The King’s Head
Grade II listed · 17th and 18th century · Tollesbury’s last pub
The King’s Head has stood on the west side of the Square since the 17th century – a timber-framed building of 17th and 18th-century construction, now Grade II listed, with chamfered beams and jowled posts of the original structure still intact behind the later alterations.
It was traditionally the seafarers’ pub – the place where skippers and yacht hands drank between seasons. When Tollesbury was building its reputation as the finest source of yacht crews on the East Coast, it was here that the Tollesbury Yacht Skippers Club met. Races were organised from this corner of the Square. News came here first.
If you got drunk in this pub in 1750, you might have woken up in the village lock-up across the road. It’s still there – tucked into the corner of the churchyard behind the bushes. See if you can spot it.
In 1902, during extensive alterations, builders working in the attic found parts of a copy of the Great Bible of 1540 – Henry VIII’s authorised English Bible, the first to be printed in England and distributed to every parish church. How pages of it came to be hidden in the rafters of a pub in Tollesbury is not recorded.
At its peak the village had six public houses. The King’s Head, the Hope Inn, the Plough and Sail, the Victoria and others are all gone now as pubs – though several of the buildings survive. The Victoria on West Street is still clearly recognisable from its original shopfront, now in other use. The King’s Head is the only one still pulling pints.
One more thing: in 1851, this pub was where the inquest was held into the murder of Mrs Cobb of East Street, wife of a Tollesbury dredgerman. The village was convinced it knew who did it. The jury at Chelmsford disagreed. Listen to the audio for the full story.