Public Houses
Longworth has two public houses: the Blue Boar in the village and The Maybush Inn at Newbridge about 1 mile north of the village. The Lamb and Flag 2 miles south of the village was in the parish, however, boundary changes in 2011 moved the public house into Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor.
The thatched part of the Blue Boar was built in 1606 during the Great Rebuilding of England and the two storey part was added about 50 years later. It is not clear however whether it has always been a pub. As it is on the main route out of the village to the River Thames it was popular in the 19th century as a resting stop for horse, cart and drover. The current owner rescued it from dereliction in the late 1970s and has extended and modernised it while retaining the beams and open fires. It is the only one of five original licenced premises surviving within the village boundary and is now a gastropub.
On the Blue Boar pub sign, the white boar and the white rose on the pennant are the symbols of Richard III. The blue boar was the personal badge of the De Vere family who were the Earls of Oxford. Legend has it that when King Richard III was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, any White Boar pub signs were quickly repainted as Blue Boars, as an acknowledgement that the white boar was dead and the blue boar prevailed.
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