Built in the 19th Century at the New Romney terminus of the railway branch line from Ashford, then named The Station Hotel, serving the many weekend visitors to the Marsh and the prestigious Littlestone Golf Club. Littlestone was seen as a potential large resort in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries and was very popular with visitors from London and carriages would have been housed in the stables. The Captain Howey was saved from conversion to housing in 2023 by the owner of the Littlestone Hotel next door, he bought it so it would remain as a pub.

The RHDR was built in the 1920s by Captain J.E.P. Howey, an eccentric millionaire whose first passion was motor racing but after his marriage he was persuaded by his wife to pursue the safer hobby of railways! The pub was named after him following his death in the 1960s. This railway is one of the longest steam operated miniature railways in the world – 14 miles between Hythe and Dungeness. New Romney is the main station containing many items of historic interest and it is one of the major tourist attractions in the South East of England