The History of the Inn
The Inn for All Seasons was built in the late 1600s as a coaching Inn on the main route west from London through Oxford, Cheltenham, Gloucester and onward to Fishguard on the west coast of Wales (now the A40).
Its original name was the Barrington New Inn and it was one of three hostelries owned by the Barrington Park Estate whose land surrounded them. The others were the Fox (Barrington) and the Merrymouth (on the road to Stow).
In fact the term“wagoning inn” might have been a more apt description as it was wagons that were used for transport at that time. It was not until towards the end of the sixteenth century that the wagon became used as a public conveyance, and only very rarely then.
Stage-coaches were the next great improvement and destined to change travelling. A kind of stage- coach was first used in London early in the seventeenth century. Towards the middle of the same century they were generally adopted in the metropolis, and later on the better highways emanating from London, travelling at the rate of two or three miles an hour.
Coaching Inns were a unique product of this era. They not only provided accommodation for man and beast, but also acted as stopping points for a network of timetabled coaches - a direct precursor of the railway system. Most coaching inns also provide 'posting' facilities for wealthier travellers, who could hire horses and post-chaise carriages.
Interestingly, whether or not the coach was to stop at some favourite Inn was determined, in most cases, by a vote of the passengers, who would generally appoint a chairman at the beginning of the journey. Under such circumstances one can imagine that there may have been many disputes about stopping at particular wayside-inns. Perhaps the driver had a pecuniary interest in some particular Inn and would exert his influence to get the consent of the passengers to stay at a place of his choosing.Being strategically placed almost exactly midway between Oxford and Cheltenham, the Barrington New Inn was in the perfect location, so hopefully there were no major arguments about stopping there!
It wasn’t particularly comfortable travelling by stagecoach or particularly cheap to stay at Coaching Inns, as these extracts from letters of the time illustrate –
"The roads are far from magnificent; they are generally just wide enough for two carriages; without ditches, not deep. A high artificial bank of stone and earth, with bushes growing on the top, too often intercepts all view beyond the next bend of the road, not a hundred yards of which is visible at one time. The horses are in general weak and tired, and unmercifully whipped,--so much so, as to induce us often to interfere in their behalf, choosing rather to go slower than to witness such cruelty."
“You must pay also, at the inns, the chambermaid sixpence a night, the "boots" (the person who cleans them) two pence a day, and the head waiter one shilling a day. The porter who takes your portmanteau up stairs moves his hat with "pray remember the porter, Sir." In fact, it is necessary in travelling through England to have your pocket well lined with pounds, shillings and sixpences; otherwise you never can satisfy the innumerable demands made upon a traveller by landlord, waiters, chambermaids, and coachmen, etc. etc”.
During the coaching boom from around 1810 to 1830, when some 3,000 coaches took to the roads, the Barrington New Inn continued to be successful and was known as a popular stopping point.
The Inn remained under the ownership of the Barrington Estate until more recent times. It took some time to drag the Inn into the Twentieth Century, as there was no electricity there or in the surrounding villages until 1937 and the building remained gas lit until the late 1950s. Eventually a lighting plant was purchased to serve the Inn. It was an eternal problem and when started (often with difficulty) could suddenly plunge the place into darkness at the most inconvenient times!
In the late 1950s the Barrington Estate decided to sell the Inn and it was purchased at auction by the Shell Company for £18000, who also purchased the nearby garage.
In 1964 Shell sold the Inn to Mr. Jeremy Taylor and his wife Diana.
Jeremy and Diana Taylor had been involved with the film industry, notably the film “A Man for All Seasons”. So they decided to change the name of the Barrington New Inn to “The Inn for All Seasons” the name that the Inn is known by today. The Taylors then spent a considerable amount of money restoring the premises, which had deteriorated some what by then.
The Sharp family bought the Inn some twenty years ago and continue to offer the relaxed hospitalityfor whichit is rightly famous.
