Home > Buckinghamshire > Chalfont St Giles > The Pheasant The Pheasant

Picture source: Hania Franek

The Pheasant was situated on London Road. This pub was acquired by the Weller Brewery in 1822 and closed in 2008. It is now used as a vets practice and is grade-II listed.

Now a vet's surgery, this used to be a popular halt on the road between London and Aylesbury. My first recollections are of a rather narrow bat with a collection of stuffed creatures in glass cases and of course the ubiquitous (and thoroughly dismal) Ind Coope Superdraught Bitter. I seem to recall that at one point, its name was changed to something wholly inappropriate, which occasioned howls of protest from the villagers and was fairly swiftly changed back. In later life The Pheasant improved substantially and from selling the revered Burton Ale it went on to stock any number of excellent real ales, but for whatever reason its day were numbered. Quite why the pub company wanted to disinvest is unclear as it occupied a prime location and had a substantial car park. Once having ceased to be a pub, it traded briefly and one must assume unsuccessfully as a fish restaurant before opening its doors to all creatures great and small in the 2000s.

Chiltern Tapler - Winter 2015/2016 edition

Unbelievable that this pub closed. Prime position, big car-park, hundreds of years old olde world building. I have memories of passing it as a child in the early/mid 70s when it was a Benskins pub with a bid sign on the side wall (on Pheasant Hill) of a dressed pheasant Uand all the trimmings ready to be served for a meal. Only went in once just to have a look when visiting the village after I’d moved away and it was equally nice inside. Cosy but with enough space to make something of it. There were 9 pubs in the village when I first remember as a kid back in the early 70s now there’s only 4 left which I suppose is about an average rate of loss. I believe in the previous 100 years there was only one other loss which gives an idea of what has happened to English pubs in the last 30 years. The Uncle Toms went in the early 70s but the other 4 have all gone much more recently in a very short period of time.

Andrew Hall (January 2026)

Listed building details:

C16 with C19 front range. Timber-framed rear range, roughcast C19 range. Parallel roofs, old tile to rear, slate to front. Two storeys, 3 bays. Rear range, brick and flint rubble ground floor, first floor timber-framed with return elevation to road jettied having coved cornice concealing jetty beams. Ground floor Yorkshire sash, first floor double hung sashes. Front block, roughcast with applied timber-framing to upper floor. Yorkshire sashes to upper storey late C19 bay windows and addition to south-east.

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Other Photos

Picture source: Movement80