Gatehangers Association

Towards the end of the 1950s, a new gate was purchased for the village allotments (now the Playing Field). It lay against the hedge for several years until a couple of villagers decided that it was about time that it was hung. So, one Saturday morning in May 1962, Stan Ewers and Cyril Beattie completed the task. John Boughton suggested that they should mark the occasion and, to celebrate, they went for dinner in the pub. One dinner wasn’t enough; they decided to form the Gatehangers’ Association and make the dinner an annual event.

To this day, a men-only Gatehangers’ dinner is held each year in the pub on the third Friday in May. In 1994 the then pub landlord, Nick Parkin, decided that he would change the name of the pub to promote business and avoid confusion with other pubs called the Red Lion in the locality. Gatehangers’ seemed the obvious choice for a new name. At that time all the beer sold in the pub was delivered from the Wadsworth brewery in Devizes so Nick approached them and asked them if they would repaint the pub sign. They agreed, but to paint only one side. So from 1994 until September 2013, when the pub was renamed The Hundred of Ashendon, the pub sign depicted the Gatehangers’ on one side and the Red Lion on the other.

Contact: Pietro Ranieri 01296 651155