The Oxford Arms/The White Blackbird


The horse-drawn bus outside the pub (picture from SWOP website)	The White Blackbird public house	and as the site looks today

The coaching inn of yesteryear
With stable block and yard
Was just the place for warming cheer
In winter's ice cold hard.
A resting place to change your horse
Or buy yourself some ale,
A natural stopping place, of course,
If you're collecting mail.

Loudwater prospered and developed earlier than near by Flackwell Heath because of its position on the Wye and the location of the paper mills along the valley floor. This meant that it became a thriving centre for industry long before chair making made Wycombe famous. Loudwater, sitting on the London to Oxford Road, was also a good stopping point for the London to Oxford stage coach but this faced stiff competition when the Wycombe to Maidenhead/London railway was established in the 1850s. The Oxford Arms later became the White Blackbird and this pub remained for many years before its recent demolition.

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