The above picture shows landlord Henry Okell Dadswell standing in the doorway supervising a beer delivery, sometime around 1930. He was landlord of the Grove Tavern for just over 50 years, from 1912 until 1963.

There are two trains of thought as to which is the oldest pub in Tunbridge Wells but both seem to agree that it's location would have been within this the 'village' area. Some believe the Compasses, just up the road from us to be the oldest (as proclaimed on a blackboard over the bar) but there are those of us who (correctly!) believe the Grove Tavern to be the holder of this title.

It is possible that this can be explained by the Grove Tavern having indeed been the first pub (under the guise of the Mount-Sion - see later) but that with some gaps in its subsequent history, it cannot be proven that it has always been thus. Therefore it could be possible to class the Compasses as the oldest continually running alehouse whilst leaving the Grove Tavern to be the first - and therefore oldest!

This explanation was that favoured and explained to the landlord by local historian Roger Farthing whilst researching his excellent book 'A History of Mount Sion'.