained closed on Sundays in deference to the proximity of the church for some 80 years until the 1960s.

The staff at the Fairlawne stables were regulars at the New Inn/The Chaser and the pub shared in the stable's successes, and occasional heartbreaks, as when the Queen Mother's Devon Loch fell on the home straight in the Grand National in 1956. Peter Cazalet, the Guvnor to everyone who worked for him, saddled his 1000th winner before he was sixty and was champion trainer three times.

As owner of the pub he agreed a change of name to The Chaser in 1963, and a sign showing a leaping horse with the jockey in Fairlawne colours. The strong link between the Fairlawne stable and The Chaser continued until 1973 when the stables closed after Peter Cazalet died.