History

The Oxford Arms is an old coaching inn dating, in parts, back to the 17th century.  It was formerly known as The Salutation but was renamed The Oxford Arms at the end of the 19th century in honor of the Earl of Oxford who owned the Inn and a lot of the surrounding land.

The Oxford Arms is mentioned in Pugh’s Hereford Journal in the 1770’s where the Commissioners appointed by the Act of Parliament for repairing several roads leading into the town of Kington met at The Oxford Arms on Monday 3rd December 1790 at 12.00noon.  This was presumably a meeting of The Turnpike Trust.

 The Oxford Arms was a coaching inn, which meant that horses were kept ready for timetabled runs as opposed to posting inns where horses were at the ready all of the time.  As early as 1786 a coach left the Oxford Arms each Friday at 5.00pm bound via Hereford for London, it arrived at midday on the Sunday.

By 1826 mail coaches began running from Kington to Leominster and in 1835 to Aberystwyth and the London mail coach could by then complete its journey in 17 hours.   Also in the summer months a stagecoach from Worcester arrived at the Oxford Arms three times a week on Mon, Wed & Friday returning on the following day.

By the 1840’s, the railways were being constructed and in 1841 a stagecoach called Little Wonder went from the Oxford Arms to Hereford to catch another one called Mazeppa in order to catch the train at Cirencester.  In 1845, a stagecoach called The Rover, left the Oxford Arms each morning at 6.00am and arrived at Birmingham in time for the trains leaving for all parts of England.  It returned the same day.

The Oxford Arms has had its share of bad press over the years:
One of its landlords was transported for forgery.
Another landlord’s wife committed suicide in the Arrow, drowning her baby at the same time.

THE TOWN OF KINGTON, AUGUST 5TH 1862 – AN AWFUL CALAMITY BY AN EXPLOSION OF NEARLY 20 BARRELS OF POWDER
An account as taken from Parry – diary of Kington
   
Mr. Henry Meredith, ironmonger for many years kept a quantity of powder for blasting rocks in a shed attached to a barn in a field adjoining the Oxford Arms, northward of Duke Street.  The barn consisted of 4 or 5 bays and was built partly with wood and in part with stone, the roof was tiled, Workmen had been repairing the building for some days and there was hot lime on the ground close up to the building.

At a quarter to four o’clock in the morning of the 5th day of August the powder by some means became ignited and a most awful explosion took place.  The Writer R Parry was in bed at the time and saw a vast column of fire rise up towards the heavens and a dark cloud of smoke spread over the Town.  The windows in nearly all the houses were broken instantaneously and also in many houses in other streets.  The frames were broken in pieces in many instances and doors taken off their hinges.  The Oxfprd Arms suffered greatly on both sides and not one house in the street escaped.  All were damaged more or less and among the number the writer’s house suffered to a great extent.

The building in which the powder was placed was erected about the year 1835 at a cost of £400 and several sheds were added afterwards.  The whole building was cast down level to the ground and portions of the timber were hurled to a distance of upwards of a quarter of a mile.  The roofs over some buildings were thrown off, especially the roof over the Oxford Arms barn.  The windows of some houses in the Square at Common Close were broken and ‘The Fancy Hall’ erected at Sunset by John M Milner suffered to some extent by having the windows broken.  The windows in several houses in High Street were broken and one or two in Church Street.

The shock was felt at the Broken Bank on Bradnor Hill, at the Wych and at Old Kington.  The report, like that of a cannon, was heard several miles away from the Town.  There can be no accurate estimate of the damage but according to calculations made so far it cannot be less than £1700 or £1800.  Many houses were shaken as if an earthquake hade occurred and people ran about the streets not knowing what to do. 
On the day previous to the 5th August several barrels of powder were sold from the building, otherwise the whole of the inhabitants of Duke Street and probably the whole Town would have been buried in ruins.

Since the heydays of the Oxford Arms it has gone from being the best and most grand of places in Kington and surrounding area to being in more recent history a rather tired old lady in need of some love and attention.  It is our hope to rejuvenate this old girl and give here a new lease of life.