Our latest exhibition in the Wychwoods Library in Milton features historic photographs of public houses in the Wychwoods.
As all over the country, public houses have long shaped the social fabric of the Wychwoods villages, acting as gathering places, landmarks, and witnesses to the ebb and flow of rural life.
Across Shipton, Milton, Fifield and Ascott, today’s familiar establishments stand alongside the ghosts of those that have disappeared—such as the Coach and Horses in Milton, or the Churchill Arms in Ascott – once central to village life but now remembered only in records and recollections.
Even surviving pubs have had their battles – Milton’s The Hare, for example , undergoing several incarnations and name changes, reflecting shifting tastes and economic pressures.
Our photos tell the stories of these public houses—those still thriving, those transformed, and those erased from the landscape.
Putting them together, from the archive on our website and those yet to be scanned, we can explore how they mirror broader patterns of social change, community identity, and rural resilience.
Wychwoods Pub-related images from our Photograph Archive
Some names change; some pubs disappear. Pubs evolve. Stories remain
Open this link for a selection of photos from our archive
Here follows brief summary information on some of the pubs represented:
The Churchill Arms, Ascott under Wychwood
The Churchill Arms on London Lane in Ascott operated in the 19th and 20th centuries as one of the village’s two public houses. Its history and its landlords traceable through trade directories and Census returns.
It began life about 1820, at the west end of the High Street, where it remained until the 1850s when it moved to much larger, purpose-built 11-roomed premises near the station in London Lane. Here the proprietor could take advantage of the increased trade offered by the newly arrived railway.
The new Churchill Arms provided accommodation for visitors and travellers, as well as large rooms that could be hired for social gatherings.
The Shipton Conservative Association often held their annual dinner there. Local resident Fred Russell recalls that when the Ascott cricket team played on the field on the other side of the railway adjacent to Manor Farm, tea was taken in the Churchill Arms. ‘The Churchill regulars were conservative in their views and supported the country pursuits of hunting and fishing. The regulars at the Swan were more raucous and louder and had no pretensions to be country gentlemen.’
In the second half of the 20th century the Churchill Arms was renamed the Wychwood Arms Hotel before finally closing in 1989 to become a private dwelling, today called Sunset House.
Research: Carol Anderson
The Swan, Ascott under Wychwood
The Swan currently occupies one of Ascott‑under‑Wychwood’s oldest surviving buildings, although it has only been here since the early 19th century. Although its origins may go back further, the Swan is first recorded in the mid-18th century in premises on the west side of the village green near the forge.
From here the inn moved to the west end of the High Street before, confusingly, changing its name to the Churchill Arms in the early 19th century. But the original name was soon revived when a new Swan Inn opened, sometime before 1834, on the current premises in Shipton Road, previously a farmhouse and bakery opposite the village Pound.
Unlike the Churchill Arms, the Swan was not purpose-built, but rather a home in which the licensee’s family also lived and worked at various trades and crafts, as the income from the alehouse alone was not enough to sustain a family.
The 1911 Census records it as having only 4 rooms. By 1910 the premises, which included both land and buildings, had passed from private ownership to Morrells, the renowned Oxford brewing company. Subsequently being sold by Morrells and returning to private ownership.
For almost two hundred years operating from its current premises, the Swan has played a key part in village life, frequented primarily by the agricultural labourers who made up the majority of the population. The village football team, with its roots in the working class, met there after matches to celebrate or drown their sorrows.
From 1945 to 1965 it hosted meetings of the Ascott lodge of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes. Over time the Swan has served the community in many ways including from the late 1980s to 2007 hosting staff from Milton post office to enable them to run a weekly service in Ascott.
Today it has entered a new phase of its history as a ‘gastro-pub’ with ‘spacious and glamorously comfortable accommodation’ offering its clientele ‘a stylish mix of rural chic and professional service’, described by Cosmopolitan as a ‘kind of fantasy country pub’! A far cry from its rural working-class roots. [Website here] [Opens in new tab]
Research: Carol Anderson
The Quart Pot, Milton under Wychwood
The Quart Pot stood on the High Street in Milton-under-Wychwood and served for many years as the village’s main public house.
By the 2000s, the pub was owned by Greene King Brewery. Like many rural pubs facing economic pressures, it struggled to remain viable. Greene King closed the Quart Pot in 2010.
After closure, the brewery attempted to sell the building, and a developer—Acres Developments of Bournemouth—submitted a planning application to convert the pub into a private house.
The proposed conversion met strong resistance from villagers, who argued that the pub was an important community asset. In 2012, West Oxfordshire District Council refused planning permission for the conversion, siding with local objections.
This refusal preserved the possibility of the building returning to use as a public house.
The turning point was when the Quart Pot reopened in March 2016 as The Hare, the modern gastropub that continues to serve the village today. Although the name changed, the building’s role as a social hub was restored.
The (Shaven) Crown , Shipton under Wychwood
The Crown (formerly the Shaven Crown) – as is Red Horse – was an old inn of Shipton. In 1578 the Crown Inn Charity was set up. Rent from letting the building was to be used for the upkeep of Shipton Bridge and Stokers Bridge, Milton, with any surplus to benefit the village. The property was sold by the trustees in 1930 but the Trust continued until combined with the Shipton United Charities in 1969.
The Crown has been an important meeting place over the centuries – the Vestry meetings (forerunners of the parish council) were always held there. The Crown Inn Friendly Society was founded in 1860 for ‘the mutual relief and maintenance of the members in sickness and infirmity.’ Their activities included a Club Day with its church parade and feast.
A comprehensive building record of the Shaven Crown is available here [Opens as PDF in new tab]
Sir Oswald Mosley; pictured at The Shaven Crown, Shipton under Wychwood, whilst under house arrest. Date: 1943
Today, the Crown continues to operate as a hotel and public house, maintaining its historic character while serving as one of the three notable inns in Shipton-under-Wychwood. Its position overlooking the green and its deep historical roots make it a distinctive landmark .
The Red Horse, Shipton under Wychwood
Now The Wychwood Inn, the building includes a Grade II listed section on Shipton‑under‑Wychwood’s High Street. It began as a private house before becoming part of the Red Horse public house.
The Red Horse Inn and junction with Milton Road about 1900
The Red Horse was long established by the early 1900s. A photograph from around 1900 shows the licensee Annie Longshaw, later known nationally as England’s oldest publican at the age of 98 in 1936. A 1903 guidebook noted that the inn’s courtyard once contained a medicinal fountain of local repute.
After closing for several years, the property was sold in 2012. Following refurbishment, it reopened under new ownership in June 2013 with its present name, The Wychwood Inn. See the article in the Witney Gazette here [Opens in new tab]
The inn continues to serve the village while preserving the historic fabric of the original building.
See more here in the article from our Wychwoods Album [Opens in new tab]
The Butchers Arms, Milton under Wychwood
The Butchers Arms was originally a brew house, victualler, and wheelwright, forming part of the Clinch brewery chain, a well‑known local brewery whose name still appears on the archway of the former pub. This places it firmly in the tradition of multifunctional rural pubs that served as both drinking houses and practical service centres for the community.
One of the earliest named licensees was Peter Brooks (1802–1862), a member of a long-established local family with connections to Shipton-under-Wychwood. Among the society’s photo archive from the early 20th century we show the pub active and central to village life, including an image of the landlord Parsloe with his sons around the 1910–1920 period.
The pub also hosted meetings of the Buffaloes, a social and charitable fraternal society popular among ex‑military men in the early 20th century.
The Butchers Arms was never a coaching inn, despite the presence of stabling for two horses. Instead, the yard served the practical needs of the wheelwright and brewery operations.
The complex originally included several cottages, one of which later fell into disrepair and was demolished during conversion works.
By the 1970s, like many rural pubs, the Butchers Arms declined and eventually closed
In May 1986, stonemason and builder Jeff Broxholme bought the former pub for just under £5,000 and began an extensive, years‑long conversion project to turn the old Butchers Arms into a family home.
The Butcher’s Arms a significant public house on the High Street, and another venue for the Vestry meetings in the 19th Century. It closed in the 1970s becoming a private residence. The left-hand wing visible in this photograph was re-built in the 1980s.
The Coach and Horses, Milton under Wychwood
Green Lane was once bordered by open fields and farm tracks. Carts, hay wagons, and livestock regularly passed the inn’s door. The Coach and Horses at the junction of Shipton Road and Green Lane, would have been a natural stopping point for a pint, a rest, or a word with neighbours.
Before the rise of the car, Shipton station would have been a vital link to Oxford, Worcester, and beyond. Some villagers walking or riding to the station often passed the inn, and some undoubtedly paused there on their return.
As the 20th century progressed, the corner’s role changed dramatically. Agricultural mechanisation reduced foot and cart traffic. Motor vehicles shifted movement patterns toward the main roads. The closure of Shipton station to passengers diminished the route’s importance. All this would have had an effect. So the Coach and Horses, already modest in size, would have struggled to compete. It closed mid‑century and was converted into a private residence.
The Merrymouth Inn, Fifield
From their website
Gloucestershire Pubs
Gloucestershire Pubs is the work of Geoff Sandles, a retired postman with a life-long passion for both beer and pubs. The ambitious project is aiming to document and describe all the known pubs in the county of Gloucestershire, both past and present.
Here is the entry for the Merrymouth Inn, and our summary taken from it:
The Merrymouth Inn, situated on the historic route between Stow‑on‑the‑Wold and Burford, is one of the Cotswolds’ oldest surviving coaching inns, with origins dating to around 1260. Its earliest form served medieval travellers crossing the upland roads, and the building’s substantial stone construction still reflects this early character. By the 14th century, the inn formed part of the Murimuth family estate and was known as The Murimuth Arms, placing it firmly within the manorial landscape of medieval Oxfordshire.
Beneath the northern end of the inn lie vaulted stone cellars, long associated with local folklore. Tradition holds that tunnels once linked these chambers to a nearby abbey during the turbulence of the Reformation, a story that, though unverified, remains an evocative part of the inn’s heritage.
Fifield Club gathering outside the Merrymouth Inn, Date 1909
Between the 16th and 17th centuries, the Merrymouth expanded into a fully fledged coaching inn, with stables, barns, and outbuildings arranged around the courtyard still visible today. In the 18th century, it became linked with the Dunsdon brothers, local highwaymen whose exploits coloured regional legend.
Through the centuries, the inn has remained a place of hospitality. Recent restoration has preserved its historic fabric, allowing guests to experience the atmosphere of an authentic English coaching inn.
Contributors: Carol Anderson; John Bennett
