The Royal Oak
Common Lane
Swallowcliffe
Near Tisbury
Wiltshire
SP3 5PA

Tel: 01747 870457

Email: royaloak@swallowcliffe.com

• Small friendly village
  
• Good food served lunchtime and evening
  
• Log fire in winter
  
• Large attractive garden
• Jazz every other Sunday
  
• No juke box or fruit machines
  
• 1½ hours from London
  
• 1 mile from A30
• BBQ every Sunday
• Full 'a la carte' menu with freshly produced food
• Beautiful wedding venue - including an 80 person marquee
• Child Friendly
• Varied wine list

Tim and Trevor's 60th birthday at The Royal Oak, June 2003.

For more images of this event click here.

The Royal Oak Inn

The Royal Oak is at present closed but we will keep you posted.

Public House and restaurant

The Royal Oak Inn is over 400 years old and is a stone thatched inn in the heart of Wiltshire.

The country style interior makes the Royal Oak a pleasurable place to linger in the beautiful village of Swallowcliffe.

History of the Royal Oak Inn
by Ralph Venables
Swallowcliffe's Royal Oak Inn was established in 1852. Already old, the building had hitherto served as a tannery, and, within living memory, the inn was still referred to as the tanyard by local residents.
The Royal Oak is constructed of Tisbury stone, the older half having stone mullion windows and a steep-pitch thatched roof. Of the numerous inns bearing this historic name, there can only be few that have gone through less change in outward appearance than our own pub.

Inside is one long bar (two small rooms in years gone by) with a very fine open fireplace at the eastern end and a considerable quantity of original oak beams. Another room was converted into a restaurant where excellent lunches and dinners are served for those customers who prefer not to eat in the public bar.

The longest serving landlord was the late George Hansford, who took over duties as publican in 1823 and carried on until his retirement nearly forty years later. Mr Hansford died in 1865. In his era, the interior of the inn was seemingly unaltered from the day when Thomas Wright decided to close down the tannery and turn his premises into an ale house. Eight years later, the inn became the property of Charles Godwin, a brewer living at Shrewton. He paid Mr Wright the sum of £203.

It remained in the Godwin family for 39 years before being acquired by another brewer, Henry Styring, of Tisbury, for £550 - and in 1933 it was bought by Eldridge Pope, of Dorchester.