Saracen's Head

Another in my occasional series about pubs in my local market town, Thame.  Sadly the Saracen's Head stopped selling beer in 1992 and is now an undertakers :-(

However, it is probably the oldest ex-pub in Thame.  Some beams in the vaulted medieval cellar can be dated to about 1315.  The building now at 7 Buttermarket (with an 18th century gabled exterior) was probably just part of a much larger medieval open hall house.  There is speculation about whether it was an ecclesiastical building or whether it belonged to the then lords of the manor.  Their crest was a Saracen's Head so that's certainly where the pub name came from even if it wasn't their old house.  For many centuries it was owned by the Trust formed to support the Grammar School, so the rents were all in a good cause.