Home > Oxfordshire > Northmoor > Dun Cow Dun Cow
Date of photo: 1991	Picture source: Michael Croxford
The Dun Cow was situated on Standlake Road. This grade-II listed pub closed in the 1980s and is now used as residential accomodation.
I well recall visiting this inn several times in the early 1980s while an undergraduate at Christ Church, Oxford. I was lucky enough to be allowed to keep a car at college because I was rowing and extra transport was needed to get men to the river at Wallingford. One of the crew – already a graduate – knew of the Dun Cow and suggested that we go there for a drink one evening in summer – and so we did. More than the once. We sat on benches in front of the inn and drank very good beer (Morlands of Abingdon, as I think) which was delivered in an enamel jug and drawn from a barrel in the back room as there was no bar – only a hatch arrangement. I remember going back – I think the following summer – and walking down by the river with a girl and then our having a drink at the Dun Cow afterwards. The place was wonderfully unspoiled and original and the lady who served us a friendly, chatty soul with the kind of rural W. Oxfordshire accent which is not heard often nowadays. Forty years and a full career later, it really does seem like another world
Jon Carley (January 2023)
I visited this pub several times in the 1980s. I've been in several pubs in the north of England where there wasn't a bar, the beer was poured in a back room. But the Dun Cow is the only such pub I've ever known in the south. At the back there was a garden with cages of exotic pheasants from around the world. I don't think it was generally open to the public, I think the landlady invited me and my friend, a keen birdwatcher, to have a look around one day.
Nick Wedd (February 2023)
Review from tantallon.org.uk:
Alister Dodds writes: However the most sadly missed pub in that part of Oxfordshire is the Dun Cow in Northmoor. It had no bar, just two living rooms, the beer was kept racked in the kitchen and served straight from the barrel. It became a private house about 15 years ago. (10.i.2000)
Listed building details:
Public house. Late C17/early C18 to left: C18 extension. Left range: colourwashed limestone rubble; gabled stone slate roof; brick end stacks. 2-unit plan. One storey and attic; 2-window range. Timber lintel over late C19 plank door to right of segmental-arched C20 three-light casement; C20 two-light casements in gabled dormers. Lower block to right of one storey and attic; one-bay range of similar materials with old tile roof and similar door and window. C18 extension of 2-storey, 2-window, range projects forward from right bail: rendered over light timber frame with gabled stone slate roof and external end stack of stone finished in brick; timber lintels over mid C19 casement, plank door and 2-pane sashes. Interior: step-chamfered and plain beams on ground floor. First floor not inspected.
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Other Photos
Date of photo: 1991	Picture source: Michael Croxford
Date of photo: 1991	Picture source: Michael Croxford
Picture source: Russell Judge
Lillian Foster, publican	Picture source: Emily Daly
	Picture source: Emily Daly