Inn · Stow-on-the-Wold
The Kings Arms, Stow
A former coaching inn on Stow's Market Square with ten rooms, three of them split-level stable rooms, a restaurant and its own parking.
Dog-friendly
On the Square with its own car park, which is rare in Stow, and two rooms for dogs. The restaurant cooks with meat from a local butcher.
- Good: On-site parking
- Good: A family room among the ten
- Good: Restaurant open at lunch and in the evening all week, with a Sunday lunch
- Worth knowing: Dogs in rooms 2 and 3 only, for a charge
- Worth knowing: Some rooms up a steep original staircase; check-in times not published
About
The Kings Arms stands on the corner of the Market Square in Stow-on-the-Wold, a few steps from the market cross. It describes itself as a former coaching inn of Cotswold stone, more than 500 years old, and the story it tells is that Charles I stayed here in 1645, around the time of the Battle of Naseby.
There are ten rooms: seven en-suite rooms in the main building, including a family room, and three split-level stable rooms in the courtyard. Dogs are allowed in rooms 2 and 3, the Mouse Hole and the Stag Room, which come with a bowl, a bed and treats, for an extra charge. The family room is room 7, the Warren. Some main-building rooms are up a steep climb on the original staircase. The inn has off-street parking of its own.
The restaurant opens at lunchtime and in the evening through the week, with seasonal menus, meat from RD Walkers, the butcher in Moreton-in-Marsh, a Sunday lunch, and toasted paninis from noon to 2.30pm, Monday to Saturday. It will try to cook dishes not on the menu and offers smaller portions for less. There is also a pub bar.
The details
- Serving
- Lunch · Dinner · Sunday lunch
- Rooms
- 10
- Features
- Restaurant · Bar · Parking · Family rooms · Dogs in rooms
- History
- Coaching inn over 500 years old, it says; Charles I said to have stayed in 1645
- Parking
- Off-street parking on site.
Photos
A bedroom 
The bar 
Steak and chips 
By the stove
Location
Nearby walks, places and things to do
- The Old Bakery Tearoom 0.1 km away
- The Porch House 0.1 km away
- Stow Lodge Hotel 0.1 km away
- Huffkins, Stow-on-the-Wold 0.1 km away
Sights nearby
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Market cross, Stow-on-the-Wold
Sight · Monument · Stow-on-the-Wold
Stow's market cross stands in the southern half of the Market Square: a medieval calvary and socket stone, probably of the fourteenth century, carrying a shaft and lantern head restored in 1878 and again in 1995, when its four carved panels were restored. Grade II and scheduled.
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St Edward's Church, Stow-on-the-Wold
Sight · Church · Stow-on-the-Wold
St Edward's is Stow-on-the-Wold's Grade I parish church, beside the Market Square, with a fifteenth-century tower seen across the wold and a north door framed by two yews. Royalist prisoners were held inside after the battle of 1646. Open daily.
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Pineapple Spa, Lower Swell
Sight · Historic building · Stow-on-the-Wold
The Pineapple Spa is a row of cottages beside the B4068 between Lower Swell and Stow-on-the-Wold that began as a spa over a mineral spring found in 1807, with a front in the Indian style of Sezincote and a stone door hood crowned by a pineapple. Grade II*; private.
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St Mary's Church, Lower Swell
Sight · Church · Stow-on-the-Wold
St Mary's at Lower Swell, a mile west of Stow, is two churches in one: a twelfth-century nave and chancel, now the south aisle and chapel, beside a larger church of 1852. Its Norman doorway has a Tree of Life tympanum and its old chancel arch rare carvings. Grade II*.