Qualla: Stag Inn, Hastings

Stag Inn, Hastings: Introduction

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Oast House Archive, CC BY-SA 2.0. Two mummified cats have been pinned to a wall of the Stag Inn since the 19th century, blackened by centuries of fireplace smoke and still on display to anyone who orders a pint. Local guides have suggested witchcraft as an explanation for the grisly find; the more prosaic likelihood is that they were placed into a wall cavity deliberately, an old English builder's charm against vermin and bad luck. Whatever the reason, the cats fit the building. The Stag claims to be Hastings's oldest surviving pub, sits on a raised pavement above the narrow valley road of All Saints Street, and conceals an Elizabethan timber frame inside a mid-Georgian plaster face.

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Image: Oast House Archive | CC BY-SA 2.0

Stag Inn, Hastings: The Valley Town

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nigel Chadwick, CC BY-SA 2.0. Hastings's first documented reference dates from 928, when it was already significant enough to be named. Two streams once ran down through the valley between the East and West Hills to meet the Channel, and the town had nowhere to grow but inward along the valley floor. Two para...

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Image: Nigel Chadwick | CC BY-SA 2.0

Stag Inn, Hastings: Smugglers and Three Ancient Inns

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jim Osley, CC BY-SA 2.0. The *Victoria County History of Sussex* records that only three ancient inns existed in Hastings in 1657. The Stag was one of them. For centuries Hastings was a centre of Channel smuggling, and the inn was reportedly used by smugglers in its early years - a logical bolthole for m...

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Image: Jim Osley | CC BY-SA 2.0

Stag Inn, Hastings: A New Face on an Old Frame

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Oast House Archive, CC BY-SA 2.0. In the mid-18th century the Stag was given the kind of facelift many Tudor buildings received in the Georgian era. The original upper storey jettied - hung out over the street - and the lower storey was built out to bring the elevation flush. New gables and a parapet were added t...

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Image: Oast House Archive | CC BY-SA 2.0

Stag Inn, Hastings: The Cats on the Wall

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nigel Chadwick, CC BY-SA 2.0. Two smoke-blackened mummified cats were found during 19th-century works on the building and mounted on display. Such finds are not unique to the Stag - dried cats have been pulled out of walls and roof spaces across England and northern Europe - and the explanation usually given ...

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Image: Nigel Chadwick | CC BY-SA 2.0

Stag Inn, Hastings: Still Pulling Pints

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The Voice of Hassocks, CC0. The Stag was listed Grade II by English Heritage on 19 January 1951, one of more than 500 Grade II buildings now protected in the borough of Hastings. It is operated as a tied house by the Shepherd Neame Brewery of Faversham, England's oldest brewer. The main bar sits at the fron...

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Image: The Voice of Hassocks | CC0