Architectural style Cruck construction Country United Kingdom | Town or city Clifton Hampden Owner Spirit Pub Company | |
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Address Clifton Hampden, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 3EH | ||
The Barley Mow is a historic public house, just south of the River Thames near the bridge at Clifton Hampden, Oxfordshire, England.
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Overview
The pub has been called "the best known of all Thames pubs". The timber-framed building dates back to 1352 and is of traditional construction with a thatched roof.
The Barley Mow was photographed by Henry Taunt in 1877. The building was Grade II listed in 1952.
According to the Thames Pilot, The Barley Mow was described in Parker's notes (1911):
Its high overhanging roof is thatched, and its walls are half timbered. The casements admit just enough light to heighten the interior effect. The brick floored kitchen, or may be a parlour, is delightfully snug, and the walls are darkly panelled all round. This Hotel has been enlarged to meet modern requirements but the additional part is not shown as it spoils the effect.
The Barley Mow is currently run by the Spirit Pub Company, a large UK chain of pubs, restaurants and inns which operates the Barley Mow under their "Chef & Brewer" brand.
In literature
The Barley Mow was notably featured in chapter 18 of Jerome K. Jerome's 1889 novel Three Men in a Boat:
If you stay the night on land at Clifton, you cannot do better than put up at the "Barley Mow." It is, without exception, I should say, the quaintest, most old-world inn up the river. It stands on the right of the bridge, quite away from the village. Its low-pitched gables and thatched roof and latticed windows give it quite a story-book appearance, while inside it is even still more once-upon-a-timeyfied.
Peter Lovesey's Swing, Swing Together mentions the Barley Mow.