The Fox Tavern, in Gosport, will celebrate its 290th anniversary on Saturday (14th November) and licensees Peter Street and Chantelle Cheshire are throwing a party.
The event will include a time capsule with pictures and memoirs from customers, a comment book, and live music.
There will be competitions, such as one raising money for the charity Save a Warrior UK. And Admiral Taverns is putting £1,000 tab behind the bar. This means means £1 off all pints and house doubles.
The Fox is grade II listed and reportedly the oldest pub in Gosport, with famous past drinkers including Admiral Lord Nelson. Historically a Naval pub, it is rumoured that the cellars hid a secret passage where rum was smuggled through for sailors to drink.
The pub has a list of some of its landlords going back a few hundred years. More recently, during the second world war, a local was returning home from the pub with a jug of beer in each hand when they were shot out of his hands! Luckily, they survived.
“In today’s day and age we are delighted that the Fox Tavern has reached its 290th birthday,” said Street. “Over the years the pub has gone through lots of change, but having been at the pub for a few months now we felt it was only fitting for us to hold a big birthday party to mark the occasion.
“We’re looking forward to people coming down to the pub, and our time capsule will hopefully provide an interesting record of the pub for people to look back on.”
