#285 Ye Olde Reine Deer Inn, Banbury, Oxfordshire : 1998 to 2021

 One of the joys of visiting Banbury on the Oxford Canal is getting the chance to revisit Ye Olde Reine Deer Inn.

Our first visit was at lunchtime on Tuesday 8th September 1998 as part of our return journey from Oxford.

Not my best composed picture, but it shows off the pub quite nicely. I remember it being a proper pub that served food and somewhere that was worth revisiting.

We duly returned four years later at lunchtime on Tuesday 28th May 2002.

At first glance it looks to be unchanged (apart from the window boxes), but the sign has been replaced with a subtle change of name to Ye Olde Reindeer Inn and the removal of the supporting beam.

It wasn't too long before our next return on the evening of Monday 23rd August 2004.

Still the same pub sign and still the same old unspoilt pub!

It was to be a good number of years before we returned to Banbury, this time en route to the River Thames at lunchtime on Saturday 27th July 2019.

Not surprisingly, the signage had changed in the intervening 15 years and the pub had reverted back to being Ye Olde Reine Deer Inn. With the added bonus that the sign is now parallel with the (now pedestrianised) street below! Inside, the pub was largely as we remembered it.

It was only a couple of years later that we returned (twice, both lunchtimes) on Wednesday 19th May 2021 and Monday 24th May 2021.

Our first visit included my first drink inside a pub for many months! It was very quiet inside on both occasions, but it is still a wonderful pub.

#251 King's Head, Napton-on-the-Hill, Warwickshire : 1994 to 2018

If you're a canal enthusiast, you will have heard of Napton, but if not you almost certainly won't...until someone mentions that it's that place in the Warwickshire countryside with a prominent windmill on top of a hill that you can see for miles around.

Fortunately for us, the canal goes around the hill, so it is a flat walk to the pub. The Kings Head has never been one of our 'go to' pubs in Napton, but we may become more frequent visitors now that the good ship Peggy Ellen is moored near by and The Bridge Inn is now closed!

The first time we visited the King's Head was on the evening of Thursday 1st September 1994.

The reason that we ended up here was because we'd stopped quite early and had eaten in The Bridge Inn we decided to explore Napton for the first time. We walked into the village...up the hill...had a pint (or two) in the Crown and then headed back down the hill where we found the King's Head. As I recall, it was a typical (for the time) country pub that also did food.

It made such an impression on us that we didn't visit again for 20 years! This time we'd hired a boat from Wigrams Turn Marina and this was our destination on the last evening - Thursday 9th October 2014.

Amazingly, it was no longer an Ansell's pub, but had transformed into a fully fledged gastropub. It was what you'd expect in the Warwickshire countryside - somewhat upmarket with prices to reflect this.

We returned with the new boat Peggy Ellen for her new permanent mooring at Wigrams Turn Marina and so we ended the journey with another visit to the King's Head.

This was on Thursday 1st October 2018 and the pub had hardly changed in the intervening four years. It still is a place where you could just have a drink...but it is a restaurant, really! Just for those who like this sort of thing - they now serve Hook Norton ales, a guest ale and craft brews such as Carling, Estrella and San Miguel...bring your cheque book! We did enjoy the food and the evening so it worked on both levels!