A big pub in a small village.

The building started life as an isolated thatched barn in an field far from what was to become south Ferring as this map of the mid 1800s attests. The building is thought to be much older. Clearly the east wing was a much later adition.

It is said to have  become home for Composer Paul Reubens, (b.1875 to 1917), who wrote material for the Victorian and Edwardian musical stage.

Sometime later it became a school.

Friary Brewery applied to the annual licensing sessions at Arundel in February to remove the licence from the Gardeners Arms (Wick, Littlehampton) and transfer it to the 'Tudor Close Hotel' in Ferring. The Wick pub, having suffered bomb damage during the war.

Plans for the new Ferring Hotel had been provisionally approved in March the year before. The brewery admitted that although building work was not yet completed, it could be open by Easter.

The justices were not empowered to grant such a transfer if, at the time of the application, the premises were not ready. The applicant later stated that the bar section could open immediately. The application was granted.

1988, From a review by the Worthing Herald: The Tudor Close reopened after a closure for refitting, which included opening up the old staff quarters to create a gallery restaurant with a majestic staircase overlooking the whole of the original barn area.

The building had been a barn dating back hundreds of years and still had its original timbers and flint walls. Licensees Clive and Jenny Brown had been there for the past 12 years. The public house had two restaurants.

Pictured, Clive and Jenny.

Residents of Ferring were up in arms in March 2002 when Licensees, Clive and Jenny Brown, applied for the construction of three large bungalows to be built in the pub car park.

The main line of complaints is that it will reduce the pub's parking by 50%, forcing visitors to park in front of the shops and on local roads, leading to congestion and a possible loss of shop trade.

We know that two appeared later in one of the rear carparks. Google images from 2022 show construction work out front suggesting the whole pub was being converted into residential unit.

Time Line

A little bit more

???? - Home of Paul Reubens - composer
???? - School
WWII - Brigade HQ
1955 - George Carey to Ronald Birch
1947 - Open as a Public House
1950 - 1956 Alan Wyatt
1976 - Stan & Veronica Gosling (1 year only)
1977 - 1988 Clive & Jenny Brown