The Foresters
The Forester’s Arms, Maidstone Road, Paddock Wood
The Forester’s Arms, Maidstone Road
The building residents of Paddock Wood know as the Forester’s Arms was built as a private dwelling by George Waghorn in 1869.
When he applied for a licence in September that year the application was opposed by the licensee of the Maidstone Road Inn because he feared “abstraction of trade”. Further opposition was voiced by the Rev. Storr of Brenchley on the grounds that there were “too many beer shops in the parish”.
The application was initially turned down by the magistrates on the grounds that the property “was not yet included in the rate book”. However, by April 1871 the Foresters Arms was in full operation as a beer house, with George Waghorn as landlord.
George was still the landlord of the pub twenty years later. The years between were not uneventful and a contemporary newspaper reported that in 1875 Edwin Waghorn his son aged around 14 was accidently killed whilst helping his father to move some trucks at the station; he was crushed between the buffers. Sadly, nothing could be done to help him and he died within twenty minutes of the accident.
In 1892 a temporary licence to operate the Foresters Arms was granted to Charles Waghorn, the son of George. By 1901 he was the permanent landlord of the pub and his father was running a shop in Commercial Road, Paddock Wood. Charles continued to run the pub until his death in 1928 having been landlord for 33 years. His obituary records that he had been ill for the previous five years. He had been a well known bee expert, a dog fancier, a member of the equitable friendly society since it started in the village and a member of the Paddock Wood Lodge of Freemasons.
By 1931 the licence was held by Percy Smith and he was to remain the licensee until his death in 1955. In 1949 he was granted a full licence enabling him to sell a full range of alcohol rather than just beer.
During his tenure the pub and its grounds played an active role in village life and in the preparations for the second world war. The 1939 register records that Percy was now an ARP warden.
We know there was a rifle range at the rear of the pub as the reformed Paddock Wood Rifle Club defeated Bearsted at the Forester’s Arms rifle range in October 1938. Also, the 3rd cadets battalion of the Middlesex Regiment of over 170 strong visited Paddock Wood in August 1939 where they were given the free use of the Paddock Wood rifle range by Percy Smith and the officers mess was the Forester’s Arms itself. The newspaper proudly reported that the battalion was buying all its provisions from local tradesmen.
Post war the pub continued to play an important role in village life and alongside many other events held there such as concerts it was the site of an inquest in 1950 .
In 1955 Percy, former Brenchley parish councillor was elected to the newly formed Paddock Wood Parish Council but sadly never attended a meeting as he died aged 60 in November 1955 after two years illness.
From February 1956 until the early 1970s the licensees of the pub were James and Dorothy Archer. The pub remains a thriving business today.