or was it the Red Lion?
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1. Is there any other place where, in order to enter a church, one may first have to enter
the adjoining public house? If the church at Paddlesworth is locked, the key may be obtained from the "Red Lion"
a few yards away where it hangs on a board beneath an appropriate jingle. In fact the public house is generally
known as "The Cat".
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2. We are told that the old "Red Lion" signboard was blown from the branch of a tree from
which it hung many years ago.
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3. A new board was needed and the village artist obliged.
The new signboard was painted in gorgeous colours. The lion was depicted with "fierce sprouting whiskers, his ears
pricked and having boiling eyes." The villagers assembled to gaze at the work of art and all declared that the
artist had not drawn a lion but a sprawling cat! Unfortunately the work of art is untraceable.
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4. As it is now, "The Cat" was a very popular hostelry. Folk gathered to play
"skittle alley", "goal running", "Jennyplus", and to fly kites. We read of cricket weeks and of harvest home
suppers when the "famous beef puddings of Mrs. Dixon were devoured with zeal by the sons of the plough and other
farm hands." After this a piano was brought in and singing began - some countrymen songs being 40 or more
verses long.
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5. At one time the East Kent Foxhounds met at "The Cat and the Mustard Pot", as it
was called in the well known sporting volumes of Yorricks. The explanation for the name "The Cat" we accept,
but we find no satisfactory origin for "The Cat and the Mustard Pot". We find this name in newspapers at the
turn of the century, yet later it became "The Cat and Custard Pot." What was the reason? Just mispelling?
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