Throughout the centuries the address of The Boars Head has frequently changed between Windmill and High Street, and although placed in this history under Windhill it is actually in High Street.

Records first mention this inn in 1630 but it was certainly here in the 15th century – the west wing having been dated at around 1420. This being the case, it was very likely the original church house for St Michael’s and first used for the brewing of church ales – a fund-raising event whereby wardens begged or bought malt to produce beer, and then sold it to the public to raise funds.

Ales were the collective name given to any festive gathering or fund-raising event, among them: clerk’s ales; Whitsun ales and hockking ales. These events gradually died out, but were the forerunner of today's church bazaar. Records also show The Boar’s Head paid a rent of 2d. (approx. 1p) to the church in 1644.

With its three irregular gables and timber and plaster exterior, this inn is everything we have come to expect of a Tudor building but, inevitably, it has been subjected to some restoration and alteration. The quarter circle windows at the entrance were probably added in the 18th century and the inn’s original plaster covering was removed in the early 1900s to reveal the timber framework. Just to the left of the main entrance, high above the pavement, can be seen a filled-in medieval doorway.

Inside, an obligatory stuffed boar’s head surveys the bar from above the cavernous brick-built

fireplace, which is further complimented by a large wooden mantelpiece. This is said to be part of the original rood loft beam from St. Michaels church which, before the reformation, supported the figures of Christ, St Mary and St John above the screen at the entrance to the chancel.

When the protestant Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558 after the death of her catholic half-sister, Queen Mary, all articles associ ated with the Catholic faith were removed from churches throughout the kingdom.

In St Michaels this also included the rood loft, dismantled in 1564 and the timber sold off to local people. Church records show that one Robert Lewis paid the sum of 1s. 8d. (9p) for ‘a pece of roode loft tymber’, but it’s not known if Mr. Lewis was landlord of this innat that time or, indeed, if the ‘pece of tymber’ sold is the very same that now acts as a mantelpiece above the fire.

Stories handed down through the years tell of a network of secret passages beneath Bishop’s Stortford’s streets, some of which are known to exist while others are simply the product of vivid imagination. In the cellar of the boar’s head there is most certainly a bricked-up archway, said to be the former entrance of a tunnel that linked to both the church and waytemore castle.

No evidence of a tunnel has ever being found beneath the church to substantiate this, although to dig a subterranean passageway between the two would not have been impossible. Tunnelling towards the castle, however, would have been almost geologically impossible at that time, its

long route having to pass through gravel, sand and clay and also beneath the castle’s moat. During the mid 17th century the famous diarist samuel pepys regularly passed through bishop’s stortford and is known to have stayed at the reindeer inn at market square. However, after a ‘falling out’ with the landlady, betty aynsworth, he later frequented the boar’s head and is recorded as having dined here on 26th may 1668 : .. And so about noon came to bishop’s stafford {sic} to another house (the boars head) then what we were at the other day, and better used; and here I paid for the reckoning 11s, we dining all together and pretty merry.

Throughout the first half of the 18th century this inn was owned by the vicar of standon then, for a time, by licencees and others. In 1822 it came under the ownership of local brewers, Hawkes & Co, and from around 1834 until about 1848, the landlord was Abraham smoothy and his wife, Sarah. Born sarah wright in nearby sawbridgeworth, she married abraham in st dunstan church, stepney, london, in 1831.

When they left The Boar's head they moved to Elmdon in Essex to become licencees of The Wilkes Arms public house, but within two years abraham died. Instead of being buried in Elmdon his body was returned to Bishop's Stortford to be laid to rest in St Michael's churchyard. Sarah remained as landlady of The Wilkes Arms until at least 1862.

Irishman Michael Joyce is the pub's current landlord and general manager, taking over from Pat Haynes in October 2006.