West Wycombe’s historic pubs

This is an edited and updated version of an article published in the Bucks Free Press on 1 March 2024. It was updated on 27 September 2024 after new information about the Lord Le Despencer's Arms, the Plough, Nag's Head and Friend at Hand was discovered. It was further updated on 18 February 2025 to clarify the leasing of pubs in the early 19th century and the fate of the Lord Le Despencer's Arms.

West Wycombe parish had three alehouse keepers and an inn holder recorded in 1577. We don’t know the names of these houses but there’s a good chance they were all situated on the medieval highway from London to Oxford, Worcester and mid-Wales through West Wycombe village. The licensees were: Thomas Challenor (inn holder), George Hunte, James Hawle and Margaret Neighbore (alehouse keepers).

Over 100 years later, in 1689, a tax assessment has Georg Russell of the Unicorn paying two shillings and four pence, Tho[mas] Ryman of the Black Boy 10 pence and Mr Wells of the Geog [sic] two shillings and 10 pence. The 18th century The road through West Wycombe became part of the Beaconsfield and Stokenchurch Turnpike Trust in 1719. West Wycombe Road was realigned and surfaced between 1748 and 1752 using chalk dug from the hill behind the village. The Dashwoods’ West Wycombe Park was laid out from the 1750s to 1770s. All of this work led to West Wycombe village becoming an estate village and the West Wycombe Road a modern coaching road. Licensing records in Buckinghamshire were first kept from 1753. The White Hart is not mentioned by name in 1753 but is likely to have been licensed in that year, and earlier, as the building is 16th century. Francis Green was the landlord from 1754 when the sign name is first recorded. In 1768 the name changed to the Lord Le Despencer's Arms, most likely because owner, Francis Dashwood, had inherited the barony of le Despencer in 1763 becoming the 11th Baron le Despencer. The considerable sum of nearly £68 was spent on the pub in 1769, while the rent was increased from 10 shillings to 17 shillings, suggesting major alterations had taken place.

The Apple Orchard guest house (left) around World War Two. Once the Lord Le Despencer’s Arms (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by High Wycombe Library)

The Coach & Horses name appears just once in the 1766 licensing records with Thomas Barnes as licensee. Barnes had been at the Plough until 1765 and it’s probable that the Coach & Horses was the same premises. The location was the old sweet shop next to the Church Loft. Neither Barnes nor the Coach & Horses appear again in licensing records, but, as we shall see, the Plough name returns.

The Lion appears in the 1753 list of licences granted as the Red Lion. It was opposite the Church Loft and had gone by 1768. The Wheel was on the Oxford side of the Lion and was also licensed in 1753 but disappeared after 1770. The Chequers is recorded between 1753 and 1767. It was where the Village Hall is today.

We saw that a Unicorn and a separate Black Boy appeared in a 1689 tax assessment. In 1753 both a Black Boy and a Black Boy & Unicorn appear in the licensing records. The Black Boy disappeared after 1761 while the Black Boy & Unicorn remained, becoming simply the Black Boy in 1812. Looking again at the 1689 tax assessment tells us that the George and the Unicorn must have been of similar size and value, while the Black Boy was much smaller, so it’s unlikely the Black Boy competed with its near-namesake for custom. The Swan was licensed by 1753 and probably earlier. We’ll return to it shortly. The 19th century By 1828 West Wycombe village had a Swan, a Black Boy and a George, which was to become the George & Dragon around 1853. The Swan and Black Boy were leased by the Dashwood estate to John Rotton in 1808. He sold all his leaseholds to Messrs Biddle and Wheeler (a forerunner of Wheeler’s Wycombe Breweries) in 1812. Biddle & Wheeler had a lease on the George from 1808. The Lord Le Despencer’s Arms seems to have fallen on hard times after 1799 having 11 different landlords until it closed in 1815. Referred to for many years after as the 'late' Lord Le Despencer's Arms, the building later became Weller’s grocer’s shop, then the Apple Orchard guest house, a cafe and is now a homeware and gift shop with a cafe attached. However, the pub name reappeared in the parish at Downley Common in 1823. The coming of the railway between London and Oxford in 1844 put paid, almost overnight, to the coaching trade. Only the George and the Black Boy & Unicorn had the facilities to service long-distance coaches and there’s little evidence that they were much affected by the demise of the stagecoach. Back in 1830, the Beerhouse Act enabled ratepayers to brew and sell beer on their premises once they bought an annual licence from the Excise for two guineas (£2.10). This act gave West Wycombe High Street the Plough and the Nag’s Head. The Plough dates from 1841. Owned by Wethered’s of Marlow it is in a building dating from 1727 opposite the George & Dragon. The Nag's Head dates from the 1830s. By 1840 John Wingrove was the licensee and Richard Lucas, the Wycombe brewer, the owner. It adjoined the Plough in a much more modern-looking building out of keeping with others on the High Street, though it might be that an older building had received a Victorian brick facing.

The Plough in 1973 when still a Wethered’s pub (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by Bucks Free Press)

The Wycombe Railway’s extension from High Wycombe to Oxford and Aylesbury arrived at West Wycombe in 1862. A new beerhouse had been erected on railway land where a station was built. This was the Friend at Hand, leased by Frogmoor brewer Thomas Lucas from the Great Western Railway. A full licence was granted to licensee Thomas Bowler the following year.

The 20th century to the present

The Friend at Hand shortly after the new West Wycombe station was constructed (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by High Wycombe Library)

The railway through West Wycombe was brought up to main line standards between 1900 and 1906 by the Great Western & Great Central Joint Railway. Trains then began to steam through from Marylebone to Manchester, joined by trains from Paddington to Birkenhead in 1910. A new station now incorporated the Friend at Hand pub. Part of the building became the booking office and there was a dedicated public right of way through the pub from the road up to the platforms.

The Nag’s Head, run by the Harman family for 36 years, was considered by the licensing magistrates to be redundant in 1909, closing at the end of that year. Harry Harman received £37 10s for the loss of his licence.

The Nag’s Head, with the Plough next door, in December 1895. The West Wycombe Brass Band serenading licensee Harry Harman perhaps? (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by Bucks Free Press)

West Wycombe village was in a poor state of repair by the late-1920s. Sir John Dashwood, short of money to carry out repairs, put the village up for auction in 1929. The intention was to divide the village into 63 lots and give tenants the opportunity to buy before the auction was held. At short notice the auction was cancelled. The Royal Society of Arts (RSA) had offered to buy all 63 lots, while the Dashwoods agreed to sell.

Wethered’s had decided not to bid for the three Dashwood-owned pubs on the south side of the High Street. However, they opened negotiations with the RSA to buy the old Nag’s Head so they could extend the Plough. These negotiations came to nothing. Then in 1934 the RSA sold West Wycombe to the National Trust who then offered the old Nag’s Head to Wethered for £1100. Again, those negotiations came to nothing, and later plans to absorb the post office into the Plough foundered too.

A recent view of the old Nag's Head (courtesy Movement80)

The Plough was eventually sold to the National Trust in 1990 after Wethered’s brewery had closed and its parent company, Whitbread, was divesting itself of pubs. It’s now leased to a private operator. The three oldest pubs in the village, particularly the Swan and the mid-16th century Black Boy, were in a poor state in 1931. The licensing magistrates approved plans to rebuild the Swan and close the Black Boy, which was in a very bad state of repair. Compensation of £250 was paid to licensee Thomas Martin for the loss of his licence and another £1350 to the RSA. The Black Boy closed on 31 December 1931 later becoming the village hall, and an antique shop by 1970. Today it houses Brocklehurst Architects.

The Black Boy in 1925 close to the end of its life as a pub (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by Bucks Free Press)

The Swan, still leased to Wheeler’s, was sensitively extended and refitted in 1932, retaining much of its old character. One oddity is that while the bar was refitted so that beer could be drawn up from the cellar using hand pumps, the pumps were never installed. Beer is still drawn straight from barrels on stillage behind the bar. In the same family since 1910, the pub is three-star rated by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) for its important historic interior, and is Grade II listed.

The Swan c1903 with the horsebus about to set off for Wycombe and Loudwater and a Wheeler’s dray making deliveries (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by Wycombe Museum)

The Swan shortly after the 1932 upgrade, with the extension on the left, and perhaps licensee, Mr Beauchamp, standing proudly at the door (courtesy pubhistory.com and Peter Wonnacott)

Perhaps the oldest of all the pubs in the High Street is the George & Dragon. It’s thought to date back to the mid-16th century and was refaced in 1720. The sign is thought to date to that time. Like the Swan it was leased to Wheeler’s by the RSA and then the National Trust.

A High Street scene c1900. The George & Dragon is on the right, the Plough and Nag’s Head the left, with a large gathering in the distance (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by Wycombe Museum)

There was great excitement in May 1963 when new licensee, Peter Maddock, tested his theories about hidden rooms, a bag of gold, a blocked-up cellar and the inevitable ghost. Sadly, he found nothing but empty space behind the facade that dated back to the construction of the Georgian brick facing. The grand unveiling of the hidden room took place in front of TV cameras; at least the publicity must have been worth the effort. The Trust sold the George & Dragon to Unique Pub Properties in 2003. The owner is now the Stonegate Group.

The George & Dragon with its grand Georgian brick facing (courtesy of CAMRA)

West Wycombe station had closed in 1958 together with the right of way from the West Wycombe Road through the Friend at Hand pub to the platforms. The pub was sold by its then owners Courage to Morland of Abingdon in 1993 and then closed in 1998 being converted to housing.

The Friend at Hand after conversion to housing (courtesy Movement 80)

Sources

SWOP (Sharing Wycombe’s Old Photographs)

Buckinghamshire Archives for poor rate assessments and property deeds

National Trust Land Map

HM Land Registry

Lost Pubs Project

The EurekA Partnership, The People of West Wycombe

H Harman, Notes on West Wycombe, 1934

British Newspaper Archive

Gary Marshall, West Wycombe Village: An Archaeological Appraisal Of The Church Loft And Village Buildings, Records of Bucks vol 55, 2015

Special thanks to historical research expert Dr Frances Kerner for additional information about the Lord Le Despencer's Arms and the Dashwood archive.