The Strickland Arms, Witney

The Strickland Arms is a solid village pub situated in Ducklington, one of the first Saxon parishes in Oxfordshire. Over the years the building has been the main meeting place, the local auction house and formerly the principle public house since 1839 in the village and it takes its name from the Strickland family who lived nearby. It’s a very solid brick built pub which is slightly let down by a non-descript entrance from the roadside, but is very pleasant once inside. Internally there is a main stone flagged floor and stone walled bar area with seating on the left side and two dart boards built into the alcoves of the large stone fireplaces. Then there is a separate carpeted dining room round to the right. Then beyond is a small garden area with bench seating, small smoking area and an Aunt Sally game board. According to the friendly landlady the pub maintains 2 Aunt Sally teams, 4 darts teams, 2 football teams and a golf society for the local villagers. It is a Wadsworth House and there are four Ale handpumps on the bar with Henrys IPA, 6X, Horizon (gone for my visit), and the seasonal St George & The Dragon. But we struck lucky with the timing as the pub was holding a bit of a mini beer festival for the first May Day Bank Holiday Weekend and there were a further seven regional ales being served from Polypins in the dining room, all at £3 a pint. There is a good home cooked food menu and the two mains we had were spot on as well as the beer. The village of Ducklington is a small detour off the A40 from the Witney By-Pass and I will certainly be utilising it again for a stop off when on this route again.