The main coach and vehicle entrance to the galleried courtyard was from Castle Street, where the Ram had a frontage of about 186 feet (60.3m).

In pre-railway days the Ram was probably the most important inn (and later hotel) in Cirencester, but with the decrease of long distance horse drawn wagons and the withdrawal of the cross country Royal Mail stage coaches from Oxford, Bath and Cheltenham, a slow decline in the Ram’s fortune led to it being advertised for sale in 1863. The advertisement for the sale stated that the hotel ‘contained a bar, coffee room, commercial room, three private sitting rooms, smoking room, large market room, 15 bedrooms and extensive kitchens and domestic offices plus underground cellars’. In addition there were ‘stalls and loose boxes for 30 horses’.

By August 1863 the Ram Inn had been bought by the Cirencester Hotel Company for £2,625. The Cirencester Hotel Company also owned the Kings Head. Business must have fallen off even more because an advertisement in the ‘Standard’ in 1875 said that the directors of the Cirencester Hotel Co. had determined to let off ‘a further portion’ of the building having already disposed of some of the property. The Castle Street frontage had been reduced to some 38 feet and 3 inches. (11.7m). The accommodation then consisted of a bar and parlour; one large first floor room; three bedrooms; good attics; kitchen; indoor WC and extensive cellarage.

The front of the Ram looking out on to the Market Place was converted into shops; the site on the corner of the Market Place and Castle Street was let to John Jefferies & Son, the shop next to it was taken by Stradlings. The Ram Inn closed in about 1894/5 when the whole building was pulled down to widen Castle Street and make way for a development of shops and offices commissioned by the Bathurst Estate.


Courtesy Paul Best

Licensing Details:

Owner in 1891:  Earl Bathurst (leased to Cirencester Brewery)

Rateable Value in 1891: £12.15s.0d.

Type of license in 1891: Alehouse


Landlords / Proprietors at the Ram Inn include:

1820 Robert Tyler

1830 John and Richard Weaver (Ram Inn, Gosditch Street)

1830,1861 James Stevens

1891 Alfred Stallard

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