The Maybush Inn
The Maybush Inn at Newbridge
The Maybush is nearest to Newbridge Farm, ABOVE the bridge on the Left (South) bank
(right and left always seen as going upstream)
Mooring actually by the pub is doubtful. Beware shallows
1859: Landing at the Maybush
Landing at the Maybush Inn, Newbridge, 1859.
The Maybush Inn is to the right of the bridge in the photograph which is taken going downstream.
The Maybush Inn (right) and Newbridge, from upstream.
Joseph Ashby-Sterry wrote 'AT NEW BRIDGE' in 'THE RIVER RHYMER' -
( Six pointed arches span the tide,
Five buttresses may be descried,
Stalwart and solid : it appears
They've stemmed the stream six hundred years !
So thus you scarcely need be told
That New Bridge is immensely old.
We pulled from Lechlade, understand
The crew were glad enough to land,
And at the "May Bush" pause awhile
As they with lunch the time beguile.
Here Celia made, we can't forget,
That memorable omelette !
Likewise a picture which we may
Here do our best to re-portray ! )
A QUAINT old kitchen in the quaint old inn,
With massive rugged beams and red-tiled floor ;
With ancient chimney-corner, where the fire
Glows clear and gleams upon the ash-strewn hearth !
It glints on oaken press and dishes blue
And sparkles 'mid the rosy copper pans ;
It flickers on the ceiling, stained and scarred,
And turns to gold the pots of battered brass :
While bright vermilion gleams on fire-dogs
And glorifies the ornate chimney-back !
'Twould form a fitting subject, it would seem,
For Metsu, Ostade, Teniers or De Hooghe ;
A pretty scene which only serves to frame
A picture even yet more beautiful !
Behold the dainty damsel standing there,
With all her thought devoted to her work !
The while she gently sways the hissing pan
And sings a blithesome ditty to herself.
Against the background dark, in bold relief,
She stands defined in all her girlish grace !
Clad in a simple grey-blue gingham frock
So deftly fashioned that it half reveals
As rapidly she turns from side to side
The undulations of her supple form !
Her sleeves, furled high, display her shapely arms
So white against the sunburn of her hands ;
Those subtle hands, which equally are skilled
In cooking omelettes or in twanging lutes :
Her pretty rounded cheeks are flushed with flame,
Which gleams amid her tresses closely coiffed ;
It clothes with ruddy light her graceful arms,
While adding lustre to those deep grey eyes ;
As bending o'er the glowing fire she finds
Her song is finished and the soufflé done !
[ Joseph, Are you sure you're still taking your tablets? ]
1956: Robert Gibbings Till I End My Song
When you've walked the two miles of towpath
downstream from Shifford and passed through the small grey Thames Conservancy
gate marked T.C.50, you need go no further, for already you are on the lawn of
the Maybush at Newbridge and doors are open to welcome you.
On one side of the house are the six pointed
arches of the medieval bridge that spans not only the Thames but its tributary
the Windrush almost at their junction;
on the other side are the seven rounded and more recent flood arches
that carry away the rising waters. You
might be in a ship at sea in that house, for from every window you look out on
to moving water, and day and night you hear the gurgling of the stream as it
divides at the massive buttresses.
Pill box
PRN 15723, 200 yards up Windrush on Right bank.
2012: Reported to be falling into river due to bank erosion.