A
Potted History
Believed to have been built in 1560? For a local, yeoman
farmer or minor country noble.
Similar in style to a number of properties in the locality, ie Radcot
House, Kelmscot Manor and a number of properties in Langford and Kencot.
But not as great as these, thus indicating greater age or lower status.
Architecturally the front of the building is south-facing for maximum
light and warmth. Consists of ground, first and second floors, with the
second floor located in the eaves of the roof.
Although built as a farm or dower house, due to its proximity to Radcot
Bridge (either the oldest or second oldest crossing of the River Thames),
the Plough became an inn providing accommodation for travellers and stabling
for their horses. At one time there were stables on the right-hand side
of the building but they were demolished with the widening of the road
in the late nineteenth century.
Although Clanfield is promoted as the edge of the Cotswolds, most of the
surrounding land is high quality arable land formed by the alluvial deposits
of the River Thames. Thus a large percentage of the population were involved
in agriculture and this resulted in the Plough becoming one of a number
of tenanted public houses in the village.
Garnes Brewery Company of Burford, owned the Plough throughout the late
19th and early 20th Century (the old brewery is now the tourist information
centre). Garnes Brewery Company was bought by Wadworth’s Brewery
of Devizes, Wiltshire in the 1950s and thus ownership of the Plough passed
to Wadworth’s.
In 1968 Jean and Harry Norton acquired the Plough and what was then known
as the Masons Arms (now The Clanfield Tavern) and ran a trio of businesses
known as the Plough Hotel, Restaurant and Tavern.
The Nortons sold the business in 1979 and the Plough and the Tavern were
split into two separate businesses. There were two private owners throughout
the early 1980s and the Plough was acquired by the Hatton Hotels Group
in late 1984. They closed the hotel for a few months while an extensive
refurbishment programme was carried out. It then reopened as an upmarket
country house hotel and fine dining restaurant. The restaurant was awarded
a Michelin star in 1988 and 1989.
Hatton Hotels Ltd sold The Plough Hotel in 1995 to the Hodges family who
extended the property with a new seven bedroom wing in 2000.
The Plough was sold to Agius Kenyon Ltd in 2005.
