Six miles south and older than Oxford. Abingdon claims to be the oldest continuously inhabited town in Britain, and its pubs have stories to match.
Founded around 675 and dissolved by Henry VIII in 1538. It was not universally loved: townspeople rioted and sacked it in 1327 and again in 1431.
A pub has stood here since at least 1734. Three legends explain the name, from a building with a broad face to a drowned man's swollen face to a hanged man's. A specialist CAMRA source thinks all three unlikely and argues it was once the Saracen's Head.
A possible link to Abingdon's Mayor of Ock Street ceremony and ox-roasting tradition. If it holds, it may be the best living folk custom in the set.