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                                     ... at The Fox have been many and varied.  From census records, the Steventon Parish Register, and from conversations with our customers (whose collective memory seems to know no limits!), I have pieced together as much as I can of the history of those who have held the licence at The Fox in Steventon.

 

	1814	John Tyrrell The Steventon Parish Register lists James Tyrrell, son of John and Katherine Tyrrell, being baptised on 24 April 1814.  John Tyrrell's profession is listed as Farrier, and his address as The Fox, so the family certainly lived at the pub as early as 1814, and as John was the owner when he died in 1828, one would have to assume that the family owned the pub back in 1814 too.   At the time of his death, John Tyrell also owned The Red Lion in Abingdon. This is the earliest record we have of ownership or residence at The Fox, and illustrates how closely knit village communities are, because the Tyrrells have continued as an important family in Steventon to this day.  One of John's descendents, Robert Tyrrell, now owns the family farming business, as well as The North Star pub, both in Steventon, and he and his family are regular customers at The Fox.  His daughter, Kerry, was the licensee at The North Star until 2006, when new managers were employed.
	1851	Joseph Clarke We have a gap between the sale of The Fox in 1828 and the 1851 census records, which list Joseph Clarke as a "Victualler and Carpenter" resident at The Fox, and it is probable that in those days it was difficult to make a living solely from inn-keeping.  (If I may make a flippant remark, not much has changed in the past 150 years!)  In 1851, Joseph was 30 years of age, and had a wife four years his senior, a son, a daughter, two servants, and a visitor, suggesting that The Fox has been offering overnight accommodation for many, many years. A Directory of Steventon taken from M. Billing's "Directory and Gazetteer of the Counties of Berks and Oxon" shows Joseph Clarke still at The Fox in 1854, listing him as "Victualler and Coal Merchant" and operating The Fox Inn and a "posting house".
	1861	John Wilkinson By the 1861 census, The Fox Inn (situated in Highway Lane, Steventon, confirming that what is now High Street was once the main coach route between Oxford and Southampton) had passed to John Wilkinson.  John is listed as an "Innkeeper and Grocer", and had a wife, Sarah, and daughter, Fanny, and a servant whose profession was given as "Hostler".  Ten years later, the 1871 census shows that John and Sarah still ran The Fox, and had gained a second daughter, Mary Anne.  He also had five servants by this time, one of whom was a "Harness Maker".  Indeed, some of today's customers remember harness makers working in the land adjoining The Fox, so this trade was carried out at The Fox well into the twentieth century.
	1881	James Jones The 1881 census shows that James Jones had taken The Fox.  He lived here with his wife and son.  On the day of the census, he had one visitor, recorded as a "Scholar".
	1887	Daniel Hunt A Directory of Steventon taken from Kelly's Directory of 1887 shows Daniel Hunt at The Fox Inn in 1887.  We have no other information about this licensee.
	1891	Harry Stevens By 1891 The Fox had passed to Harry Stevens.  Harry still held The Fox ten years later when the 1901 census was taken.  He lived with his son, Herbert, and two daughters, Catherine and Ada, all three of whom appear to have been born at The Fox.
	1920	Frank Stevens From conversations with our customers, I have learned that Frank Stevens had The Fox until 1920.  Bearing in mind that the previous landlord, Harry Stevens, did not have a son named Frank in 1901, it is unlikely that Frank was Harry's son, so perhaps he was a brother or cousin to whom the business had passed sometime between 1901 and 1920.
	1920 – 1949	Charlie Falkenstein Charlie Falkenstein took The Fox in 1920, and on 31 May 1926, his daughter Sylvia was born in what now serves as Room 2 in our Bed and Breakfast accommodation.  In 1946, Sylvia nearly put an end to herself and The Fox.  There used to be an open fire in what was then the Smoking Room (ah, those were the days!) and it was Sylvia's job to light it.  On this occasion, she lit more than the fire, and a horsehair chair next to the fire caught alight.  It was only the quick work of her husband and a resident (or border, as they were known in those days) that saved both Sylvia and The Fox.  Sylvia Springford is pictured here celebrating her 81st birthday at The Fox in 2007, just days before her husband passed away doing what he enjoyed most; walking in the pleasant summer sunshine on Steventon's idyllic village green.  Sylvia still lives in Steventon and has fond memories of her father's time as landlord here.  It's interesting to note that Charlie's mother, Sylvia's grandmother, once owned The Crown at Hanney, suggesting that the public house trade was a family business going back some years.
	1949 – 1962	Harry Webb In 1949, Charlie Falkenstein sold The Fox to Harry Webb, a well-remembered landlord at The Fox.  Harry (pictured here at a Licensed Victuallers' Association function around 1960) was the cornerstone of the Sunday Morning Club, a gathering of gentlemen from the local area who met at The Fox Inn on Sunday lunchtimes. In 1962, Harry moved to run The Boundary House in Abingdon, but the Webbs' association with The Fox didn't end there, as we were very pleased to welcome his daughter, Janet, back to The Fox in 2005.  And in 2007, his daughter Celia, with help from Janet, filled in some more gaps in The Fox's story.  We have a cartoon in the pub of the members of the Sunday Morning Club from 12 January 1962, when the club organised a dinner at The Beetle and Wedge.  Celia and Janet were able to put names to the faces in the picture, so we owe these two ladies a debt of gratitude in adding to our knowledge of The Fox's history.
	1962 – 1965	Peter Rowland We believe Peter Rowland was an ex-army major who had The Fox for roughly three years.
	??? - 1971	Bill Clark Bill Clark is a well-remembered landlord at The Fox, although no-one we have spoken to can date his tenure at the pub.  Everyone remembers Mrs. Clark, Micky, who sadly died of cancer on the premises.
	1971 – ???? (2/3 years)	Wally and Enid Byatt The Byatts were at The Fox from 1971, but we are unclear for how long they ran the pub.
		Gus Barrett Gus Barrett (of Barretts Engineering in Wantage) held the licence at The Fox for a period of about two years.  His brother ran The Fox at Denchworth around the same time, although precisely when that was we have been unable to ascertain as yet.
	???? – 1988	Les and Molly Little Les and Molly came to The Fox from The Fish at Sutton Courtenay.  We believe it was Les who moved the front entrance to the pub from the pavement to the door that we now use leading off the car park.
	1988 – 2004	Larry Hammans When Larry Hammans retired from The Fox in March 2004, he was one of Greene King's longest-serving licensees, having previously run pubs in Somerset and Dorset. Like Les and Molly Little before him, Larry and his second wife, Rosalie, had The Fish at Sutton Courtenay, which is where Larry met his third wife, Helen.  He and Helen took the Fox in 1988. Larry and Helen built the extension to the rear of the pub, extending the kitchen and creating a restaurant off the bar area.  At the same time they knocked down a number of internal walls in the main area of the pub to build a new bar in the position you'll find it today. In 1992 Larry hired a part-time barman named Peter Kidd, who worked at The Fox for the next six years.  Little did Larry realise that 12 years later he would be selling the pub to his former barman. Larry and Helen were divorced, but she remains a regular and welcome customer at The Fox.  (In 2004, Helen took the tenancy at The Vine in Long Wittenham for a short period, before it passed to Matt Gibbs, who had the pub for about a year.  Matt worked briefly as a chef in The Fox kitchen during 2007, another coincidence in the close-knit local pub trade.) Larry married his fourth wife, Hilary, around the time he bought The Packhorse at the top of Steventon Hill.  Meanwhile, his second wife, Rosalie, was employed to help with the bookwork, and Helen Hammans worked as a part-time kitchen assistant.  On some days, Larry would have three out of his four wives on the premises, enough for any man! Larry eventually sacked Hilary from her formal position on the company's books, and she sued for unfair dismissal.  The news hit the national newspapers, with the tabloids running stories along the lines of "Husband Sacks Wife!"  Hilary won the case and was awarded nominal damages.  Not surprisingly, they were later divorced. Larry retired to Spain in 2004. (Another concidence: just like Gus Barrett's brother, Larry's brother ran The Fox at Denchworth for a while.)
	2004 -	Peter Kidd I bought the lease to The Fox from Larry in March 2004, having previously worked just five minutes' drive away at the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority at Harwell for eighteen years.  I was both a customer and a part-time barman at The Fox going back more than fifteen years, and the full story of how I became the latest licensee can be found here.  The history of The Fox since then can be found in the news pages of this web site
	I have managed to trace the lineage of licensees back to 1814, but I appreciate that there are some gaps in this roll call, so if you have any further information, please let me know. Peter Kidd Landlord