The Great Western

03/11/2026

Novembers line up of events 🚂🍻🚂🌹🚂🪗🎄

03/11/2026

Christmas The Great Western 🚂🚂🚂

🎄✨ Our Second Christmas at The Great Western! ✨🎄
The best part of Christmas? Getting everyone together. 🥂
Whether you’re treating your team, organising the office Christmas party, gathering the family or catching up with friends, join us for festive food, full glasses and a little Christmas magic. 🚂✨
From a leisurely festive lunch to an evening of celebration, we’d love to make your get-together special.
🎅 Be the one who gets the Christmas plans sorted — gather your people and book your table today!

🍽️ View our Christmas menu and book:
https://thegreatwestern.pub/christmas-2026/

📞 For parties of 6 or more, please call 01926 422422.
All aboard for a magical Christmas! 💚

03/11/2026

🎄✨ Our Second Christmas at The Great Western! ✨🎄
The best part of Christmas? Getting everyone together. 🥂
Whether you’re treating your team, organising the office Christmas party, gathering the family or catching up with friends, join us for festive food, full glasses and a little Christmas magic. 🚂✨
From a leisurely festive lunch to an evening of celebration, we’d love to make your get-together special.
🎅 Be the one who gets the Christmas plans sorted — gather your people and book your table today!

🍽️ View our Christmas menu and book:
https://thegreatwestern.pub/christmas-2026/

📞 For parties of 6 or more, please call 01926 422422.
All aboard for a magical Christmas! 💚

02/11/2026

🚂 A Stop in Time — Southam Road & Harbury Station 🚂
If you stand outside The Great Western and listen closely, you can almost hear the echo of steam whistles drifting across the fields.
Right next door to us once stood Southam Road & Harbury Station — opened 1st October 1852, closed 2nd November 1964, after an incredible 112 years of service. Today marks 62 years since its closure, yet its story still runs right through the heart of our community.
Built by the Birmingham & Oxford Junction Railway (later part of the Great Western Railway), it served locals, farmers, and travelling salesmen alike. Families would gather on the platforms, children waving at the passing trains, and countless journeys began and ended right here — often finishing with a well-earned pint at the pub beside the line.
The station had two platforms, handsome brick buildings with twin chimneys, and a small footbridge added in the interwar years. The goods yard, complete with a broad-gauge goods shed, handled everything from livestock to coal. For a rural stop, it was surprisingly busy — a small but mighty cog in the Great Western machine.
And just beyond, the line carved its way through Harbury Cutting — hand-dug through stubborn Blue Lias clay in the 1840s. At over 100 feet deep, it was hailed as the largest man-made cutting in Britain at the time, a true triumph of Victorian engineering and sheer human grit.
Though the station was swept away after the Beeching cuts of the 1960s, the Chiltern Main Line still hums with life today. Trains continue to pass, just as they have for more than 170 years — a steady rhythm that connects our present to that extraordinary past.

So this Monday, we’ll remember the station that once stood beside us… As we relax over our combustion coffee and cakes, devouring a freshly baked sausage roll and a pint perhaps? and delight in the comfort and company we keep, we raise a toast,
Here’s to the stop that started it all, and to all those travellers, workers, and families whose stories began here…. 🍻🥂🚂💚

1️⃣ Southam Road & Harbury Station, 1964 (GW visible in the background) ( not our photo credit to original owner )
2️⃣ The original station sign

01/11/2026

Pub dog… Lulu has enjoyed her great wanderers walk and now a delish pupachino …

31/10/2026

🚂 All aboard for Sunday roasts at The Great Western!

Chicken, beef, pork, veggie or vegan… however you choose to eat, there’s a place for you around our table. ❤️

Gather your favourite people, settle in and let us take care of Sunday lunch.

📞 Book on 01926 422422
🌐 Or online at thegreatwestern.pub⁠

31/10/2026

🎃 Happy Halloween from all of us at The Great Western! 👻
We hope you have a spooktacular day! Come and enjoy this beautiful autumn weather with lunch alfresco, or get cosy indoors and join us for dinner. 🍂🍽️
Keep an eye on the ceiling… our little train might just be a ghost train today! 🚂👻
Bring your favourite ghouls for good food, autumn sunshine and a frightfully warm welcome! 🧡