The Barley Mow is a historic

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

, just south of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

near the

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

Clifton Hampden Clifton Hampden is a village and civil parish on the north bank of the River Thames, just over east of Abingdon in Oxfordshire. Since 1932 the civil parish has included the village of Burcot, east of Clifton Hampden. The 2011 Census record ...

, Oxfordshire,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Overview

The pub has been called "''the best known of all Thames pubs''". The

timber-frame Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

d building dates back to 1352 and is of traditional construction with a

thatched roof Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

. The Barley Mow was photographed by

Henry Taunt Henry William Taunt (1842–1922) was a professional photographer, author, publisher and entertainer based in Oxford, England. Birth Henry Taunt was born in Penson's Gardens in the parish of St Ebbe's, Oxford. His father Henry was a plumber an ...

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): The Barley Mow is currently run by the

Spirit Pub Company Spirit Pub Company plc (Spirit) was a pub and restaurant company in the United Kingdom based in Burton upon Trent and originally formed by Punch Taverns. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by Greene King in June 2 ...

, a large UK chain of pubs, restaurants and inns which operates the Barley Mow under their "

Chef & Brewer The Chef & Brewer collection is a collection of over 140 licensed pub restaurants in the United Kingdom, owned by the Greene King subsidiary, the Spirit Pub Company. They provide more upmarket pub food, specials and cask ales and a number of the ...

" brand.

In literature

The Barley Mow was notably featured in chapter 18 of

Jerome K. Jerome Jerome Klapka Jerome (2 May 1859 – 14 June 1927) was an English writer and humourist, best known for the comic travelogue ''Three Men in a Boat'' (1889). Other works include the essay collections '' Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow'' (1886) an ...

's 1889 novel ''

Three Men in a Boat ''Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)'',The Penguin edition punctuates the title differently: ''Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog!'' published in 1889, is a humorous account by English writer Jerome K. Jerome of a tw ...

'':

Peter Lovesey Peter (Harmer) Lovesey (born 1936), also known by his pen name Peter Lear, is a British writer of historical and contemporary detective novels and short stories. His best-known series characters are Sergeant Cribb, a Victorian-era police detec ...

's ''Swing, Swing Together'' mentions the Barley Mow.

Gallery

File:The Barley Mow, Clifton Hampden - geograph.org.uk - 658518.jpg, General view. File:Barley Mow, Clifton Hampden.jpg, Closer view. File:The Barley Mow, Clifton Hampden - geograph.org.uk - 579388.jpg, The entrance. File:The Barley Mow, Clifton Hampden - geograph.org.uk - 579400.jpg, The Chef and Brewer pub sign, on the opposite side of the lane from the pub itself.

Bibliography

* Jerome, Jerome K. ''Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)''. J. W. Arrowsmith, 1889. * Richardson, Sir Albert Edward, and Hector Othon Corfiato. ''The Art of Architecture''. Greenwood Press, 1972. * Winn, Christopher. ''I Never Knew That About the River Thames''. Ebury Press, 2010.

References

External links