One of Kent’s longest-serving landladies is calling last orders after more than four decades behind the bar – saying “there’s no point” carrying on as trade dwindles.
Carol Morris, 77, has run The Malvern Inn in Clarendon Road for 43 years but says declining business has forced her to put the traditional backstreet pub on the market.
Carol Morris, the landlady of The Malvern Inn in Dover, has put the pub on the market
“Trade has gone downhill,” she said.
“You don’t even get youngsters coming here now. You open up for the day and you have three customers, and in the evenings it’s dead.
“I can’t carry on, there’s no point. It’s not making money.
“I don’t think the trade recovered after the pandemic lockdowns, and the smoking ban contributed further.
“Whoever buys it could continue to run it as a pub and make a go of it, but I’ve done my bit.”
Carol and Roger Morris, who ran the Malvern Inn together, in their early years together
Carol and her late husband Roger took over The Malvern Inn on February 8, 1982.
It was the first time they had become licensees, although they had experience working together at Roger’s parents’ pub, The Royal George in Folkestone.
The couple had married on April 10, 1965, when Mrs Morris was just 17, after meeting in Wales while Roger was serving in the RAF.
They settled in Folkestone before moving to Dover to take on The Malvern, going on to have four children – Vanessa, David, Roger and Kelly – as well as 20 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren.
In 2016, they bought the pub from the Shepherd Neame brewery, but in March 2021, Roger died aged 75 after battling cancer.
Since then, Carol has run the pub alone, helped by her family, but says she now plans to retire completely and remain in Dover to stay close to them.
Carol and Roger Morris bought the pub from Shepherd Neame in 2016
The Malvern Inn is one of the few remaining traditional community pubs in Dover and the only one left on the Clarendon and Westbury estate, which sits at the foot of the Western Heights hills.
The area once had several thriving watering holes – The Westbury Hotel, at the other end of Clarendon Place, closed by 2005, and The Engineer, at the bottom of Malvern Road, shut in April 2007. Both buildings have since been converted into housing.
Back in the 1980s, the neighbourhood was almost entirely self-contained, with streets full of small businesses including a hairdresser, corner shop, grocery store, butcher, launderette and church, meaning residents rarely needed to trek up the steep hill to reach the town centre.
“The place has changed so much since I came here,” Carol said.
“It was more of a community then. Now there is so much more rubbish on the street. Some people throw their waste over the fence onto the railway line. What’s that about?”
According to Dover Kent Archives, The Malvern Inn’s first licensee was William Jackson in July 1882, less than a decade after the Clarendon neighbourhood was first built.
Carol Morris in February 2022, on the 40th anniversary of her running the Malvern Inn in Dover
Dover’s longest-known serving publican was Jackie Bowles, who ran the Louis Armstrong in Maison Dieu Road for 57 years until her death in 2019.
The Malvern Inn – a three-storey, five-bedroom property – is now on the market with a guide price of £325,000 freehold and is being marketed by specialist pub estate agents Sidney Phillips.
After more than 40 years behind the bar, Carol says she will miss the people most of all.
“I have regulars who come in who make me cheerful, and I make them cheerful,” she said.