Edward IV was on the throne when “The Shoulder” was built in approximately 1468 to house the craftsmen who were employed to build the West Tower extension to the church. So, for over 500 years, it has been a social cornerstone of the village and is a shining example of a late medieval English inn – a timber framed building with inglenook fireplaces, thatched roof and heavy oak beams.
There’s a long line of hosts who managed the pub that can be traced to 1794. The present host, Lewis, suggests the name of the pub can open up more about its history. He suggests it dates back to when people would go on religious pilgrimages to churches, cathedrals and shrines, often taking weeks to travel to their destinations and needing to do so as cheaply as possible. En-route they would need to stop for food and lodgings and it was widely known that a shoulder of mutton was a cheap cut of meat and thus was a cheap dish that was served to the travelling pilgrims and became an inn’s name. Lewis has noted that, when looking on a map there are two other Shoulder of Mutton pubs, one north in Calverton and one south in Wendover – with Little Horwood’s being in the centre of this rough line. This could suggest that all three pubs were part of a pilgrimage trail.
For centuries pubs have been the place for social interactions, to gossip and talk about religion and politics and to do business, but during the Civil Wars in the 17th century, they also became places to plot and plan, particularly in this area. Aylesbury was a parliamentary stronghold, as was Mursley, and while Swanbourne was on the side of the King, Little Horwood was neutral – so interesting conversations must have happened between villagers in The Shoulder during the Civil War years. If only the walls could talk……!
The Shoulder also acted as an emergency refuge during the Second World War when a Wellington bomber crashed and exploded in the field behind the Church Street cottages. Locals recall taking shelter in the pub’s basement.
The pub closed for a couple of years in 2016, but the village community rallied together to painstakingly restore the building to its former glory and opened it as a community pub before Lewis took over in 2020.