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Stratford St Mary Swan
Stratford St Mary Swan
West, 51.96861,0.97278
Currently closed but expected to reopen.
The owner has informed us that the pub will be reopening in the near future.
Lower St, CO7 6JR
grid reference TM 043 341
bar / diner, opened 1520
The pub is shown on this old OS map from about 1902 (interactive map)
Plans to extend the pub in 2020 are still in progress and are nearing completion. The extension is almost complete but has required the relocation of the brewery. Once completed will provide views of the garden located to the rear of the premises. Mark Dorber was in touch in mid-October to inform us that the pub will be reopening soon.
An attractive and lively two bar pub in the village centre. An area to the rear of the lounge bar is used for dining. Pool and other pub games are available in public bar.
The building is part of a historic former coaching inn dating from about 1520. The original medieval structure was at least 3 times larger than what now remains and included a second wing located on the far side of the car-park, which was eventually destroyed by fire.
The inn also once had stabling to the rear of the premises, for about 200 horses. George II once stayed overnight here on route to London. On the other side of the road is a Victorian pumping station close to the remains of a lock on the River Stour, which is the county boundary and was once navigable from Manningtree (in Essex) to Sudbury.
The pub offers two to three cask ales, plus the odd beer on gravity from the cellar and over 75 bottle conditioned beers - a list that will grow.
A hop garden has been planted at the pub and a (very) small on-site brewery started production in September 2016.
The pub has been owned since late 2012 by Sophie and Mark Dorber. The Dorbers also own and run the Walberswick Anchor.
Facilities
Beer garden or other outside drinking area
Cider (real draught, not keg) available: Hecks
Evening meals
Family friendly
Lunchtime meals (not just snacks)
Parking
Real fire
Restaurant or separate dining area
Separate bar
Traditional pub games available: cribbage, dominoes NO POOL
WiFi available
Gallery
Nearest railway station
Historical interest
Part of a former coaching inn and posting house.
[...] at the height of the coaching boom it had stabling for two hundred horses. In those days it was a regular stopping place for the Norfolk farmers driving their flocks of turkeys and geese to London's markets. Strange though this method of transportation now seems, Daniel Defoe declared that as many as three hundred droves would sometimes pass the Swan in a single season. It is also possible that Queen Elizabeth visited the inn on one of her three journeys to Ipswich and George II, that most irritable of monarchs certainly spent a night here on 15th January 1736. On another January morning, in 1795, an insignificant youth waited at the Swan for the coach that was to carry him to London…
Landlords
(Most pub, location & historic details collated by Nigel, Tony or Keith - original sources are credited)
(some old PO directory information courtesy of londonpublichouse.com)
(** information from Stuart Ansell)
(*** historic newspaper information from Bob Mitchell)
(**** information from David Pooley)
Old OS map reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.
