The Crown Horns

10/10

Exceptional

06 May 2026

Robert

Lovely pub and inn at the heart of the village. The room was lovely, very comfortable! At the end of each day I would arrive back at my room to find a homemade cookie waiting for me; it's these little touches that really demonstrate attention to detail and the thoughtfulness of the staff. It's a Dog friendly hotel, and there was a very cute friendly dog who greeted me as I went to check in.
Would highly recommend, and will certainly stay again!
Useful hotel for those walking or cycling through the Chiltern Hills, located relatively close to the Ridgeway Route.

Self

4/10

Poor

08 Mar 2026

David

The room, specially the bathroom, needs a deep clening

Self

10/10

Exceptional

30 Jan 2026

Bruno

tidy, clean, quiet, supportive staff
I can recommend

10/10

Exceptional

16 Aug 2025

Verified traveler

My go-to place for Harwell campus

Always a comfortable and hospitable stay. Basic, but cozy, and friendly service.

Business

10/10

Exceptional

19 Jun 2025

Lauren

A very warm welcome from a friendly team. The food here is great. Highly recommended to anyone walking the Ridgeway!

Leisure Friends

8/10

Excellent

01 Jun 2025

Andrew

The Crown and Horns has always been a good choice for me to stay. Clean, friendly, affordable.

Business

8/10

Excellent

01 Jun 2025

Andrew

The Crown and Horns has always been a good choice for me to stay. Clean, friendly, affordable.

Business

8/10

Excellent

01 Jun 2025

Andrew

The Crown and Horns is a lovely little pub close to the Harwell Science & Innovation campus. Rooms are small, but clean and affordable. The pub itself is cosy and welcoming.

Business

6/10

Pleasant

21 May 2025

Matthew

Crown & Horns

Wifi was shockingly bad. Only limited food available in the restaurant as in yku had a choice of about 4 meals. No cider on draft . My towel smelt like it had been dried with the kitchen exraction fan as it had a distinct amell of chip fryers...

Business

6/10

Pleasant

28 Jan 2025

Verified traveler

A really lovely place with a few issues this time

I've stayed before and it's a really lovely pub, friendly service, nice grub and above all a really comfy bed. I was a bit disappointed this time though because a few things have slipped and whilst small they amounted to a slightly uncomfortable stay. Firstly the room was freezing cold, like a fridge on arrival as the radiator was off. It became apparent that this is because the windows have gaps around them even when closed (it's a lovely creaky old building so to be expected but this was extreme). I managed to whack the radiator on and tried clogging the gaps with the towel and a cushion which improved things. Some curtains would have helped rather than creaky blinds. Second issue was that whilst there were nice biccies and toiletries there was no milk! I remembered from before that you have to walk down the hallway and a flight of stairs to fill-up from the fridge but there was none here either. I was in my bedclothes by this point so not keen on going to the bar to request some which meant my evening cuppa was cancelled. No milk in the morning either. There is a cafetière to raise your hopes but no coffee to put in it. The rooms also have no cosy lighting, only the main light and some cold LED reading lights so it's a bit all or nothing. They have 'do not disturb' signs but nowhere to attach these to the outer door. It would be lovely if these issues could be resolved as it would really be a top-notch place with a bit more attention to detail. Thank you.

Business

8/10

Excellent

02 Nov 2024

Andrew

Solid choice

Second time staying here. Rooms are clean and efficient, staff are friendly, and the pub is cozy.

Business

6/10

Pleasant

13 Oct 2024

Sheran

Over rated. Dangerous stairs. Very loud water pump in bathroom. Ordinary bed - ended up in the middle of the bed all night. Little light in the room. Only one bedside light. Badly placed furniture & no where to put anything. Cosy bar & dining room that was well laid out. Staff were very good.

6/10

Pleasant

22 Jul 2024

Philip

I am going to be kind here, and take into account that the Manager, a very nice & polite young man (named Zak??), advised us upon our arrival that he had only just started running this pub in the past 2 weeks. Apparently his boss had just bought the place after it had been \"run down for a while\".
With that in mind.....
The good points were that the staff were very friendly and helpful. We were supposed to book in by 9pm, but because i finished work later than anticipated, and we had to drive from Essex, we didn't arrive at the pub until 22:30. The pub rang us just after 9pm to check if we were still coming, and said it was no problem if we arrived late.
Once we finally got there, we were told that there was no breakfast available, despite us being advised on the website that cooked breakfast was available
Zak said that in compensation for no breakfast, they had put small individual boxes of cereal out, on top of a bar fridge, with cold milk, orange & apple juice.
The choice of cereal was limited to Corn Flakes, Rice Crispies & Special K.
The room was smaller than i expected, but was ok for 1 night.
The day we arrived was very very unseasonally hot. 32°! So, consequentially, our room was very hot.
It was very warm in the room. Too hot to sleep. The addition of a fan would have helped. All the windows had wire stays fitted to them, to stop guests opening the windows too wide. Thankfully our window stay was broken, so we had our window wide open! No regular coffee in room.

Leisure Partner

6/10

Pleasant

21 Jul 2024

Jason

Nice but no breakfast available!!

Nice place but we were advused tgere was a continbreakfast available tye following mornibg when we checked in, and ut also stated tgat breakfast was available for an additional charge. However, when we asked the foloowibg mornibg qe were told that there was no breakfast available.

The room was nice but lots of spiders, maybe down to the time of year.

Partner

10/10

Exceptional

16 May 2024

Clare

A bit noisy and very light

Just a little bit noisy from the beer garden. Need earplugs. Also need curtains at the window, it was very bright with just blinds.

Business

8/10

Excellent

11 Mar 2024

EMMANUEL

Nice little place for a night

The staff is really nice and helpful, it is not the best hotel in the world, but it is clean, comfortable and welcoming for a night stop on business trip. The food is good, at pub standard, the only missing part is a breakfast more elaborate. It is the little place like that that makes you love the countryside of Britain

Business

8/10

Excellent

22 Feb 2024

Keith

The property is and the game building work, so a lot of restriction of where you can walk. I’ve booked a double room ended up with a twin bedded room disabled there was no mugs or cups of coffee hadn’t been replenished. Went to put the rubbish in the bin and it is totally full. I don’t think the room has been cleaned properly. There was coffee stains on the bedside cabinet and running down the front would’ve been a nice place ivan least you problems

Business_and_leisure Self

6/10

Pleasant

27 Aug 2023

Harald

Nice Staff, poor cleaning and loud neighbours

Leisure Friends

8/10

Excellent

17 Jul 2023

John

Good location

Great location, perfect for what we wanted, comfortable. and the chef went out of his way to cook a full breakfast, (boy was it full) on the first day, although they do not apparently offer this normally, on the second day we had to just have cereals and no service was offered, no coffee or toast, which was a shame as it took the edge off. But overall, good

Partner

8/10

Excellent

24 Jun 2023

Mark

A quiet pub, one of two in the village ( no other shops) . If coming down from the north or west UK it would be a perfect final stop before dropping the car off at Heathrow Airport . Comfortable and clean rooms upstairs. The shower recess was a little tight for room. Very good food but eat early

Friends_and_family Friends

10/10

Exceptional

23 Apr 2022

Andrew

Lovely old inn with annex accommodation cosy and adequate. Bar and restaurant excellent in evening, but no breakfast available.

Leisure Partner

10/10

Exceptional

04 Apr 2022

Paul

A couple of minor issues but otherwise very good.

Very friendly and helpful staff. High end Bosch coffee maker in my room but I needed a demonstration to learn how to make it work (it made excellent coffee for a machine). Breakfast is cereal they give you the evening before: there's no cooked breakfast. Small hotel and no one is on-site in the morning for check-out: you leave your key in the lock. Dinner was good. Took three attempts to get the wifi to work and you have to sign up with sky to get it (it's free but I dislike handing over an email address or setting up any kind of login).

Self

8/10

Excellent

22 Dec 2021

Verified traveler

Pleasant rooms and a nice pub

I've stopped here before, a double room with the usual facilities attached to a busy, local rural village pub that does good food.
The rooms I've stopped in had compact bathrooms, with nice walk in showers, on this occasion the bathroom was very cold (heating wasn't up to it).
I would stop here again.

Business

8/10

Excellent

21 Dec 2021

Verified traveler

Overnight stay.

Cosy for a one night stay, excellent food. Powerful shower. Ceiling above shower could do with repainting. Coffee machines in rooms were good.

Friends_and_family Friends

8/10

Excellent

16 Oct 2021

Verified traveler

Compact yet well presented

A compact yet well presented double room adjacent to a nice compact pub, with larger outside area, with a compact car park. Unfortunately, breakfast was only available from 09:00hrs onwards but the evening meal was excellent.

Business

10/10

Exceptional

17 Oct 2020

Andrew

The staff here are exceptional.

Very accommodating and friendly. The staff at this hotel are a credit to the industry.

Partner

6/10

Pleasant

16 Jul 2020

Verified traveler

pleasant staff

Rooms were clean
Small rooms
shower For small people no room
Would expect breakfast for £84
We travel all over UK Ireland
It a £60 room
Don’t go in room 4 cooler on and off all night

Business

8/10

Excellent

29 Jan 2020

Matthew

Nice little pub

Nice little pub with few rooms attached.
Will stay again if in the area.

Business Self

8/10

Excellent

05 Jul 2019

James

Nice country hotel

Nice hotel friendly staff and good food. Narrow foot space on the bed, may be helpful to move around the room a bit? Would stay again.

6/10

Pleasant

07 May 2019

Philip

Good price but filthy and no food served Sun Eve.

We arrived, after walking 21 miles, to be told that the pub was not serving food that evening. There was no mention of this at the time of booking. There were no other options in the village for food, not even a shop (which would have been fine had we been informed prior to our arriving). The lady at reception offered us no help at all regarding food, simply said 'sorry love'. We did manage to get a taxi to deliver fish and chips from Didcot. The toilet was utterly disgusting - there was blood and urine all around the rim of the toilet and this was on full display when we arrived, as the seat was left up, so goodness knows why or how this was left in such a state! There was only decaf coffee provided in our room, a minor nuance. These points are a great shame, as the room itself was very good and at an exceptionally good price. The breakfast service was pleasant and food was good.

Friends

6/10

Pleasant

28 Dec 2018

Verified traveler

Great pub food, good real ale, lovely bedroom with a big comfy bed. All rather let fo

4/10

Poor

19 Dec 2018

Steven

Stayed before but its gone downhill. Poor Service

1st time I've bothered leaving a review, service was that bad.
'Man' showed me to Room 1 its outside and on the end. All good. Room modern. 20 minutes later, led on bed in my boxers and same 'Man' lets himself in with more guests! He forgot I was already in there, from 20 minutes ago? Tried the TV but most of the channels were pixelating so I gave up and made coffee and noodles. Spat them out immediately. Checked the kettle and it was full of sediment and chemical fume. Must have left descaler in there and forgot about it. Both dangerous and a very silly practice. No wi-fi signal at all across 2 days, not even registering anything being broadcast. An empty soap box mocked me so I had to wash my face with the body wash. Degreased my face horribly and stung. 'Man' kind enough to have said the hot water takes a few minutes to come through. Not kidding. Most would have said there is no hot water. About 4 minutes average. What a waste.
There is no means of locking the door from the inside. Walls scored from customers dragging the armchair out and stuffing it against the door. Particularly annoyed when I got back from work the next day. Pushed the key to the lock and the door just pushed open, not even been locked. No stuff missing fortunately. All simple management issues that must be improved. 'Care' is the key.
7.55am check out and nobody around or having breakfast. No bell to ring. Hung about 5 mins and left the key. Bad management, disinterested staff.

8/10

Excellent

06 Dec 2018

helen

Decent place to stay on Ridgeway - no WiFi in room

I stayed here whilst walking the Ridgeway (just over 1 mile off trail). The room itself was very nice and spacious. However, there was no WiFi whatsoever in the room. It turned out that the WiFi was a new system (2 weeks old) and I was the first person to let them know it did not work in the room. The WiFi did however work in the pub. The TV signal went in and out from about 10pm (not sure why), and there was a problem with the toilet flush which was reported a month earlier by a reviewer but apparently not fixed (room 2). Overall, if these issues are fixed, I would recommend this hotel. Also, I did eat dinner in the pub and thought the food was very good and great value.

10/10

Exceptional

29 Nov 2018

john

Stayed at the Crown & Horns Inn while working in the area. Just been taken over two weeks before our stay and we could see the hard work already making a difference.
Our room was lovely and newly appointed with a really comfy bed.
The meals in the inn where a collection of our favourites that made the choice very difficult.
Both our meals and starters where fantastic. Service from all the staff was great and the morning breakfast very large with a good selection.
Over all a great stay and we will be using again when in the area.

8/10

Excellent

21 Nov 2018

Rob

Just going through a change of manager/owner, so a little disorganised, but the staff making a good job of it.

8/10

Excellent

16 Oct 2018

Stephen

Recommended

Large, clean comfortable room, serving excellent food in the restaurant. Don't eat breakfast but it looked really good.

8/10

Excellent

07 Sep 2018

Fiona

Nice pub in a nice location

Parking was good, Check in good and the room was comfortable. Great shower and facilities. Excellent food too. What was not so good was the kitchen boiler/fan room was right below the room so from 700am on until 1015pm the room shook and I felt like a was in a jumbo jet the noise was so loud. If it wasn’t for this it would have been 10/10.

8/10

Excellent

06 Sep 2018

MALCOLM

Good place for an overnighter

Comfortable room. Good service. Excellent food. Great place for one or two nights if working in the area or passing through

10/10

Exceptional

05 Sep 2018

derek

Great location just off A34.

Lovely quiet room, well decorated, However, disabled bathroom is in need of a thorough cleaning. Despite that, would stay here again.

Partner

10/10

Exceptional

31 Aug 2018

Verified traveler

Convenient location for stopover, close to A34.

Friendly staff, room was OK but bed v soft and bathroom acceptable but would benefit from proper scrub. Food very good with lots choices for breakfast.

4/10

Poor

21 Aug 2018

Amelia

The beds are abysmal

8/10

Excellent

12 Aug 2018

Nancy

Recent stay

Lovely hotel with good handicapped access when requested. We had 2 rooms and the TV did not work in one of them but were there only briefly. Otherwise, the rooms were fine. Great location for the Battle Proms at Highclere Castle. We also requested sandwiches to go and they were delicious!

Friends

10/10

Exceptional

20 May 2018

Robert Colin

Comfy inn in village convenient to the main road.

Good parking. Comfortable room, good food. Breakfast a bargain.Corridors and stairs a bit narrow and steep. Staff very attentive.

Family

10/10

Exceptional

20 May 2018

Verified traveler

Beautiful location to spend the night and walk around the town. Room was quiet and we slept well.

10/10

Exceptional

13 May 2018

Tracey

Birthday treat

We found that members of staff were obliging and friendly, the bedroom was very stylish in keeping with the traditional decor of the establishment and the facilities were excellent. We decided to have both our evening meal and breakfast at the pub and would highly recommend the food and relaxed ambience.

Partner

8/10

Excellent

16 Apr 2018

Verified traveler

Happy customer :-D

Nice décor in the room which was clean and well presented.
Gap between the wall and the bed made me think, \"I'll lose a pillow or too tonight\", but I was wrong.
The food in the pub/restaurant for breakfast and evening meal was top notch. Staff were friendly and professional.
Will stay again for sure!

2/10

Poor

27 Mar 2018

Verified traveler

Paid for the room but not been able to check in due to unavailability of check in staff

6/10

Pleasant

22 Mar 2018

Verified traveler

Functional

Comfortable bed. Poor breakfast. Young inexperienced staff who did not seem to know much about the place. Lots of parking.

10/10

Exceptional

06 Feb 2018

Patricia

Comfortable and freiendly inn

Very pleasant stay. Staff extremely nice and helpful. The room although not very big was well appointed.

Partner

8/10

Excellent

04 Feb 2018

Emma

Nice country pub

Bed was comfy and the food was tasty

Partner

8/10

Excellent

31 Dec 2017

Stephen

Excellent place to stay on the Berkshire Downs

The Crown and Horns was a very comfortable, welcoming place to stay: we had a suite which was very clean with excellent facilities and the staff were very welcoming and friendly. Only glitch was that the fire alarm went off at 5am, waking us from a deep sleep: apparently caused by the fire in the bar smouldering. That was hardly anyone's fault and soon remedied: the staff freely offered us free breakfasts as a result. The cooked breakfast proved to be the largest (and one of the best) I have ever experienced in a hotel. We would certainly be happy to stay at the Crown and Horns again (though without the fire alarm please!)

Partner

8/10

Excellent

27 Oct 2017

joy

Like me- a bit tired but plenty of character

We only spent one night at this hotel booked at very short notice to break up a long journey. There was only 1 twin room left. The rooms are across a small courtyard from the pub. Our room was a good size with comfortable beds. However the bathroom was a dated disabled wet room and extremely cold. It was clean and perfectly serviceable and if you required the disabled adaptations I imagine it would have been great.
The staff were extremely friendly and helpful and because of the excellent customer service I would return here again.
The location was perfect just a few minutes off the motorway yet in a very quiet village.
The food was wonderful, good traditional meals, well cooked and presented. I can strongly recommend the liver and bacon

8/10

Excellent

29 Aug 2017

Andy

Lovely hotel in a quiet location

All good, some issues with a fault in the kitchen but provided us with breakfast and advised us of a good place to eat.

2/10

Poor

13 Aug 2017

Connie

Very upset because I called 36 hours prior to reservation to canel because we couldn't make it and they went ahead and sent through charges on August 4--3 days after reservation!!!! Receptionist took name, reservation # and my email--but no response

Family

8/10

Excellent

26 Jul 2017

Verified traveler

Decent spot

stayed overnight for business:

Good things: efficient check in, on site parking, comfortable bed, lovely surroundings, decent value
Could be better: Expensive breakfast, noisey ?AC/plumbing all night, very creaky floors

8/10

Excellent

12 Jun 2017

Ben

Great food and easy parking

Great stay. Very easy check in room was to a high standard and the food was excellent. I will definitely recommend the hotel to my colleagues.

8/10

Excellent

10 Jun 2017

Colin

Tradition with modern twists

A typical English country village pub with rooms. Great attention to a personalised service. Good food, good wines and beers. The age of the hotel gives it loads of character but the consequence is that the room was fairly compact. Well decorated in a style sympathetic to the age and style of the building. A good size bathroom that is well appointed. The room was very hot and I image that due to a plumbing struggle in a building with thick stone walls, the cold water came out of the taps rather hot! A minor inconvenience that did not spoil an enjoyable stay.

8/10

Excellent

04 Jun 2017

Dawn

Lovely but hot

The welcome was friendly, the room was nice but very hot we had the windows open but it was a little noisy and had to close them which meant we woke up a few times in the night. Such a shame as otherwise it was a lovely Inn and the food was amazing.

Partner

8/10

Excellent

10 Apr 2017

Verified traveler

Decent country hotel yet small room

Lovely setting in the hills but the locals are a bit chavy, one young lady with a brown tooth kept shouting at the TV.

6/10

Pleasant

02 Mar 2017

Verified traveler

Nice comfortable hotel with good food and ambience

Unfortunately the shower malfunctioned and there was no hot water on both mornings of my stay.

4/10

Poor

02 Mar 2017

Jason

Convenient hotel and good food - plumbing awful

Room was nice but plumbing was very poor. Issues with no hot water for morning shower and noise in pipes overnight. Shower was very low spec. Good food. Owner tried to be helpful and at least offered breakfast as compensation for no hot water, but I didn't really find this acceptable.

Road noise from A34 was okay, but noticeable at times

8/10

Excellent

01 Feb 2017

raymond

Great food

The food in restaurant was excellant

4/10

Poor

11 Aug 2016

Jan

Beware of additional charges.

I was booked into a very Small room, smallest i have ever been in. i assumed that breakfast was included but that was my mistake. the breakfast was reheated and hard. even though it was stated on the menu as 7.95 for this breakfast, when i came to pay it came to 10.05 i was told that since i had tea with my breakfast the charge went up. i have never known a place to not include a cup of tea in the cost of breakfast. i will never be staying here again.

10/10

Exceptional

12 Jul 2016

GARRY

Attentive welcoming and relaxed

We needed a disabled access room for my elderly Mother visiting relatives and wanting a relaxed midweek break. The main chains and large hotels facilities in the area were merely token attempts and being less able-bodies inclusive. The manager and staff could not have been more helpful. The room was so easily accessible, decorated beautifully and the wet room a dream! The pub and restaurant was outstanding with service and quality of food.

Thank you. You made my mum and dad feel special and so welcome! 10* starts out of 5 ! I am now planning a visit to enjoy your hospitality.

Family

8/10

Excellent

09 Jun 2016

ERIC

Nice place to break a journey

Pleasant halfway stop just off A34 so relatively quiet except around breakfast.Friendly welcome on arrival. All in all recommended.

Partner

8/10

Excellent

10 May 2016

Verified traveler

Will stay again

Stayed one night room was clean nice venue great pub

Family

10/10

Exceptional

18 Mar 2016

Verified traveler

happy in newbury

great place,would recommend to anyone.traditional pub in quiet village.definatly stay there again

10/10

Exceptional

16 Mar 2016

simp

Lovely local friendly hotel

Stayed here for one night what an amazing warm welcome from owner pub lovely food and amazing decor so presentable room ideal clean mod cons wireless shower staff would do anything for you.

8/10

Excellent

29 Feb 2016

Teagan

great gem worth a visit

great place fantastic food my only grumble is having to pay for breakfast and the poor selection of real ales!

Partner

8/10

Excellent

14 Nov 2015

Widad

The room is clean, The bathroom was big and good, TV didn't work, The beds were narrow
But overall 3 stars rating.
The food was great and reasonable priced.

Family

8/10

Excellent

05 Nov 2015

David

Nice hotel, but noisy room

Nice hotel and quite good value for money. Staff very friendly and helpful. I would avoid room 3 'The Grand National' - actually a disabled room with huge shower room - but the plumbing was very noisy and kept me awake for much of the early hours!

Otherwise a good place to stay!

6/10

Pleasant

05 Nov 2015

Verified traveler

Good for Halloween, very squeeky stairs nothing co

short stay to celebrate a wedding anniversary

Partner

10/10

Exceptional

02 Nov 2015

liz

Really helpful friendly staff and good food.

Everything great except the creme brûlée which was very disappointing, very hard set like solid cold custard.

Family

4/10

Poor

16 Oct 2015

Verified traveler

Disappointing experience

Thankfully only booked for one night. Central heating in room was not working - we were provided with a warm-air heater which was not ideal as it needed to be switched off at night then switched on again in the morning to heat a cold bedroom. Service for both evening meal and breakfast was only mediocre. Had previously stayed at this hotel when it was under different management and so our expectations were high but this time weren't provided with the same level of service and comfort.

8/10

Excellent

20 Sep 2015

Paul

clean and comfortable

I spend a few nights at the Crown and Horns during a business trip and found it clean and comfortable. The rooms are small, but a good value. The food at the pub is very good.