Iden Green · Goudhurst · The Weald of Kent
The Peacock
Inn
A Wealden alehouse dating to 1387, on the old smugglers' road — log fires, low beams, and six centuries of tales.
The House
Built when the Weald still ran on wool, hops and timber — and standing on the same crossroads ever since.
The Peacock began life as a humble alehouse, set where the lanes meet at Iden Green just east of Goudhurst. Its bones are genuinely medieval: a timber-framed Wealden building dating to 1387, weathered by six hundred winters and softened by woodsmoke.
Today it keeps the old country-pub spirit alive — a traditional, family-run house pouring Shepherd Neame's Kentish ales, where a large open log fire still warms the bar. After a brisk walk across the Weald or a short run over from Cranbrook, it remains exactly what it has always been: somewhere to thaw out, pint in hand, beside the flames.
At a glance
From the Archive
A house that keeps turning up in old photographs
The oldest known photograph. The sign over the door still read Amos Mercer, though he'd just handed the licence on to William Roff. The figure in the doorway is a servant, holding Will and Addie Roff's daughter, Ethel.
The Peacock at the crossroads. Long before Shepherd Neame, the sign advertised Whitbread Mackeson ale and "morning coffee, snacks" — the same low white building still stands behind it today.
Photographs and research courtesy of the Dover Kent Archives.
Tales of the Trade
The smugglers' inn
The Peacock's reputation was made in the dark. Sitting on the old road east of Goudhurst, the inn carried deep smuggling connections, and the Jubilee Book of Goudhurst keeps the stories alive — chief among them William Brackfield, who owned the pub and was widely known across the parish as a smuggler.
The officers found nothing. She did not move. It is the kind of tale the Weald specialises in — quiet defiance dressed up as a harmless old lady by the hearth — and it has clung to the Peacock for generations.
Behind the Bar
The keepers of the Peacock
Find Us
Pull up a chair by the fire
Seven centuries on, the welcome hasn't changed. A proper Shepherd Neame pint, good company, and the best seat in the house — the one nearest the flames.
Opening Hours
Bar: Mon 12–8 · Tue 12–9 · Wed–Sat 12–10 · Sun 12–8 — Kitchen: Thu–Sat 12–9 (plus Sunday roast)