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The Wellington Arms was built in 1857, complete with stables on the corner of what is now Wellington Road and the old Wokingham to Blackwater Road. It’s name and perhaps the name of the road must be connected with the fact that Wellington College had its foundation stone laid the previous year.

 

Clearly both the Pub and the College derive their names from Sir Arthur Duke of Wellesley more commonly known as the Duke of Wellington victor of the Battle of Waterloo and Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815.

 

The Purvey family kept The Wellington Arms in Sandhurst from 1891 until 1939. It is believed G'aunt Nancy was married to William Purvey who was the landlord in 1891 to 1912 and that William Purvey landlord from 1920 to 1939 was their son. He was also a Royal Chauffer

 

The Giles were a prominent Sandurst and Yateley (Hampshire) family. In the mid-18th century, they ran the Rose and Crown, the oldest of the seven surviving pubs in the village. In the 1850s, two of the pubs were run by members of the Giles family, local farmers who apparently wished to retire into publicanism or alcoholism. However, one George Giles was arrested in 1858 after he got drunk at the Wellington Arms in Sandhurst and, apparently unprovoked, stabbed his friend outside in the road. The victim only survived because Giles hit his rib.

 

For years the pub was known as the ‘Slip Inn’ (you could slip in the door on one side and slip out the other on your way to and from work without being seen).

 

William Purvey when proprietor used to hire out horse-drawn brakes and later the first local motorized taxi a De Dion Bouton.

 

Since 2011 the Wellington Arms has been owned and run by Harry Demko.

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