The claim
Reached through a carriage arch off the Market Square, the King's Head keeps its cobbled courtyard, its stabling and a great hall where wattle and daub is left open to view. A window of 15th-century glass carries royal arms. The National Trust has held it since 1925; the Chiltern Brewery pours its own beer in the bar.
What the records show
The inn dates itself to 1455, and three deeds of 18 December that year stand behind the date. They survive among the Pakington family papers held by Worcestershire Archive, which files them under the King's Head Inn, and The National Archives' catalogue describes all three. In the first, William Wandesford, esquire, granted to Ralph Verney, citizen and mercer of London, and to five others, three messuages called the Kyngeshede, with a shop, a cellar beneath that shop and a cottage in Aylesbury; the other two appoint attorneys to give and to take possession. The deeds name the house by its sign and do not use the word inn. A lease of 1539 still calls it a messuage called the Kyngs Hed, and the earliest paper in the series to call it the Kinges Head Inne is a lease of 1650 to William Dawney of Aylesbury, innkeeper. On the building, Historic England's Grade II* entry, first listed in April 1952, gives fifteenth to seventeenth-century work with a fifteenth-century left-hand gable, and the Victoria County History of Buckingham (1925) calls the house a good specimen of a mediaeval timber house dating to about 1450, four ranges round a courtyard with a hall of five bays, kitchens behind it and stables. The National Trust has owned the inn since 1925 and the Chiltern Brewery runs the bar.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1455 | Claimed founding | The pub |
| 1455 | First record of a drinking house here | The National Archives' catalogue, on a grant of 18 December 1455 |
What to look for inside
- Three deeds of 18 December 1455 name messuages called the Kyngeshede
- Given to the National Trust in 1925
- Brewery tap for the Chiltern Brewery
Visiting
King's Head is in Aylesbury, England, at Market Square, Aylesbury HP20 2RW. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1160205
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_Head_Inn,_Aylesbury
- kingsheadaylesbury.co.uk/
- camra.org.uk/pubs/kings-head-aylesbury-115046
- www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/bucks/vol3/pp1-11
- ratings.food.gov.uk/business/370062
- discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/c071bf62-7394-4ffa-b7f5-27e2bfea13d2
- discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/81ad90ba-e9a3-4e05-835e-7cc970ff793c
- discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/afb0da2a-1598-4d4b-a094-7b31316fd9dd
- discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/1c2a7cd7-8856-4fc8-b2f0-4ed9992c182d
- discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/15fef819-f9a1-4ae1-aaad-b905f21789b2
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Oct 2026
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