The Oldest Pub in England?

Between where I live and the nearby town of Beaconsfield lies a village called Forty Green.

And in the village there's a pub called The Royal Standard of England, which has a good claim on being the oldest free house in England.

Supporters of the claim point to the fact that an alehouse called The Ship is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as occupying the same site. Lude Farm, just 1000 yards west of the pub, is also listed. Then in 1213, when nearby Penn church was dedicated, the Ship Inn is documented again. The inn was used as lodgings by Norman nobles who had travelled to this part of Buckinghamshire for the deer hunting or while travelling between important estates at Windsor, Wallingford and Woodstock Palace.

It was also used by cattle drovers who moved stock to rich fattening pastures nearby, or on to markets in Beaconsfield and Wycombe, and eventually London. They passed by the pub which provided wells for watering the animals and ale for the drovers. Before the building of the railways, the drovers' routes were trodden by tens of thousands of cattle, sheep and geese. Using these lanes avoided the fees at the Beaconsfield Turnpike on the Oxford to London road. 

By the end of the 17th century the alehouse had grown from a lodging house to an inn. It could now offer separate rooms instead of a communal sleeping area. The Civil War disrupted the cattle droving trade, as the area around Beaconsfield and Penn was in the moving line of control between the two sides. The pub was used as a mustering place for Lord Wentworth’s Royalists before the Battle of Wycombe Rye in 1642. The area was mostly under Parliamentarian control, and suffered the brutality of the Roundhead soldiers. A dozen Irish Confederate cavaliers had their heads raised up on pikes outside the pub’s door, including a 12 year old drummer boy whose ghost is said to still haunt the pub today. 

After Charles II’s restoration to the throne, the pub was rewarded by the new king in 1663 for giving support to his executed father. He honoured the landlord by agreeing to change the name of the pub from The Ship to The Royal Standard of England, the only pub in the country with the honour of the full title. Though the royalists were well served by the landlord during the civil war, there may be another good reason for the name change. King Charles II used to meet one of his mistresses in the rooms above the pub. The shrewd landlord, with business in mind, had perhaps made the most of the King 'owing him one'. 

At the beginning of the 18th Century, the pub as we know it today was a very different place. In the smoky, sweaty candle-lit atmosphere whoring, drinking and gambling went on all night. The quantity of spirits drunk in these taverns was enormous. The sign over the doorway bears the well-known legend: 'Drunk for a penny, Dead drunk for two pennies, Clean straw for nothing.' 

The inn’s trade declined in the mid 18th century and it reverted back to an alehouse. However, the arrival of the railways - and, more importantly, rail workers -  revived its fortunes. The alehouse supplied illegally strong country ale – Owd Roger - made to an old Victorian times. It was eventually sold on to the Marstons brewery in Burton, but can still be bought at the pub today.

In more recent years the pub has featured in countless films and TV shows including Ricky Gervais' After Life, The Essex Serpent, The Theory of Everything, and at least three episodes of Midsomer Murders (all of which are filmed in this area). It was also the location used for the pub interiors in Hot Fuzz and it's where TV chefs The Hairy Bikers were taught how to Morris. 

And, talking of Morris, the dawn on May Day is a noisy affair as teams of dancers turn up to bring in the Spring. It's a fun event and well worth getting up early for.

But if an early start isn't for you, the pub is still worth a visit for the good ales and the excellent home made pies.

The pub website is here.