The New Inn was on the site of the present 282 London Road. All that remains today is the frame of its old inn sign (above) which is still utilized by the current occupants.

The inn kept the name “New”, right up to its closure in the early 1930s. It was always listed as being at 162 London Road, because the major renumbering of that road (which meant the site became No. 282) did not take place until after it had closed.

Despite its name, the New Inn was a beer house, and the earlier landlords also had another occupation.

The New Inn was built in about 1859 to the east of the Workhouse on the London Road. This south-east part of the London Road is listed in directories under Headington Quarry village.

This map extract (right) shows the inn (the large square building) in 1921, with the New Inn Cottages adjoining it (two to the west and seven to the east). .

The 1861 census shows Thomas Snow (58), described as a stone merchant and beer retailer, living at the New Inn with his wife Mary Ann and their two-year-old son Fred. He had married Mary Ann Clare in 1858, and four older stepchildren with that surname lived with them.

On 19 May 1866 the forthcoming auction of the New Inn together with the nine adjoining cottages was advertised thus in Jackson's Oxford Journal:

TO BREWERS AND OTHERS.
VALLUABLE FREEHOLD PROPERTY,
A road-side FREE PUBLIC HOUSE, known as the “NEW INN”, together with
9 COTTAGES and large Gardens, all adjoining,
And fronting the Turnpike Road at HEADINGTON, about midway between Oxford and WHEATLEY, and several other populous villages….

Lot 1.—All that FREEHOLD PUBLIC HOUSE, known as the New Inn, comprising tap room, parlour, and kitchen, on the ground floor, four large bed rooms over the same, capital cellar in the basement, stabling for five horses and chaff room, with capital large hay loft, together with wash-house, piggeries, yard, and large garden attached; also Two COTTAGES on the west side thereof, each having a wash-house, piggery, and large garden, pump and well of excellent water, and other conveniences, the whole occupying a site of between 20 and 30 poles of ground, and fronting the turnpike road midway between Oxford and Wheatley.

Lot 2.—Seven capital COTTAGES, on the south-east side of and adjoining Lot 1, each having a wash-house, piggery, and about nine poles of garden ground, well of excellent water, and other conveniences, occupied by Messrs Elkerton, Bannister, and others, and producing an aggregate rental of £34 9s. per annum.

N.B. The whole of the foregoing Property is Freehold, Tithe-free, and Land Tax redeemed, and has been most substantially built within the last seven years of the best Headington free-stone range work, with blue slate, sash windows, and all other materials of the best quality. The public-house stands remarkably well for business, and is at the present time doing a very good trade; this Property may be fairly considered as first class of its kind.

On 7 September 1867 it was reported that the magistrates were unable to see the necessity for spirits to be served at this beer house, and its application was refused. The landlady at this time was Emily Stanton.

The 1871 census shows the road labourer Henry Quarterman (46) living at the New Inn beer house with his wife Mary. The previous landlord, the stone merchant Thomas Snow, was now a widower and living nearby in the New Inn cottages with his son Fred (12).

The 1881 census shows the beer retailer Daniel Stevens (31) living at the New Inn with his wife Jane and their three young children, plus a 13-year-old servant girl. On 3 January 1885 Stevens was summoned before the Bullingdon Petty Sessions for permitting drunkenness at the New Inn, but as his wife Jane had made a feeble attempt to get rid of the two drunken men, he was not convicted. Stevens, described as a brick burner, was still living at the New Inn at the time of the 1891 census with his wife Jane and his children John, George, Frank, and Amy. In 1899 Jane Stevens committed suicide here by drinking carbolic acid (see Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 6 May 1899). On 5 January 1901 Daniel Stevens married his second wife, the widow Mary Ann Billinghurst, the daughter of the late Richard Lamburn who had been miller at the windmill in Windmill Road. In the 1901 census Stevens, described as an innkeeper, was living here with his second wife Mary Ann and his son Frank (17), who was a bricklayer. In 1911 Daniel (61), described as an innkeeper and dealer, was living at the pub with Mary Ann and his son Frank (27).

At the time of the 1921 census John Henry Stevens (43), the son of the previous landlord, who was described as an out-of-work bricklayer, was living at the New Inn with his wife Rose and their seven children. (His father Daniel Stevens (71), described as a retired publican, was now living with his wife Mary Ann in Green Road, and died later that year.) John Henry Stevens remained landlord until the pub closed in about 1932.

The pub was rebuilt as the current shop in about 1932. In 1933 (when it was still numbered 162 London Road) the shopkeeper was Mrs Whetton. Thereafter it the shop is listed as 282 London Road: in 1935 the shopkeeper was Francis C. Whetton, and from 1936 it was Mrs F. Findlay.

Landlords of the New Inn (c.1860–1931)

• 1861 census: Thomas Snow
• 1867: Emily Stanton
• 1869–1877: Henry Quarterman
• 1881: Philip Durham
• 1885–1921: Daniel Stevens
  1921–1931: John Henry Stevens, son of the above