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Picture source: Hania Franek

The White Horse was situated on Chavey Down Road and is now used as an Italian restaurant.

This pub closed down c2000. We live opposite in what used to be another pub, The Fox. Interestingly, on the other side of what was The White Horse is the Winkfield Row working men’s club. So, in the 1950s there must have been three drinking establishments within fifty yards of each other in a village of, at most, 300 people. When we arrived in 1985 the White Horse was a very small, quiet pub, I think still tied to Bass Charrington. The White Horse had a small public bar and lounge bar. In 1994 the publican changed. The tenancy was acquired by a man who was, according to the gossip, a member of one of the later iterations of the band Mungo Jerry. This new publican attempted to breathe life into the rather moribund pub by introducing, among other things, a petting zoo in what is now the car park, gourmet food, of various qualities, and live music, which received an ambivalent reception from the locals. He also, temporarily, changed the name of the pub to the White House, though reverted to the original after about eighteen months. All of these business generating initiatives apparently failed. The publican’s wife left him for his best customer, the loss of the customer being reported in the local press as more devastating that that of the spouse. Then, after a period of relative inactivity, the pub put on a November 5th event. The fireworks duly happened and then.... nothing. The landlord simply locked up and disappeared. The pub stayed derelict, windows and doors boarded up for about five years before being bought by Don Beni, a chain of pizza restaurants with outlets in Windsor and Wokingham. It has remained an Italian restaurant ever since.

Lee Taylor (November 2013)

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