Abingdon Pub Explorations

Staying local for a trip to the Oxfordshire town of Abingdon in a May heat wave.
My plan was to visit somewhere a little bit different and include a few pubs that haven't appeared on the blog before.  In fact, I'll wager a couple of these haven't appeared on any blog ever.

I bucked my conventional start to the day by not rocking up at Wetherspoon's at 11am.
Instead, I caught the number 35 bus from Oxford to Abingdon which takes the long way round over the speed bumps of Kennington, taking me to the village of Radley.

The Bowyer Arms (Foxborough Road, Radley, OX14 3AE)
Just around the corner from the train station, The Bowyer Arms is a mid-19th century pub that was owned by Morland from 1889 until 1999 when Greene King acquired the Ock Street brewery and their tied houses.
The pub is named after Sir George Bowyer, a barrister and Liberal politician who was born in Radley Hall and would later inherit the family estate.

The astroturf front garden didn't make for a great first impression, although I may not grumble about it if I was in charge of mowing the lawn.
Inside, this is a large open-plan pub where everything looks shiny and recently refurbished.
Two banks of handpumps on the bar served 4 different beers: those below (albeit you'd have to wait patiently for the Speckled Hen while it's "conditioning'), plus a Greene King seasonal around the corner.

The chap in front of me ordered an Abbot and Retired Martin's words of advice - "pint of the last one pulled" - nagged at me, the fear that a couple of days of +30℃ temps would add to cask jeopardy.
As it was, the chap returned his Abbot as "not tasting right", so instead I picked the Greene King 'Hopping Special'.  Hoppy, yet not particularly special, but - crucially - in good condition; a decent first beer of the day.

I stuck inside whilst most of the midweek lunchtime custom opted for the rear patio and garden.
Music just a notch too low for me to hear properly; tennis on a the TV screens that you'd struggle to get very far away from; nothing much happened.

I drank up in time to catch the 12:50 bus from close by the pub into Abingdon centre.
Then made my way straight to a new pub...

The Earl of Abingdon (21-27 Ock Street, Abingdon, OX14 5AJ)
"Pub" in the non-traditional sense, although there are Spoon's buildings that match this for not being especially photogenic.
The square block Croxeter Building houses a gym on the first floor and previously featuring Strattons nightclub beneath.  That's been closed since 2012, now given a new lease of life as an unexpected new drinking establishment that'll be handy for those waiting at the nearby bus stops.

It is run by the folks who previously looked after The Grapes, a pub that's presently being refurbished.  Which perhaps gives it a ready-made following of half-a-dozen loyal lunchtime customers.

There were two hand pumps on the bar, one turned around and the other serving a most welcome Harvey's 'Sussex Best'.
It came with a generous head and a Red Stripe glass...

The jukebox was throwing out some interesting tunes including Maisie Peters, a Dylan sound-a-like, a Franz Ferdinand deep cut, and Bryan Ferry.  But one of the fellas sitting at the bar cut Bryan's crooning short when he ambled over to select his own tracks.  "Oldies," he informed me as he passed by.  Hmmm...oldies from Tarantino movies rather than obscure delights.

Time to leave before Stealers Wheel ineviatbly came on.
I made the short walk to the ancient bridge over the Thames which marks the southern edge of Abingdon town centre and handily has a pub midway along it.

The Nags Head on the Thames (The Bridge, Abingdon, OX14 3HX)
I've watched the Nags Head go through a few incarnations since my arrival in Oxford and spent several pleasant afternoons in the island beer garden when they've put on small festivals.  It used to be a Good Beer Guide mainstay but has dropped out for three of the past four years.
They'd made a ploy to impress those CAMRA folks who like a lot of choice, with an ambitious six different cask ales on the bar - two from Brakspear (whose Pub Co have owned the Nags since 2019), a local Lovebeer 'OG', Tim Taylor Landlord, and - my pick - Thornbridge 'Wild Swan'.

  

There are several traditional seating sections on the road-level bit of the pub where the bar counter is.  Steps down lead to a clearly defined dining area, then doors take you outside across a foot bridge to a wide selection of outdoor tables with riverside views.  Even more choice, as I spied a Hook Norton ale on the garden bar.

My 'Wild Swan' was a very light-bodied and light-coloured 3.4% pale ale.  Served on good form and ideal for sunny afternoons.
 
Moving on, I decided to poke my head into the County Hall in the middle of the market place, an impressive building that houses the town museum.

I'm ashamed that I've not been in here before.  It's a small but fascinating little museum tracing the extensive history of Abingdon.  There's a car from the now-closed MG factory (hang on, how did they get that in there?!) and a few bits of Morland breweriana in a cabinet.
Part with £2 and you'll be allowed out onto the roof where the views over the town are well worth a couple of flights of stairs and a few coins.

From a brief cultural diversion to one of Oxfordshire's minor bits of pub heritage.
Right next door to the County Hall is the Punchbowl...

The Punchbowl (6 Market Place, Abingdon, OX14 3HG)
My advice would be to skip the basic front bar and enter via the brick alleyway around the side which provides a door into the Oak Room - the bit that causes the heritage interest.
An inn was first recorded on this site in 1775, the atmospheric snug being the bit of the pub which actually feels like it has a bit of history.
You get a chequered carpet, wood panelled walls, a few old brasses and ornaments, and an uneven ceiling of varying height.

The sole customer in the snug, propping up the bar, gave me a hearty welcome and called to the staff to tell them they had a customer.
This is a room with a small 'ring bell for service' counter , unspoilt by any giant beer fonts, although the bright orange clock to the side seems a little out of place.

The real ale choice was Morland 'Original' or Boddington's best bitter.
"Of course, when you say Boddington's what you really mean is a pint of J.W. Lees these days," said my fellow drinker, showing he knows a thing or two.
Not a bad pint at all - probably the best I'd had so far on this day.

Leaving the snug, I continued down East St Helens Street which takes you to the church and a short stretch of riverside road on which you'll find the Old Anchor. 

The Old Anchor (1 St Helen's Wharf,, Abingdon, OX14 5EN)
Somewhat off the beaten track, this pub struggled for some time until Greene King opted not to renew the license when it expired in 2023.  It was nice to see it reopen in the summer of 2025, advertising quiz nights and live music and events which I do hope bring the punters in.

They weren't flocking in at the time I was visiting.  I was the only customer other than a lady rushing to the bar to check the parking restrictions on the street outside.
(Ideally: strictly no parking in front of any pub anywhere, cars having spoilt many a pub photo).

The Village People sang "In the Navy" when I arrived - a nautical theme for the Anchor, I guess.
A fairly steep £2.85 brought me a half of the Loose Cannon 'Abingdon Bridge', promptly returned as undrinkable for a no-quibble exchange for an 'Old Speckled Hen'.

The current Old Anchor was opened in 1884 when three houses were remodelled to house it, a previous incarnation of the pub having existed close-by directly on the river.
The main bar and two side rooms have a modern feel to them, but there is a little gem of a seating area to the right, on the way to the patio.

Too much of a thoroughfare to be a snug, but containing some marvellous wooden bench seating and flagstone floor.

I was nearing the end of my intinerary of pubs for the day, but was looking forward to the penultimate destination - a one-time community centre that is currently showing the top-score 3 pint pots rating on the CAMRA website.
To get there, I caught an Oxford-bound bus for the 5-minute trip into the greater estates of the town, hopping off at Boundary House, from whe the Croft Bar is a few minutes walk.

The Croft Bar (Lindsay Drive, Abingdon, OX14 2RT)
I've passed here before when visiting the nearby GK College Oak, but wasn't convinced it was really open to the public at the time.  The Croft started out as a community centre and certainly has a 'club' vibe to it, with function room style furniture and a crowd of folk who all seem to know one another.
There was a no-nonsense cask line-up: trad bitter, big brand golden ale, or the common-round-these-parts Loose Cannon 'Abingdon Bridge'.

I figured I should have something from the Abingdon brewery whilst in town, so handed over my £3.50 (Thursday cask special) for a pint of 'Abingdon Bridge'.
The staff member took my name and phone number for entry into a prize draw for a £50 bar tab.  I should really have declined and stayed anonymous, being as a Croft regular really needs to win and enjoy that tab.

I took my pint to the cushioned bench seating in the quieter side.  Several Killers tracks followed one another on the playlist, there were lots of blokes in shorts, and a future Luke Littler threw darts at a board with a golf course cover over it, making it more colourful and taking away the need for any maths.

Just one more quick beer in the bus stop pub...

Boundary House (69 Oxford Road, Abingdon, OX14 2AA)
I haven't set foot into this Greene King hostelry for quite some time and it looks like they've undergone a big makeover and changed a fair bit in recent years.
There's another MG link here, with the building previously being the home of Cecil Kimber who founded the motor company.  It turned into a pub in 1960 in readiness for the big housing estates that would take over adjoining farmland.  Abingdon is still expanding to this day, although there isn't a pub in sight to serve any of the 21st century housing developments.

On the bar, if you can make them out hiding behind the hops, were three real ales from Greene King and Sambrook's.

You don't see London-brewer Sambrook's out this way very often, so that's what I ordered.  Another beer in decent condition - the vast majority of cellars seemed to have coped with the hot temps fairly well.

And with that, it was time to head for the bus and make my way back to Oxford.
Six of Abingdon's eighteen-or-so pubs (depending on how you're counting), plus the Radley outlier covered on this visit.

Sweet Hanney Buckiin

In which we set out to the SW Oxfordshire neighbouring villages of East and West Hanney to tick off one of the Oxfordshire GBG 2026 pubs that I hadn't previously visited.
This trip also provided the chance to call in to Wantage, find some mild smut in the gents WC, and pretend I know stuff about modern pop when concocting the usual low-quality blog post title.

We caught the S9 Oxford-Wantage bus from the city centre. Prior to 2022 this used to race past the Hanney's on the A338, but now handily recognises the existence of the village, pulling off the main road and stopping right outside the Black Horse.

The Black Horse (Main Street, East Hanney, OX12 0JE)
This is a good-looking village pub with a fine horse's head painted on the front of it, and stone black horses either side of the front door.  It'd look even better without the parked cars.

The entrance corridor divides a dining area to the right and bar to the left, with a superb collection of ceramic jugs lining the high shelf...

The ceramic collection continues within...

The Black Horse was once part of Abingdon brewery Morland's estate, but is now owned by giants Heineken. It closed for a spell back in 2024, so it's pleasing to see it not only open, but in the Beer Guide, and with a good crowd of folk present.

Cask options were Fullers 'London Pride', Tim Taylor's 'Landlord', or the local Loose Cannon 'Abingdon Bridge'.
I ordered the Pride.  Drinking well, as they say.

Accompanying a fine plate of food - the sole veggie option on a very meaty menu.

All that and mild smut in the gents WC!

We departed from the Black Horse under some lovely blue winter skies, making our way along the lane leading from East to West Hanney.
Part-way along this is Dandridges mill, a Georgian silk mill that was turned from a derelict building in 2007 to modern eco-friendly apartments.  It generates its own electricity from an Archimedean screw on the millstream, which we traipsed up the driveway to have a look at.
I guess that counts as my East Hanney tourism.

We continued along the Causeway, a single farmers field making up the green buffer between East and West Hanney.
Onward past Hanney Spice, which we could have popped into for a pint if we'd been here pre-2008 when this was The Lamb.

A left-turn at the village green takes you to the church and the remaining open pub.
Only just, though.  Punch Taverns put the 16th century thatched roof inn up for sale in 2015, at which point members of the local community grouped together to purchase and run the place themselves.

The Plough (Church Street, West Hanney, OX12 0LN)
The community owners have done rather well.  The Plough has been a regular in recent Good Beer Guides and picked up a White Horse CAMRA pub of the year award in 2024.  The food has been getting great reviews - clicking on  'About' on the pub's website tells you nothing about the pub itself and lots about award-winning chefs Owain and Luke.
We can't have two meals in one lunchtime, so what about the beers?  

On cask: Butcombe 'Original', a Butcombe house beer, Wye Valley 'Butty Bach', or Loddon 'Farmer's Paradise'. I picked the lesser-known 'Farmers Paradise', a 4% harvest pale ale with Cascade and Simcoe hops.
Being so busy inside, we took drinks out to the permanent marquee attached to the rear of the pub, with enough decorations & mix and match furniture to make it feel like an additional room rather than 'outside'.

Even the marquee filled up whilst we were there, this community local seeming to do impressively well for a cold winter afternoon.

We left the Plough and wandered back to the bus stop, rejecting the paths across the fields to Wantage on the basis that it's rained an awful lot in January and the respectable pubs of the town probably wouldn't welcome four boots and four paws coated in mud.  Not that we were really planning on going anywhere particularly 'respectable'.
Off the bus and straight into the middle of the market square for the Alfred the Great pic...

Then around the corner to the Blue Boar...

The Blue Boar (4 Newbury Street, Wantage, OX12 8BS)
This generated a bit of excitement when it was refurbished and reopened a few years back - getting a 'most improved' award, mainly due to being pretty awful beforehand, I suspect.
The courtyard drinking area is a strong point, but not in January. Instead we ended up on the high tables in front of the bar in a rather spartan interior.
Crikey, what's that murk?

Two hand pumps dispensed cask ale in the form of 'Directors' or 'Wainwright', whilst the Blue Boar usually has a couple of decent guest keg lines. This gave me the chance to grab a Tartarus 'Kitsune', a sensible-strength double-dry-hopped pale ale.  That's what that murk is.

You'll also be wanting to see the cracking pump clip which drew me that beer, and the seat covers... 

 

A couple of minutes walk around the corner took us to the Oak Taverns-run King's Arms.

The King's Arms (39 Wallingford St, Wantage OX12 8AU)
Back at the Blue Boar, a large group of jovial ladies on G&T's and takeaway pizza had been responsible for 90% of the noise within the pub. Once they'd departed I could actually hear the music from the speakers: a bit of Mgmt and Duran Duran.  We caught up with the same group in the King's Arms, badly timing it so as to be behind them at the bar.  Oh well, at least that gave ample time to pick from a hefty choice of cask, keg, or boxed ciders.

I was relishing the first chance of the day for a dark beer, picking the Mighty Oak 'Solstice', a 4.1% rich chocolatey porter.
The King's Arms really needs a crowd of folk to make it click and Saturday late afternoon provided that nicely.  We shared the back room with a fair few dog walkers and chaps on the corner of the bar glued to the snooker on TV.

As the Shoulder of Mutton sits straight across the road from the King's Arms, we felt we should really call in whilst so close.
This used to be an absolute old-fashioned gem with a quirky layout, rustic feel, and outdoor loos.  I was a bit gutted when it underwent a refurb, getting pristine toilet facilities, eradicating the single-table snug, and adding a smart skylit drinking space where the back yard used to be.

The Shoulder of Mutton (38 Wallingford Street, Wantage, OX12 8AX)
Yet I really quite enjoyed this revisit and have to grudgingly accept that most folks drinking here on this occasion would probably have steered clear of the original incarnation.
The old chalk board for listing beers is kept above the fireplace as a relic, replaced at the bar by an electronic display showing an impressive keg and cast selection.
I picked the Vale '80/' as something a little different. 

And we ended up staying longer than planned and moving onto the Vibrant Forest golden ale.

Then, when we finally left, something unusual happened. 
We timed it perfectly for a bus and didn't need to call into the Bear for a half of Arkells.

Oxford Villages Trip 2025 version

On a frighfully gloomy and wet November Saturday a group of Oxford folk comandeered a minibus to explore a half-dozen or-so village pubs to the west of the city.
I was on a similar excursion back in 2022 when we called into two of the inns on today's itinerary, but it was the pubs that were brand new to me this time around that I was most looking forward to.
Here's the route...

First stop: 11:57, Yarnton.
Where the young lady opening up took a glance out the window expecting the usual tranquil scene of village life only to spot 16 eager punters waiting for the door to be unlocked.

Red Lion (127 Cassington Road, Yarnton, OX5 1QD)
I visited this pub when it was first taken over by local chain Oak Taverns early in 2024.  Prior to that it had struggled for several years before being put up for sale by Admiral.
There has been a pub close to this site in Yarnton for several hundred years, the original demolished in 1957 when the current Red Lion was constructed.
It's open plan within: seats in the bay windows in the front, a freshly lit wood burner at one side, back doors in the rear section overlooking a lovely - but very wet - back garden.

On the bar three cask ales were on offer: Goffs 'Black Knight', Hook Norton 'Hooky', or Twisted Tree 'Trunk IPA', plus a stack of 8 boxed ciders to pick from.  
Tempting as those ciders may have been, the ABVs were very hard to see on the labels, so I stuck safe with the Bicester-brewed 'Trunk IPA'.  Not an IPA in my book of beer definitions...more a modern best bitter, but very drinkable and on top form.

Rounding up the group, we clambered back aboard the bus for the next leg of our journey.

🚍7 miles, Yanton > Stanton Harcourt
Journey time extended by the usual slow crawl of traffic on the A40.

Harcourt Arms (Main Road, Stanton Harcourt, OX29 5RJ)
My first impressions weren't particularly positive - we were definitely in the territory of rural Oxford gastro-pub with rooms.  It doesn't even look especially pub-like from outside.
Or on first glance to the right through the front door...

But the left-side room is gloriously stuck in time, dimly lit, with thick stone walls, fires burning at both ends giving an aroma of woodsmoke.  Squint and you can imagine the farming types settling here rather than posh car brigade out for Saturday lunch or the scruffy pub-tour brigade crowded around the pump clips.
Cask ales on offer were Purity 'UBU' and two from Norfolk's Woodford Brewery which don't make it this way very often: 'Nelson's Revenge' or 'Wherry'.  A dark and delicious Nelson's for me, priced at £5.20.
Taken straight to the prime sofa spot next to the wood burner.

Saying cheerio to the staff at the Harcourt Arms, we had a short journey down country lanes to our next destination.

🚍3.1 miles, Stanton Harcourt > Northmoor
Journey time extended by our driver Tony stopping in the middle of a country lane to buy homemade marmalade from a random table at the end of a cottage driveway.

We called into the Red Lion at Northmoor, somewhere I've visited a fair few times previously.
Cask ales available were from Fullers, Hook Norton or Cotswold Lion on this occasion - the wonderful 'Greedy Goose' for me as I accept the season for winter beer is truly upon us. 

The Red Lion was the busiest I've seen it - warm and welcoming in the bad weather, doing a roaring trade with a good mix of diners and drinkers.  Especially impressive being as the village is situated down single-track lanes, a fair way from any public transport routes.

The next pub was a revisit that I was thoroughly looking forward to.
Not least due to the possibility of 'grooming', which I would benefit from every now and again.

🚍7.5 miles, Northmoor > Bampton

Morris Clown (High Street, Bampton, OX18 2JW)
This early 18th century High Street pub used to the New Inn before taking on the unusual Morris Clown moniker in 1973.  Previously part of the Greene King estate it is now independtly owned and a quite fantastic no-nonsense wet-led boozer, which has become a regular in the Good Beer Gudie.

It's a single L-shaped room featuring some cracking murals on the wall.  No chance of playing bar billiards today, with the table acting as a stand for the TV showing Wales v New Zealand rugby action.

I ordered a pint of Butts 'Barbus Barbus' (£4.70 - the other cask ale option being Loose Cannon's 'Abingdon Bridge').  Last time I had this hoppy well-balanced session bitter it was brewed in the wilds of West Berkshire.  Butts have since closed their doors with this being one of their beers now concocted at Cheddar Ales.  And it was absolutely superb.
A great beer in a comfy, proper pub - best of the day, no contest - even the rugby couldn't dent my enthusiasm.

It was little more than a 5-minute hop to the next village where two pubs awaited.

🚍2.2 miles, Bampton > Clanfield

Uh-oh...we're back in gastro terriitory - no.4 on a recent Times Best Hotel Restaurants list no-less (the Ritz is sitting next to it at #3, for crying out loud).  Will they even let me in with my unruly beard, cargo pants and Dropkick Murphy's t-shirt?

Double Red Duke (Bourton Road, Clanfield, OX18 2RB)
This is a 17th century country house which later became an inn, run by Wadworth's Brewery for many years.  It's a rabbit warren of a place, with a host of vastly different rooms, sofas in small snugs, a cocktail bar counter, dining tables next to racks of wine bottles.  We settled on the tables in the main bar in a skylit extension towards the rear of the building.

There was a great selection of cask ales on the bar: Uley 'Pale Ale' or 'Pig's Ear', Hook Norton 'Hooky', and Ramsbury 'Deer Stalker'.  Served with chatty and knowledgeable enthusiasm by the fella at the bar who obviously cared about the beers on offer.

It's not often I see Cotswold brewery Uley, so I was chuffed to grab a pint of their crisp, bitter 'Pigs Ear'.  It was good - as it should be for the hefty £6.40 tarriff.

The Double Red Duke scores additional PropUptheBar points for their bespoke beermats.
And for the mysterious jars behind the bar.

 

But gets those points instantly deducted for having a cigar menu.

How much?!!!!

No need to get back on the bus this time with just a short dash across the road in the rain required for the next location.
🏃 83 yards, Double Red Duke > Mason's Arms

Mason's Arms (Bampton Road, Clanfield, OX18 2RG)
This was formerly the Clanfield Tavern (we're on a roll with pub name changes on this trip).  It was taken over by the same folks who run the Red Duke, the pre-1970 name was reclaimed, the interior refurbished and the pub reopened in October 2024.
It was pleasantly dark and moody when we stepped through the front door, so much so that the eyes to needed adjust to make out the Uley pump clips tucked away in the corner of the bar.
The stone walls are thick, the ceiling beams low, the wood fire burning.  It had a bit more of a boozy feel about it (or was that just because of our presence...) than the Red Duke, but beware - it's still smart and features on dozens of foodie websites. 

I went with the Uley 'Old Spot on this occasion - another cracking pint, although with it being a second 5% ABV beer in a row I was beginning to flag a bit.

We hopped back aboard the bus and made our journey down the dark lanes toward Oxford, with a pitstop at the Bruning and Price (not my preferred choice, but I have no voting rights).

🚍15.2 miles, Clanfield > Besselsleigh

Too wet and dark for an outdoor pub picture.
So I'll close the post with a photo of gentlefolk in the Greyhound.
Where I lurked in a corner sipping a Little Ox 'Hufflepuff' (we did have the brewer on the bus with us, so it seemed fitting to finish the trip with one of his beers).

Another great day out, visitng a wide selection of pubs and taking me to a couple of new places. 
Much appreciation goes out again to Tony for driving us through the rain.
Maybe one day I'll be sensible and realise I really don't need to call into the Lamb & Flag when we get dropped on St Giles...but not this time, of course.