No Swan So Fine, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Eat and drink · Kelmscott
The Plough, Kelmscott
Kelmscott's village pub, a listed stone inn dated 1690, a few minutes from Kelmscott Manor and the Thames Path, serving British pub classics, breakfast and Sunday roasts, with a garden and eight bedrooms.
The village pub and the place to eat when Kelmscott Manor is shut: British classics done well, a log burner and a garden, five minutes across the fields from the Thames Path.
- Good: British pub classics and a Sunday roast
- Good: Five minutes on foot from the Thames Path
- Good: Garden for summer, log burners in winter
- Good: Eight bedrooms
- Worth knowing: Sunday food ends at 6pm
About
The Plough is the village pub in Kelmscott, the village by the Thames where William Morris had his country home. Its Grade II listed stone building is dated 1690 and was extended in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Inside are flagstone floors, beams and log burners in the bar and dining room, with a garden for summer and eight bedrooms upstairs. Kelmscott Manor is a stone's throw away, and the Thames Path is a five-minute walk across the fields.
The menu sticks to British pub classics: battered haddock and chips, a confit rabbit and leek pie, steak with fries and garlic butter, double Gloucester soufflé, and a Sunday roast the pub is proud of. There are lunch, evening, children's and breakfast menus, including breakfast for non-residents. On weekdays from 3pm to 6pm there is a happy hour on selected drinks, and Thursday is steak frites night (as listed on the pub's site in October 2026).
Food runs at lunch and dinner from Monday to Wednesday, all afternoon from Thursday to Saturday and from noon to 6pm on Sundays. The pub's own pages disagree on some times, so check before setting out. The Gin Pantry, a small room for six to ten, can be booked for private meals.
A few miles upstream, the walk from Lechlade by the Thames explores the same flat river meadows.
Opening hours and season
Closed, opens Mon 9, 08:00
| Mon | Opening | Food served |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 08:00 to 22:00 | 12:00 to 14:30, 18:00 to 21:00 |
| Tuesday | 08:00 to 22:00 | 12:00 to 14:30, 18:00 to 21:00 |
| Wednesday | 08:00 to 22:00 | 12:00 to 14:30, 18:00 to 21:00 |
| Thursday | 08:00 to 22:00 | 12:00 to 21:00 |
| Friday | 08:00 to 22:00 | 12:00 to 21:00 |
| Saturday | 08:00 to 22:00 | 12:00 to 21:00 |
| Sunday | 08:00 to 22:00 | 12:00 to 18:00 |
The pub's own pages give two sets of hours. These are from its home page. Check before you travel.
The details
- Food
- Pub classics
- Serving
- Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner · Sunday lunch
- Dietary
- Children's menu
- Booking a table
- Booking recommended
- Rooms
- 8
- Features
- Garden or terrace · Open fire · Private dining
- History
- Dated 1690, extended in the 18th and 19th centuries
Photos
The front of the Plough Photo: Victuallers, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons 
A bedroom 
A ploughman's lunch 
Pie and a pint
Location
Places to stay nearby
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The Plough, Kelmscott
Pubs · Kelmscott
Kelmscott's village pub, a listed stone inn dated 1690, a few minutes from Kelmscott Manor and the Thames Path, serving British pub classics, breakfast and Sunday roasts, with a garden and eight bedrooms.
Verified Oct 2026
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Manor Farm B&B
B&B · Kelmscott
A late seventeenth-century farmhouse B&B with three en-suite rooms on a working farm in Kelmscott, with a shepherd's hut and a pod, each with its own wood-fired hot tub, in the meadow across the lane.
Family-friendly · Walker-friendly · Hot tubs
Verified Nov 2026
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The New Inn Hotel
Hotel · Lechlade-on-Thames
A 17th-century coaching inn on the Market Place in Lechlade-on-Thames, with thirty rooms, a restaurant and bar, and weddings.
Wedding venues
Verified Nov 2026
Nearby walks, places and things to do
- Manor Farm B&B 0.1 km away
- Kelmscott Manor 0.1 km away
- Cotswold Boat Hire, Buscot Lock 2.3 km away
- Buscot Park 2.4 km away
Sights nearby
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St Mary's Church, Buscot
Sight · Church · Lechlade-on-Thames
Buscot's small thirteenth-century church by the Thames below Lechlade, with a full set of Morris & Co. windows designed by Edward Burne-Jones from 1892 to 1924, a zigzag chancel arch and the Loveden monuments by Robert Cooke. Grade I.
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Father Thames and St John's Lock
Sight · Monument · Lechlade-on-Thames
Raffaelle Monti's reclining river god, modelled in cement for the Crystal Palace in 1854, beside St John's Lock below Lechlade, the first lock on the Thames. He lay at the river's source from 1958 until vandals drove him here in 1974. Grade II.
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St Lawrence's Church, Lechlade
Sight · Church · Lechlade-on-Thames
Lechlade's wool church on the Market Place, rebuilt in Taynton stone in the 1470s, with a spire seen across the Thames meadows and a churchyard that moved Shelley to verse in 1815. Grade I; closed for restoration through 2026, with reopening expected by Christmas.
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River Thames at Lechlade
Sight · River · Lechlade-on-Thames
The young Thames at Lechlade, where the Coln and the Leach join it and the old Thames and Severn Canal met it at the Round House: long the head of the navigable river, with the Thames Path past Halfpenny Bridge to St John's Lock.