by Jon Malings


The Plough Inn was at the southern end of New Street, on the east side, a few houses up from the junction with St. Thomas Street. It is on the Deddington village map drawn up for the 1808 enclosure award at the north end of number 30.

The Deddington News of April 1977 has a picture of the Plough on its cover and inside a short article with brief mentions of other Deddington pubs. There is no attribution so it was probably written by Mary Robinson, the then editor:

"The Plough Inn still served ale by the jug in the lifetime of many of our older residents.  It closed its doors in 1927 and was re-opened as a butchers and poulterers in 1931 by Eli Walker, father of Percy Walker of Hudson Street.

At one time beer barrels would have been rolled from New Street down into the stone-vaulted cellar beneath the house. The fine groined arches on light columns date the cellar at least from the fifteenth century, but the crypt may have originated two centuries earlier in the chapel of the Black Friars Dominican order.  Rumour has it that a walled up passage led from the cellar to the Church or to the Castle but the lie of the land makes this virtually impossible.  Eli Walker had a go at uncovering the passage and it was left to Percy to brick it up again.

The cover picture, kindly lent by Mr. Fred Deely, was taken around 1900-1910 and the figure on the doorstep of the Plough was quite possibly Eliza Matthews, the landlady.“

A list of Deeds relating to the property including occupants can be found HERE

A Heritage Assessment carried out in 2022 to support a planning application for works on the building provides quite a detailed history of the building and its vernacular.

 

Plough 

 

 

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Editor's note: Eliza Matthews is listed in the Deeds. In the 19th Century two Matthews brothers emigrated to New Zealand. Their story can be found HERE

The 1841 census has 29 Matthews on it - not the brothers who had left by then - so Eliza the landlady may be relative/descendant of them.

In the parish archive there is also is an undated - but clearly late 19th/early 20th C - photograph of an Eliza Matthews née Shannon surrounded by Matthews men.

All room for more research to establish connections.