My first ever visit to the Barley Mow was on the evening of 17th April 1980 on my first canal trip on Emma Jane. In those days I hadn't started taking a photo of every pub we visited. To get some idea of what it looked like, visit this link which shows the pub in 1976.
My next visit was a lunchtime stop on 1st September 1995 on our trip to take Emma Jane back to her 'new' moorings at Lapworth.
The Barley Mow is right by the Oxford Canal, just down a little lane close to Newbold Tunnel. The remarkable thing is that the next-door building is also a pub, The Boat. That makes it a perfect stop for a mini pub crawl!
Next time was another evening stop on 29th May 2000.
This photo is taken from outside The Boat looking back towards the canal.
Another five years later and we're back!
This was another lunchtime stop on 31st May 2005. By this time it looks like the pub was no longer an M&B house.
And finally...we move on to my most recent visit. This time we were on our way to have Emma Jane assessed for potential repairs to the cabin by Brinklow Boats who are a little further along the Oxford Canal. Unfortunately there aren't any pubs near the cut at Brinklow so we took the onerous decision to stop at the Barley Mow early in the evening on 30th May 2011.
The outside of the pub has had a complete makeover, but inside it hasn't really changed that much. There is a fairly extensive restaurant area serving very good food and, in the bar, there is a skittles table. This is always a bonus for us as we like to have a game of Northamptonshire Skittles (also known as Hood Skittles). We're not very good, but we both enjoy it having originally been shown how to play on our first ever canal trips.
