About The White Hart
In 1393, King Richard II decreed that pubs must have signs.
"Whoever shall brew ale in the town for the intention of selling it, must hang out a sign, otherwise he shall forfeit his ale."
The hart is a male deer and as the White Hart was the monarch's heraldic symbol so it made sense for the tavern keeper to show his allegiance. The golden collar that he wears stems from a legend as reported by Aristotle, that Diomedes consecrated a White Hart to the goddess Diana and placed a collar of gold around its neck. The same story has been told with different casts - Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great and Henri Coeur de Lion.
The current sign has been painted by a relative of the incumbent landlady. He was by trade a signwriter but turned his hand to a pictoral sign in the old traditional way. The Roses and Castle symbolise it's connections with the Canal.
An Inn has existed at New Haw Lock for over 200 years and there is record of it being licenced in 1787 - possibly for the first time.
The Canal had been built in 1651 and a bridge carried the track from the New Haw (Wharf) and Addlestone, over the water on the way to the old village of Byfleet.
At the time few people lived in the area - one or two farms, New Haw Farm, Wey Manor Moated Farm and some in the direction of Woodham, plus a few cottages in Coombe Lane, on the Canal Bank.
A former lock keeper Captain Tiny Harris 1959-1982 said the cottage is haunted, probably by a lock keepers wife, who was drowned in the water which flows behind the cottage and past the pub. On several occasions in the small hours he saw a long, shapeless mist passing through the kitchen at the back of the cottage. He said it was very cold and stank horribly.
A map of 1806 shows a building at the side of the Canal and no other nearby. This must have been the original pub. It was rebuilt on the previous site in 1855 as the census for the former years mentions only Mr William Newman, licenced Victualler, whilst the 1861 census shows the landlord as Mr Francis Groves, and a Mr James Bonsey, a pauper, resided with his family at the old White Hart, which we believe is now the Beer Cellar.
The Inn and the Lock with its attendant watersplash formed a picturesque corner of New Haw. The stories tell that during the 1920s gypsies patronised the pub when they came to the moated Farm, then a market garden, as itinerant labour and they ran donkey races over the bridge.
Past & Present Landlords
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1811 - 1824
John Ramtley
1825 - 1826
Thomas Webb
1841
John Smith
1845
Henry Soutton
1851
William Newman
1855
Walter Aylen
1861
Francis Groves
1867
Francis Groom
1870
Francis Coulton
1871 - 1882
Samuel Ported Sewell
1887
Thomas Kingston
1890
James Kingston
1892 - 1895
William John Hazell
1914 - 1938
Ernest Dean
1955 - 1980
Jack and Marjorie Tidbury
1980 - 1985
Courage Managed House
1985 - 1989
Tim and Jean Ferguson
1989 - 2014
John and Miriam Collins
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2014 - Present
Steve and Zoey Barnard