Looking for the "Bear Inn"

[alanmack]

This has been bugging me for years as I can't find the answer even hunting high and low with a certain search engine.

In the 1970's I helped a friend move some furniture from his great aunt's house in a very feudal village close to Thame. I presume it was in Oxfordshire  but as it is fairly close to the county boundaries it could be in Bucks or Berks as that was the direction from which we came.

The lady in question was the retired schoolmistress and remained living in the former "Bear Inn" which had names and dates from the 1700's scratched on the leaded lights of the ground floor windows. The only other things I can remember about the village was that it had no pub and the church had a clock with a twenty-four hour dial rather than twelve.

Can anyone help me identify the village please?

alanmack

[Ruskie]

I can't help I'm afraid, but am intrigued by the story.

If I were you I would slightly alter the subject heading - just in case the name of the Inn changed between the 70s and today. ( maybe something like - "looking for Old Inn - possibly called the Bear Inn" or similar wording, and perhpas even throw in possible counties. I just think that this way you may attract more people.

I think the 24 hour clock should help you narrow it down, but google throws up all sorts of irrelevant things.

Was the Bear Inn solely accommodation and not a pub?

[ShaunJ]

There was a Bear Inn at Souldern; and there was the "Bear and Ragged Staff " at Brookhampton. Not sure about 24 hour clocks though.

[alanmack]

Thank you both for you replies. In my first post I stuck to including what I was sure of but I can add a few things of which I am less sure.

I saw the church clock face myself but for the life of me I cannot remember whether it had a minute hand or not. I think not.

The Bear Inn had been owned (as everything in the village still was, bar possibly the church) by them in the Big House. It had been closed for a very long time and was probably unlikely to appear in any trade directories. The former schoolmistress had lived there most of her adult life. i.e. since appointment. She was unmarried and around 80 years old when I met her and delightful.

Hope these additions help not hinder.

[Ruskie]

So you were moving this lady out of the Bear Inn? Her name and place of death won't be of any help I suppose?

Are you saying that the Bear Inn or the Big House had been closed for a long time?

And your friend - you don't mention ages, but if he is still alive, is it possible to contact him to ask?

A village without a pub would have to be fairly unusual.  Can you recall anything else identifiable about the village? Location? hilltop or by a river for example? Winding road or straight road through the village? Location of church/graveyard? The Church is possibly one of the buildings which may have changed the least since the 70s.

[KGarrad]

Using PubsHistory.com, and their list of pubs from 1869, there are the following in Oxfordshire:

Bear, H. Allison, Market place, Banbury
Bear, J. Banbury, Bell street, Henley-upon-Thames
Bear, J. Bennett, Fritwell, Bicester
Bear, J. Dewbury, Sheep street, Bicester
Bear, E. Godfrey, Alfred street, Oxford
Bear, J. Haynes, Woodstock
Bear Tap, G. Clarke Woodstock
Bear Ragged Staff, Mrs. E. Wixon, Brookhampton, Wallingford

[KGarrad]

Using the same site#s search facility, the following come up in Buckinghamshire:

Aylesbury
Emberton, Olney
Chesham
Great Kimble, Tring


And from Berkshire:

Wantage
Hungerford
Reading
Maidenhead
Faringdon
North Moreton
Abingdon


Also: wouldn't the building be a Listed Building?
That might be another way to look for it?!

[Flattybasher9]

This one ?

http://www.menublackboard.com/mb_estab.php?e_id=8388621

Regards

Malky

[alanmack]

So you were moving this lady out of the Bear Inn? Her name and place of death won't be of any help I suppose?

We were simply moving surplus furniture to another relative in London. Since the old Inn was huge I imagine she might well have been in the process of moving elsewhere and 'downsizing' to somewhere more comfortable in the winter. I never knew her name or which side of my friend;s family she came from.

Are you saying that the Bear Inn or the Big House had been closed for a long time?

AND

A village without a pub would have to be fairly unusual. 

A bit like that old Australian record that used to be played on the radio when I was a kid: "The Pub With No Beer". As I understood it the village had been without a pub since The Bear Inn had been closed. (It does happen in England e.g. Soberton in Hampshire.) When the closure happened I know not but certainly before the end of the First World War when much stricter Licensing Laws came into force and hundreds if not thousands of pubs were closed.

And your friend - you don't mention ages, but if he is still alive, is it possible to contact him to ask?

Since he is only a couple years older than me I assume so, hence no names. We lost contact over thirty years ago.