Ship

There's an easy-going atmosphere and a friendly welcome from the pleasant staff in this 16th-c pub. The ground floor is all opened up, from the sunny big-windowed front part to a snugger part at the back, with a log fire in the stripped-brick fireplace below a stuffed boar's head, and a feeling of separate areas is enhanced by the varied flooring: composition, stripped boards, flagstones, a bit of carpet in the armchair corner. There are beams and timbers, a mixed bag of rather second-hand-feeling furnishings - a cosy group of overstuffed leather armchairs and sofa, random stripped or Formica-topped tables and various café chairs – that suit it nicely, as do the utilitarian bulkhead wall lamps. Harveys Best and a couple of local guest beers such as Old Dairy Blue Top and Whitstable Oyster Stout on handpump, local farm cider and perry, and lots of wines by the glass; piped music and board games. Out by the quiet lane are picnic-sets and one or two cheerful oilcloth-covered tables.