Written by Simon and Lesley White.

The story so far:-

The French were revolting - plus ca change etc. In fact they had just finished that bit of revolution and had decided to conquer Europe, it was 1790.

1790 was also the date that Benjamin Franklin and Adam Smith died, John Tyler was born as was Champollion that great French Archeologist who got all the good stuff before the British museum got a look in! But I digress.

I believe that what was to be the "Duke of Wellington" PH was built.

The Turner's (who I guess were woodworkers, after all they lived in the hamlet of Woodside Green) noticed that their house was falling down about their ears, they decided to build a fine brick structure just 100 yards up the road towards Doddington on a new site. Building got underway but was paused due to lack of funds - apparently the level can be seen if one was to strip back the internal plaster - must do that sometime. The house was finally complete, a rectangular property and the family moved in.

The site of the old property still exists and is owned by one of our neighbours, Mr Couchman who has let it develop into a very pretty meadow.

The Turner family prospered (I'm guessing) and had many sons, far too many for the few local ladies. That was the unlikely start of the American off-shoot of the Turner family. Visiting Mormon missionaries suggested that rather than live a life of chastity etc they might sign up to Mr. Young's church, head across to America and make a match with a female population that had a sever lack of men - in fact have more than one as the 'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' allowed for polygamy. I would be grateful for a more accurate version of this story!!!

The Turners at about the same date decided to benefit from the noticeable lack of any local hostelry, this was the days before public or private transport, most people used foot-power and a pub over a couple of miles away was a good hours walk and then back. At night, in the dark! (of course).

At that time, I would guess around 1880, the addition at the side was built. This was a single story add-on with a pitched roof that was built on the side of the existing house which at some time - possibly right from the start also housed the local shop. The add-on was to be the local pub, that it was called the "Duke of Wellington" rather implies it was opened as a pub during his life or shortly after he died.

We are told that the pub was small - of course being in that small extension, with no bar as such. Customers would bang on the door to the main house to be served. Seating was on a series of benches, each regular having their own seat and their own jug.

Between the Turners leaving and the late 1960s I have yet to ask or find out. Jim will no doubt have a good idea.

Some time towards the end of the 1960s the pub was bought by Mr Sergeant who had previously worked at ..... in Wrotham about 20 miles up the A20 towards London. Sergeant wanted to match or beat the quality of pub he had just come from and started to change the Duke. The Duke was to be changed into a 3 story 10 bedroom hotel. Plans were drawn up, agreed with the Council and work started. Foundations and ground floor walls then disaster happened. Mr Sergeant took one of his barmaids home one late night rather than have her walk down what is about 2 miles of quite lonely road - more dangerous now as we have maniacs who can barely drive going at stupid speeds on what is effectively a back road with many blind bends.

Clearly there was more happening than I have been told, equally I have been told a number of versions... Mr Saunders dropped the girl off, was confronted by her husband ... Mr Saunders died of a stab wound from a fish knife. The husband (and wife?) still live in the area so enough said.

The Duke was sold on by Mrs Sergeant in 1971, I am not sure of the state, but the ground floor had been completed, and it substantially remains in that state now.

Still to be recorded:-

In between owners:- Sergeant The Docherties, Butch, others...

The Duke as a bikers pub

Thai food

Lee's attempts to make his fortune

Our local planning office - not for the fainthearted.

We bought the pub in 1999, a year after our return from Pakistan and just as the property market was about to boom, phew! just in time.

Of the Photographs

Jim who lives in the cottage across the road and has been a regular all his life believes that he is to the left of the lad in the cloth cap in the image with the hunt gathered round the pub.

The other people I have had identified by Mr Turner, who, as a younger man was offered the Duke back in the 1950s. He declined but has since made contact with us, a great deal of these notes come from his recollections.

From the https://www.kentonline.co.uk, 16 October 2011.

Nick, the history teacher.

He has renovated more houses than most of us have had hot dinners but Nick Knowles still finds new quirks in every house he enters. Chris Price caught up with him.

The Mormon faith began its life in Maidstone. It is not a fact many people know but Nick Knowles could not help but chuckle when he found out while filming for his latest TV series.

The presenter was visiting the former "Duke of Wellington" pub in Woodside Green, a hamlet on the North Downs near Lenham. It is owned by Simon Mallett and Lesley Whitle, who have lived there for 10 years and are slowly restoring it back into a house.

In the first episode of the new series of Original Features – Nick’s show for digital channel Home – the 49-year-old helps the pair unlock the history of their property and convert it sympathetically. Yet he was not just impressed by the pub’s traditional features in Simon and Lesley’s case.

It turns out the "Duke of Wellington" is something of a minor tourist destination for Americans. The sons of the original owners of the pub moved to Utah in the early 19th century, where they became one of the founder members of the Mormon faith.

“It is quite funny that the Mormons are anti-alcohol and one of its founder members is from a pub family,” said Nick, who rose to fame as the presenter of DIY SOS on BBC1 and used to live in Hawkhurst, near Cranbrook.

“What I have always loved about social history is you always find out things along the way. A house over 100 years old will have had several generations live there and life will have changed considerably.

“A posh place now was a workers’ hovel 200 years ago.”

There is a hint of sadness in Nick’s work on Original Features, as he tries to protect the architecture and values of bygone eras. Yet the potential financial gain of looking after an old building like the "Duke of Wellington" makes the effort more than worth it for the owners.

“It stinks of beer from where people have spilt their drinks but if you can deal with that you get a lot of house for your money,” said Nick, who was a pupil at the Skinners School in Tunbridge Wells as a boy.

“You also get a lot of land with the car park, which you can dig up and lay a lawn. So it is good value.

Simon Mallett and Lesley Whitle outside the former "Duke of Wellington" pub.

“It is sad pubs are being sold because they are not making money. They are such historic places but so long as the people who take them on renovate them in a sympathetic way they will still look fantastic.”

It is easy to see why Nick has such an affection for the "Duke of Wellington." He began his broadcasting career as a journalist at TVS and then Meridian, working from the studios in Vinters Park in Grove Green, now called the Maidstone Studios. He was a regular at several Maidstone drinking holes, stating he was “not backwards in coming forwards in going for a pint”.

He added: “The history of the "Duke of Wellington" is fascinating because it was a pub in the very oldest sense of the word. It was literally an ale house.

“Its licence to sell ale started out because a change in the law in the 1790s meant local farmers could brew their own beer and sell it in their front room. More people decided to drink beer so the family built the big building to sell the beer. Until the 1960s, it still looked like someone’s front room.

“There were kegs in the beer area and the owner would bring over a jug of ale to your table, like a restaurant. It has a really rustic flavour to it and has a history of eccentrics living there. Simon and Lesley won’t be upset if I said they were eccentric themselves.”

The second series of Nick Knowles’ Original Features is shown on weekdays on Home from Monday, October 17, at 10pm (Sky channel 246, Virgin 265). The first episode features The "Duke of Wellington."