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Date of photo: 1975	Image taken from the Sharing Wycombe's Old Photographs website www.swop.org.uk, and shown with the permission of the copyright holder Bucks Free Press
The Red Cow was situated at 16 Frogmoor Gardens. This pub was previously known as The Marlow Ale Stores and has now been demolished.
As a student at High Wycombe College between 1976 & 1979, the Red Cow, The King’s head, The Angel & Flint cottage in High Wycombe were the main seats of learning! The Juke box in the Games room of the Red Cow was where I discovered ‘proper’ music. Many artists say that when they first heard ‘so and so; they had never heard anything like it. This applied to me when I first heard ‘Space Oddity’ (Bowie), ‘I’m Mandy, Fly Me (10cc), Whisky in the Jar (Thin Lizzy) and ‘Somebody to Love’ (Queen) and would listen, mesmerised and enthralled, even if the juke box played with a bit of wobble and ‘wow sometimes. (don’t forget this played actual vinyl records, picking the up with a sort of claw, rotating them through 90 degs and placing them on a turntable , them placing the needle on it to play). The Red Cow was unusual in having a completely separate Games room with bar billiards, pool table, dartboard and pinball. The pool table was most popular with our group of 6, as it was with various other crowds, and we would set up piles of 4 x 10p pieces along the cushions to indicate how many games had been ‘reserved’ for play. If anyone else came in wanting a game, they would either have to out their 40o down and wait or, more frequently, walk out and go somewhere else. Tony who ran the Red Cow did a great line in sausage, egg and chips which seemed to be a staple diet for us, at about £1.50 a throw, a pint being 50p for keg and 80 – 90p for the real stuff (which was not too popular then. Strange that the Red Cow was ‘our’ centre for Pool, but the Rose in Denmark Street was the centre for Bar Billiards, and the Kings Head (Oxford Rd, was just for drinking. Denmark Street was where Stewart & Arnold’s Chocolate factory was and each Tuesday & Friday the whole town, and especially Denmark St and the Rose had that heady smell of raw chocolate that was nauseating and sweetening to the senses at the same time. Whilst we’re in the area of Denmark Street, further along and across the vast car park was the Roundabout in Bridge Street. The roundabout is still there, but had the tradition of being called ‘<<landlord’s name>> roundabout’. Thus when I was there it was ‘Farrows’ roundabout. This did gourmet lunches for the late 70’s. Dishes were homemade and included lamb cobbler and bacon badger. When I finally knuckled down and started to study, I’d work late into the evening, rewarding myself around 7.00pm with a trip to the Roundabout for a pint of Oxford ale and a superb brick-sized slab of bread puddin’, rich and sticky and glazed with sugar pieces. Ideal in front of the blazing fire, before the cold trek back across the car park to the bus station.
Chris Lee (February 2018)
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