Photo above: Typical mid Victorian frontage of green tiles.
In 1840, the pub was known as the Waggon and Horses, although there was another pub of that name in nearby Belgrave Gate. The ancient order of the Druids would meet here during this decade and thus became known as the Druids Arms.
The census of 1851, gave the landlords name as William Barford. He lived here with his wife Mary, two daughters and what was then designated, in the terminology of the time, an ‘idiot’ brother.
By 1870, the name had changed to the Foresters Arms.
In 1895, its licence was objected to on the grounds that the landlord had been found drunk in charge of a horse and trap.
The pub originally brewed its own beer until 1893, when the Nottingham Brewery bought the pub. Five years later it embarked on alterations that saw the old brew house converted into living accommodation. Further alterations took place in 1927 and again in 1947. The property passed on to Tennant Brothers of Sheffield in 1944 from the Nottingham Brewery and finally to Whitbread.
