Address:

The Bull and Butcher
Turville
Henley-on-Thames
Oxfordshire
RG9 6QU
(01491) 638283

Hours:

Open all day

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The Bull and Butcher

The Bull & Butcher is a 16th century timbered building. It has two bars with beamed ceilings. There is an open log fire on each side. One is an inglenook. The bar is smoking and the Windmill Lounge is non-smoking. There is a nice garden and an ample car park. The perfect English country pub, black and white timbered and right at the heart of a village so picturesque it has appeared on 'The Vicar of Dibley', in the ITV film 'Goodnight Mr Tom' and in the legendary children's film 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'. Built in 1550 the Bull and Butcher serves a number of real ales brewed by Brakspear and boasts two large log fires and a fifty foot deep well in the bar made into a table. The food is excellent, and recommended in major food guides; truly restaurant quality food but in the relaxed ambience of a public house setting. With a large car park and garden, the Bull and Butcher is only minutes from Junction 5 of the M40. The atmosphere in the pub is very friendly. In fact, it is often said that there is more 'Bull than Butcher'. Listed grade 2, the Bull & Butcher is in a conservation area and area of outstanding natural beauty set deep in a beautiful Chilterns Valley. Splendid food but certainly still a pub. The name 'The Bull and Butcher' or 'Bullen Butcher' stems from Henry VIII and Ann Boleyn. The pub got its first licence in 1617 after workmen on the church threatened to lay down tools if no refreshments were provided. The owner of the now pub, then house supplied ale and food for the workmen and a pub was born. It subsequently became licensed and known as the 'Bullen Butcher'. The pub has had many landlords over the centuries but only one known ghost, that of Lacey Beckett. It is said that in 1942 he shot his wife and dog in the upstairs bedroom of the pub then took himself off into the orchard, which is now the car park, and shot himself. The presence of Beckett's spirit has been felt on more than one occasion in the Bull and Butcher.