The Red Lion, Chalton — claims 1147

The Red Lion

South Lane, Chalton, Waterlooville PO8 0BG

Grade C · TraditionTrading · checked Sept 2026

The Red Lion claims 1147. No earlier record has been found.

Claimed

1147

First record

none found

Building

no single date

The building. A late 16th-century Wealden house with small 18th-century extensions at each end and 20th-century restoration; exposed frame, jettied upper floor at each side, hipped thatch (Historic England 1178528).

Thatched

Real ale

Food

Beer garden

Dog friendly

The claim

Opposite the church in a South Downs hamlet, the thatched Red Lion is usually called Hampshire's oldest pub, with a tradition that it was built around 1147 for the men raising St Michael's church; Historic England reads the frame as a late 16th-century Wealden house. The old public bar keeps its great inglenook, while a modern dining room at the back looks out over the downs.

What the records show

Tradition holds the house was built about 1147 for the builders of St Michael's church and became an inn between the 14th and 16th centuries. Two published readings now stand against that year. The Victoria County History of Hampshire (volume 3, 1908) calls parts of the house at least 500 years old — about 1400, counted from when it was written — and dates the church's oldest fabric, the chancel, to the middle of the 13th century, a hundred years after the house is said to have been built for it. Historic England's listing, read on 17 September 2026, is firmer still: it lists the Red Lion Grade II, first listed on 16 March 1954, and calls it a public house, a late 16th-century Wealden house with small 18th-century extensions at each end and 20th-century restoration, with the frame exposed, the upper floor jettied at each side, curved braces under the intervening eaves plate, painted brick infill, some flintwork at the rear and a hipped thatched roof. No documentary licence date has been published and nothing traced records drinking at Chalton in any year, so 1147 stands as tradition and the grade is C.

What to look for inside

Traditionally Hampshire's oldest pub
Said to have housed the builders of St Michael's church
Photographed in the 1850s (print held in the National Gallery of Victoria)

Visiting

The Red Lion is in Chalton, England, at South Lane, Chalton, Waterlooville PO8 0BG. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.

redlionchalton.co.uk Directions in your maps app