The Old Farm House is a Grade II* listed pub, originally built as a farmhouse in 1611 and converted to its current usage in 1843, which is claimed to be the oldest building which is now a pub with a beer garden in Southampton, Hampshire.
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History
The farmhouse, shown on the 1560 map of Southampton, was rebuilt in 1611, a date depicted in white bricks on the south wall, by an unknown person referred to in the surviving records as E.R.
Panton's Wareham Brewery took out a 1000-year lease on the property and opened a beer house here with Mrs. Annette Eddy listed as landlady in 1852. Scrase's Star Brewery took over the lease in 1892 followed later by Strong's Romsey Brewery.
Local Legends
The pub is reportedly haunted by the ghost of the daughter of an Irish family who got pregnant out-of-wedlock while living here. Current Landlord Barrie Short states that although he doesn't believe in the legend he has noticed that for a couple of days after he goes into the attic the jukebox will start playing strange music and the television will switch channels by itself. Also, a skull, alleged to have been that of the girl, was unearthed in the cellar and used to be displayed behind the bar.
Other unconfirmed local legends state that Oliver Cromwell stayed at the farmhouse on one or two occasions and that smugglers' tunnels run from the fireplace to the nearby River Itchen.