The Foley

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Historical Notes

'The Foley Arms' in Hare Lane dates from the second half of the 19th century. It was purchased by the Young family in 1888, subject to a lease of 1886 when it was a public house and hotel. Since then it has been in the ownership of Young's Brewery and provided residential accommodation.

The name is taken from the Foley family and their coat of arms was displayed on the front elevation of the building. Much of the land in the area belonged to the Foley family but not, it would seem, the plot on which the Foley Arms was built. In 1893 the Brewery conveyed part of the pub's land to the Hon Fitzalan CJ Foley for the purpose of widening Hare Lane.

This hostelry also served a wider purpose through the adjoining Foley Hall, which was used by local organisations for meetings and other activities, particularly before the Village Hall was built. The Foley, or Young's Brewery, also made an annual contribution to the atmosphere of the Claygate Flower Show through the provision of a horse-drawn brewers' dray.

Article by Howard Mallinson from Issue 7 of Claygate Life (Winter 2007)

The Foley Arms story

By Howard Mallinson

The Foley Arms came to Claygate with the railway in February 1885. Young's Brewery have owned it since 1888 but it was not developed by them. Plainly, the Foley Arms is named in honour of the family; and indeed both Lord Foley and his younger brother, the Hon Fitzalan Foley, were vocal supporters of it. But it was built by a man who was no less shrewd than them about the impact that the coming of the railway would have. William Limbrick had been the owner of the Prince of Wales public house in West End, Esher, but in 1881 he sold it to Watney, Combe & Reid. Being alert and fresh into cash, he recognised that Claygate's railway would bring new opportunities for trade.

Somewhat remarkably, the Foley Arms, which was built as a hotel with railway travellers in mind, had problems in obtaining a licence to sell alcohol. In 1884 Limbrick applied to the local Justices for a licence for 'a new hotel about to be built near the new railway station at Claygate', This was opposed by the landlord of the The Hare and Hounds and refused at Surrey Sessions on the rather feeble ground that the railway had not yet opened. The exact date that the Foley Arms opened is not clear, but by the time the trains came on 2 February 1885 it presented itself, lonely on a constricted corner of Hare Lane, an edifice so bold (and substantially unchanged today), ready for business.

The question of the Foley Arm's licence continued. At a hearing in February 1885, Limbrick's application for a licence was supported by 'every influential resident' of the village, including the vicar, the Revd Dr Richards. Part of the case pleaded was that the railway had now opened giving rise to the need for accommodation: an auction sale attended by 60 people had been held in the 'hall' (still in use today) of the Foley Arms. In opposition to the application, which as before had been granted locally but was now up for confirmation at Surrey Sessions, it was stated somewhat strangely that 'nothing new had occurred during the past year to warrant the licence being granted'. A nearly equally divided Bench evidently agreed and the application was refused. One witness was the agent for Fitzalan Foley, who announced that Foley had been acquiring land 'for building purposes', including the Fee Farm Estate, in transactions amounting to £35,000, and that since then 'several thousand pounds' had been spent on road making.

Even though the Bench was not impressed by Foley's land buying, the reader should be, for it represented the first steps in the development of Claygate in an organised way. To have spent £35,000 on land acquisition may not sound a lot, but, converted to today's currency and taking account of the severe depression of agricultural land value at the time, this represented a substantial investment. The witness at the licence hearing was talking about future housing development but 'was unable to show' that development had taken place in 'the neighbourhood of the Foley Arms during the past year'. On the footing that it was in Foley's interest to talk up the impact, it rather suggests that Claygate's entry into the railway age was muted and the question of the licence for the Foley Arms would have to wait for something new to happen. The owners of the other public houses in Claygate no doubt warmly welcomed this, but the Foley's day would come.

The story of the Foley Arms illustrates the slowness of the pace of change in the early days of the railway. It is curious that the stamp of approval given by the vicar and the Foley brothers did not carry the day. Whether in frustration or not is unrecorded, but in 1888 Limbrick sold the Foley Arms to Young's; a move which no doubt pleased successive generations of residents of Claygate, not least the present one. It is most likely that Young's used the goods yard to deliver its beer from Wandsworth.

As well as building the Foley Arms, Limbrick was the first goods agent at Claygate and, as the railway arrived, he purchased horses and carriages to hire out. The embryo of the taxi service that exists today had started life. With the Foley Arms and the railway facilities being an anchor, a row of shops in The Parade opened around 1897 to serve the increasing brickworkers and the embryo new settlement on the east side of the railway, created by Fitzalan Foley.

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This article is based on the book Guildford via Cobham: the Origins and Impact of a Country Railway, written and published by Claygate resident, Howard Mallinson, and available from Amazon at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Howard-Mallinson/e/B0034N9ICQ/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1441272769&sr=8-1.

The author is grateful to John and Gil Salter for drawing his attention to William Limbrick and his story.

Further Information

• The Foley in previous years