Maidstone Road

Kipping's Cross

Matfield

https://whatpub.com/wheelwrights-arms

Above postcard, circa 1921, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe. The pub advertising Smith & Co's Lamberhurst Ales. This photo would have been taken shortly before Smith & Co was bought by the Dartford Brewery, a subsidiary of Style & Winch.

Above photo 2010 by Oast House Archives Creative Commons Licence.

Above photo kindle sent by Tricia Francis, 5 April 2015.

Above photo, circa 2016.

Above sign 1960s.

Above sign left, August 1985, sign right 2010. With thanks from Brian Curtis www.innsignsociety.com.

Above signs by Tricia Francis 2015.

Robert Marshall has kindly sent me the following information, which he says is typed and mounted in a frame, and obviously used to be part of the pubs pictures:-

The Inn known as the "Wheelwrights Arms" was built during the reign of Elizabeth 1 (1558-1603) in the year 1602. When first built it was a farm dwelling forming part of a considerable estate. In 1651 the house was purchased by one Daniel Carter, who is recorded as a grocer and baker of the parish of Brenchley. For many years the house bore the sign of a single sugar loaf. A sign which for centuries depicted the premises of a grocers. The origin of which dates back to the reign of Richard 2 (1377-1399).

The Inn is mentioned in a will of 1729 when one Thomas Dalton Sage, a farmer and grocer of the parish of Brenchley, directed that "My tenement at Matfield Green, within Brenchlie, known by the signe of the Sugar Loaf, with its bakerie and landes therefore belonging, I herebye bequeathe to my wyfe Elizabethe, whoe upon my passinge shalle inherite my title and deedes."

In 1749 the house was purchased by one Nathan Lockyer, who is recorded as a grocer and beer retailer of the parish of Brenchley. At this date alterations were carried out to the building, which consisted of removing the thatch, wattle and daub and replacing with tiles and a Kentish weatherboard facade. It is recorded that "a counter was installed at the southerly extreme of the lower floor." In 1750 a licence was granted to Lockyer and the house became a registered "Ale house", with Lockyer's wife Ann the "Tapster" a name given to a woman who operated and controlled an "Ale House", Lockyer himself continued to retail groceries and bread from the premises.

In 1848 the house was purchased by one Ira Huggett, a wheelwright of the parish of Matfield. In 1850, Huggett hung the sign of the "Wheelwrights Arms".

In the late 1970s, extensive alterations were carried out to the property to incorporate the bakery and the adjacent doctors house to one building.

The inn has seen and undergone many changes since it was first built but has still kept its original charm and character. There is also the legend of a ghost, a former innkeeper's wife Bertha Faulkner, who hung herself at the Inn in 1920.

Ghosts apart, the Inn to-day gives out the same generous glow and warmth and hospitality it has done for centuries. So stay awhile, enjoy the fayre and reflect on those bygone days.

LICENSEE LIST

HUGGETT Ira 1848-50+

MARNER George 1881+ (also baker age 35 in 1881)

CARR George 1892-1901+ (age 61 in 1901)

DEAL George Henry 1911-13+ (age 39 in 1911)

GORRINGE William 1938+

COPPLESTONE Cecil Rowland 1949+

https://pubwiki.co.uk/WheelwrightArms.shtml

Census