About the Cardinal’s Error

Summary of Beer Scores

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Website.

The pub is found in Tonbridge, Kent, TN9 2EP.

Only trading as a public house from 1946 to serve the surrounding post-war housing, the Cardinal’s Error, is a former 16th century farm cottage for Lodge Oak Farm. It has low oak beamed ceilings and a combination of oak and quarry tile floors on the inside and is tile-hung from the first floor on the outside. A sizeable brick chimney housing open fireplaces divides its two distinct drinking areas. On one side as you come in is a roaring log fire in the winter. It retains a sizeable garden for sitting in and a children’s playground. The building and land were acquired in 1946 by Frederick Lenny & Sons Ltd (trading as Phoenix Brewery). The licence was transferred from the old White Hart beer-house on Tonbridge High Street. Phoenix Brewery had been acquired by Whitbread & Co Ltd in 1927. In 1961 the properties were sold to Fremlins Ltd. It retains an old Fremlins’ sign with the pub’s name also on it in the pub’s hallway. Fremlins Ltd was purchased by Whitbread & Co Ltd in 1967, returning the Cardinal’s Error to its original brewery. In 2002 Whitbread sold its pub estate, known as the Laurel Pub Company, to Enterprise Inns. It is now owned by Pendry's Pubs Ltd, an active private limited company in England that operates public houses and bars, and the Cardinal's Error is managed by tenants. Only the one real ale on cask, St Austell Tribute, on a visit in January 2026. Locals tell tales of seeing the ghost of a poor farm girl, Nellie, walking from what was a pond that lay behind the pub, now part of a local housing estate, into the pub and up to the private accommodation above. Legend has it that Nellie in her wedding dress, drowned herself in the pond after being romantically rejected.

We have visited this pub once, seen 1 beer and tried it.

Map location

Postcode: TN9 2EP