A Chequered History

I was woken up very early this morning by some noisy local wildlife. I could hear a growling noise outside my bedroom window and looked out to see two fox cubs at the bottom of our driveway. One walked away quite quickly but the other strolled out into the middle of the road, took a determined stance, arched its little back and let out six or seven of the most bloodcurdling screams I've ever heard! There was no getting back to sleep after that!
Today's image is of our dear old Chequers pub in the village. Sadly it suffered a fairly serious fire three weeks ago in the early hours of 22nd May. Thankfully no one was hurt but a few upstairs rooms and part of the roof were badly burned (you can see a tarpaulin covering the damage on the left of this shot). The rest of the building survived mostly unharmed due to the heroic efforts of the Kent Fire and Rescue service who had eight fire engines in attendance very quickly. It will remain closed in the short to medium term for the safety of the staff and customers until the requisite repairs can be carried out. It really is an integral part of the village and hopefully it won't be too long before it is opening its doors again. Get well soon old friend.
It was originally built around 1511 as a wool merchants but by 1740 it was owned by the second Earl of Aylesford and later renovated, added to and opened as an inn. It has only had 15 licensees since 1832 and in much more recent times it has even been involved in the movies - it had a small supporting role in the 1967 film "Half a Sixpence" starring Tommy Steele and was transformed into a set for a Bollywood film in 2016. Quite the history!