Since the earliest times Inn-keeping has been one of the Town’s Chief Occupations. The Port-moot Rolls of the 15thC have many references to overcharging by the Victuallers & in one case overcharging for Horse Fodder as well as for the man’s food is specifically mentioned. These Inns depended entirely on the Market & the Country People & Traders that it brought into the Town. They provided Stabling & Accommodation for the Night – the ‘Swan‘, for example, still had the remains of Stabling for 30 or 40-Horses – & not one was a Coaching Inn. Some 59 different names of Inns have been traced, but this does not necessarily mean that there were 59 different Hostelries. Inns often changed their names: the ‘Spread Eagle‘, for one, was stated in 1882 to have been formerly the ‘Oxford Arms‘. However, the number of Inns must always have been Great: in 1906 there were 35 & 30 in 1914, nearly 3-times the average for the County in relation to the Population.
- Abingdon Arms, 21a Cornmarket
Carried the Name from 1830 but renamed the James Figg (d.1734) a Local Prize Fighter of note & Resident of the Greyhound Inn - Anchor Cornmarket
Now an Estate Agents but with The Witches Ball Pub Sign Hanging Outside - Bell, Moreton Hamlet
Suggests info applicable to The One Bell
Now a Private House - One Bell, 80 Lower High Street, Thame
This Pub recently used as a Social Hall, Tearoom & therapists. It was known as The ‘One Bell’ to differentiate it from The Six Bells further down the Lower High Street. At the corner of the High Street, Nº 80 was once the 17thC One Bell Inn from which Bell Lane takes its name. Next door is a neat complex of Residential Buildings now called The Old Maltings. In the 19thC these buildings housed the Malting & Brew Houses of the Phoenix Brewery. - Birdcage 4 Cornmarket
pre 16thC Building - Black Horse Hotel, 11 Cornmarket
Dates as far back as 1620 - Black Boy, High Street
- Blue Man North Street
- Brittania North Street
- The Cross Keys, 1 Park Street
Only began Trading after the Beer Act of 1830. (Opened 1841) - Crown 53 High Street
The Crown Building is c.17thC & is Grade II-listed. Currently in Residential use & known as ‘The Old Crown‘. This was a Beer-house opened by Joseph Lester after his previous Premises in the Town Centre (also The Crown) burned down in 1856. Prior to becoming The Crown it had been owned by Thomas Steeden as The Black Horse Ale-house – which may have been one of the reasons why the name was changed to The Crown as there was (and still is) a Black Horse Hotel in the Town centre. The Crown was de-licensed in 1908. - Duke of Wellington
Situated on Wellington Street. During the 1970s Larry Grayson was a regular visitor. The Pub was run by a man called Jack Smith, an old Dancer friend who had opened the Establishment when he had retired from the Theatre. On many occasions Larry would serve behind the bar, as part of the fun. Known locally as the ‘Jolly Sailor‘ at time of Closure. A blue plaque on the Building indicates that Thame born Henry Boddington of Brewery fame lived in the Pub prior to moving to Manchester to find his fortune. Now owned & used by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. - Eagle Tap, High Street Thame
c.1852-1901 - Falcon, 6 Thame Park Road
The name of The Falcon derives from the Crest of the Dormer Family, Landowners when the Pub was 1st opened in 1861. When the Railway came to Thame it was often referred to as the Falcon Railway Hotel. The original structure was replaced after a disastrous Fire in 1900. The Falcon is now the last of the many Pubs & Beer Houses that were once prominent in this area. - Four Horseshoes, 51 Park Street, Thame
Closed c.1994. The Relief to the right of the Front Door is a Halls Brewery sign - Fighting Cocks High Street
Situated on the right Side of Sainsbury’s Shopfront. This Pub Closed in the 1960s - Fox 41 Upper High Street
James Towersey born approx’ 1786 in nearby Long Crendon & rented his home in Thame High Street from a Mr Phipps. He was an Agricultural Labourer but hit on the idea of turning his Home into a Beer Shop named The Angel which later became the Fox. He is noted as a Publican on the marriage records of his daughters. - Greyhound 43 Aylesbury Road.
This Pub was delicenced in 1915 & became a Garage with 1-Petrol pump at the front. It has now been converted into 3-Cottages. - Greyhound Inn, High Street
Coaching House & Yard. After the Battle of Chalgrove, the Injured John Hampden (Parliamentarian) retired to Thame & to his Headquarters at the Greyhound Inn. What at 1st appeared not to be a serious Injury soon worsened. 6-days & 4-Doctors later Hampden died thereon the 24th June 1643 of Lockjaw (Tetanus). - Half Moon, 7 Wellington Street / earlier Adress 7 Pound Street
- Hole in the Wall, Southern Road
c.1891-1901 - Nags Head 43 High Street
Formerly the Kings Arms 16thC buildings with its 3-Oversailing Gables - Oxford Arms, 12a Buttermarket
This Pub was present by 1770 & closed in 2007. It was previously known as The Hogshead, The Market Square & Jimmy Figgs. Now used as a Restaurant - Old Blue Man North Street formerly Friday Street
c.1847-1903 Now Residential - Plough, Priestend, Thame
This Beer-house opened in 1830. It was originally a Morrells Brewery house, but was owned by Halls between 1911 & its Closure in 1917. There is a ghost, ‘The Grey Lady‘, there was also a Suicide in the building, in Flat 1 or 2, before the House was converted. It was owned by Oxon CC, & was part of Rycotewood College. - Red Cow Aylesbury Road
c.1847-1911 Now Private House - Red Lion South Side of High Street Opposite
Extant in Tudor & Stuart era - Red Lion Park Street.
Thomas Heath, Maltster of the Red Lion, who in 1696, paid 2d a pound for the Wife of George Fuller of Chinnor, at a total cost £1-9s-2d=175-lbs avoirdupois. Now a residential house - Rising Sun, High Street, Thame
Only began Trading after the Beer Act of 1830. (Opened 1838) - Royal Oak, Castle of Dunnottar Hamlet
- Saracens Head, 7 Buttermarket, Thame.
The 18thC Gabled exterior of the former Saracen’s Head hides a Timber-framed Building that dates back to at least the 14thC. Recent work carried out at the Premises, when converting it to an Estate Agents Office then Funeral Directors, Established the likely felling date of the Main Timbers as being about 1315. The current Building (No.7) with its Gable end fronting the Buttermarket, forms the Cross-wing of a much larger property that encompassed the Building now to the West (No.6). The whole was in all probability a Medieval Open Hall House of Cruck construction, No.6 being the Open Hall with the Cross Wing (No.7) Housing the Service apartments on the Ground Floor with a single Chamber above. This large Chamber occupied the whole of the 3-Bays of the Upper Floor & was open to the Roof. It was also Jettied to the Front & the evidence of the Dragon Beams suggests that the Floor projected to the sides also, giving a Chamber 10M long by 5.3M wide. The Building is reputed to have had a Vaulted Medieval Cellar that may have dated back even further. Lupton, in his History of Thame, suggests the Brewers who owned the House, removed the Vaulting before 1860 in order to gain more room for their Casks. He also points out that the House close by, at the corner of North Street, also showed a Gothic Arch in its Cellar. This co-incidence led him to suggest that the 3-Houses from North Street to the Saracen’s Head stood on the large vaulted Basement of an important Building which he thought might have belonged to some Religious Order. Lee, however, has pointed out that a Saracen’s Head was the Crest of the Oxon Branch of the Marmion Family, who lived in Thame until the 15thC. When Joan Marmion was born about 1429, in Thame, her father, Peter Lord Tamworth Marmion, was 25 & her mother, Joan de Kilpec, was 21. She married John Hester in 1455, in Tamworth, Staffs. They were the parents of at least 1-son. She died in Thame. Although the site of their Home is not known he advances that their Mansion covered these Groined Cellars on the Northside of the Butter Market & that later the Saracen’s Head was built on part of its Site & adopted the Marmion Crest as its Sign. All this is speculation but we know for certain that the Accounts for the Grammar School in 1575 give the Tenant as Richard Pitman paying a rent of 26s-8d per half year to New College Oxford. Much of the property in Thame that was administered by New College had been acquired to support Lord Williams‘ Foundation School and there is no reason to suppose that this was not the case for the Saracen’s Head. Thame School continued to own the Premises until 1877 when it was Sold, along with other Property, and bought by the then Licensee Francis Seymour. Halls Brewery purchased it in 1913 & it continued as a popular Town Centre Pub until it finally stopped selling Beer in 1992. In the early 20thC the Saracen’s Head gained a reputation as a centre for the Sporting Fraternity & was at one time the Headquarters of Thame Association Football Club. - Seven Stars 19 High Street.
This Pub Closed c.1907 & is now a Domino Pizza Take Away - Spread Eagle Hotel, Cornmarket
- Star & Garter 113 Wellington Street
- Six Bells, 44 Lower High Street, Thame
(acquired by Fullers) - Swan Hotel, 9 Upper High Street,
- Two Brewers, 50 North Street, formerly Friday Street
Closed in 2011 - The Thatch 29-30 Lower High Street
16thC Structure & Former Restaurant once trashed by the Bullingdon Club - Wenman Arms, 67 Park Street
- Windmill, High Street.
- Witches Ball, High Street
- Wheatsheaf, 60 North Street, Thame
This Pub closed c.1957 & is now a Charity Shop - Wheele & Sword High Street
- White Horse, 12 Cornmarket
Next to Black Horse Hotel - Woolpack Inn, Park Street
Among the oldest Buildings, the ‘Bird Cage‘ Inn is one of the best-Preserved & most interesting. The Main Structure dates from the 15thC, but its Stone Cellar maybe earlier. The House is Timber-framed & was Lath & Plaster filling, then Roughcast. The West end is a 3-Storey Building with its Top-Storey oversailing all round & supported on long and very heavy curved brackets on Corner Posts. On the 1st-Floor are 2–15th-16thC rectangular Wooden Bays with Traceried lights, shaped & curved Aprons & small Tiled Roofs. The Centre of the House is of 2-Storeys & the East end has Single-Storey & an Attic, but part of the Original East End has been replaced by a Shop. There is a Pentroof projection across the Ground Floor. The House has been an Inn for some years, but the Local Tradition is that it was once the Town Prison & it seems likely that it is identical with the ‘Tenement called the Cage‘ which was the Property of the Guild of St Christopher in 1529.
The Swan has been a prominent Inn in Thame since Sir John Clerke Built it in the early part of the 16thC. The Clerke Family Crest is of 3-Swans & it is from this that the Swan Inn most likely takes its name. The 18thC Front hides the much earlier Timber-framed Building that originally had 2-Oversailing Jetties to the Front. Until recent times there was Stabling for up to 30-40 horses at the Rear stretching back to Wellington Street. It was not, however, a true Coaching Inn, but one of the Venues in Thame that Coaches would leave for other Local Towns on the Main Coaching Routes. During these times a Glass Roof covered the 1st or Inner Courtyard to provide protection for the Visitors. The Swan was a popular eating place for the Churchwardens with many references in their Accounts going back to 1634. This popularity continued into the 1930s wherein the large old-fashioned Kitchen a Farmers Ordinary Fare was provided on Market Days for 2s & the Bar was used by Farmers settling their Market Transactions. An ‘Ordinary’ was a Set-meal served Communally round a Large Table. Originally part of the Earl of Abingdon’s Estates, Hannah Bennett, a wealthy Widow bought the Property in 1769 & held it until 1790. The Swan remained in Private Hands until another Widow, Hannah Phillips was in charge. In 1832, when it was repossessed by William Hall of Oxford. it thus came into the hands of Halls Brewery until the late-1970s.
The 15thC provenance of the Nag’s Head Inn can be seen in the Timber-framed West Elevation. The Pub was known as the King’s Head until, during the Civil War, a Supporter of Charles I was Hanged from the Pub Sign by Parliamentary Soldiers. Old Nags Head in Thame was used by the Parliamentary Army as a Quarter: Antiquarian Anthony Wood tells also of certain doings at the Nag’s Head, a very Ancient Hostelry, though not nearly so Old as the Bird Cage Inn. The Old Sign is no longer there, but some interesting features remain, among them the huge Strap Hinges on the Outer Door, fashioned at their extremities in the form of Fleurs-de-lis.
House, formerly Public House (The Crown). 17thC, encased 19thC. Painted Brick; old plain-tile Roof; Brick lateral stack to rear. 2-Storey, 3-window range. 6-panel, double-leaf Door to Centre with Overlight & segmental Brick Head. 16-pane unhorned Sashes to all Openings except 9-pane window to 1st-Floor Centre. Right return: angled Bay Window to Right with Sash windows; 16-pane unhorned Sash to 1st-Floor centre; 2-light casement to Attic.
Interior: not inspected.
The Chief Inn in Tudor & Stuart days was the ‘Red Lion‘. It stood opposite the Market-House on the Southside of the High Street. The Officials of the Peculiar held their Courts there. In the 18thC its reputation was poor: in 1785 Lord Torrington called it a ‘Bad Inn‘. Nevertheless, the Turnpike Trustees held their Meetings there & it was the Chief Posting House & Social Centre in the early-19thC. It Closed in 1860: it was Since 1959 the Offices of Messrs Lightfoot & Lowndes. Its position as Principal Inn had been usurped by the ‘Greyhound‘ since at least the beginning of the Century. In 1816 with the ‘Bull’, ‘Crown’, ‘Anchor’, & ‘Swan’, the ‘Greyhound‘ was one of the 5-Inns at which the Churchwardens were to Hold their Feasts in Rotation. The Inclosure Commissioners put up there in 1823-26, but by 1852 it had become a Shop & the ‘Spread Eagle‘ was the Leading Hostelry. Until the Town Hall was built in 1888 most of the Town’s Public Functions & Festivities were held in its large Assembly Rooms.
Aston Rowant & Chilterns Spring Line Villages 