REG LITTLE tells the story of a landmark county hotel and restaurant as it undergoes its biggest refurbishment ever If you wanted to chart the full extent of the Crown and Thistle’s sorry decline, you have only to turn to Margaret Thatcher.

The appearance of the historic Abingdon coaching inn in the story of the young Margaret came as something of a surprise even to her most staunch admirers.

But it is the highly favourable impression that it made on the woman destined to become Britain’s first female Prime Minister that came as the real shock, at least for anyone who has visited the Crown and Thistle in recent times.

Lady Thatcher’s — or more correctly Margaret Roberts as she was then — account of her visit to Abingdon, during her time as a student at Somerville College, Oxford, is set out in the first volume of the authorised biography Not For Turning by Charles Moore.

Moore, making the most of the access provided to previously unseen letters and diaries, provides us with a fulsome account of Margaret’s night out at the Crown and Thistle with her then boyfriend Tony Bray, an army cadet attached to Brasenose College.

“We had a marvellous time,” she says in a letter to her sister Muriel. Normally rather tart or matter of fact in her descriptions to her sister, this time she is positively gushing. “Tony hired a car and we drove out to Abingdon to the country Inn Crown and Thistle.

“I managed to borrow a glorious royal blue velvet coat which matched the blue frock perfectly. I felt absolutely on top of the world as we walked through the lounge at the Crown and Thistle and everyone looked up and stared.”

She continued: “We went into the bar and had a gin and grapefruit and then to the dining room for dinner. We had some lovely, thick creamy soup followed by pidgeon (sic) and then a chocolate sweet. With it we had Moussec to drink. Moussec in case you don’t know is a sparkling champagne.”

Well, the sparkle certainly seems to have gone from the Crown and Thistle in recent years, with its glamour days seemingly well behind it.

As a Berni Inn, drinkers and guests could scarcely imagine its glittering past, when it was a favourite hotel of the Hollywood legend Douglas Fairbanks Junior, who in the 1930s would moor his boat on the nearby River Thames.

But the historic hotel on Bridge Street is set to reclaim its standing in the town, with a restoration under way to restore the 17th-century coaching inn to its former glory.

It is being undertaken by Oakman Inns, which purchased the Crown and Thistle last year for £1.6m. The company, which owns the Blue Boar in Witney and the Old Post Office in Wallingford, says work will initially focus on the many outbuildings on the site.

Reputedly built in 1605, the year of the Gunpowder Plot, it has evolved in piecemeal fashion over the last 400 years. The 18th-century innkeeper, James Powell, promoted it as a place for auctions, banquets and other events, while also providing services such as those of doctors, dentists and oculists. It was obviously a success, beause expansion followed, as the adjacent public house, The Old Fighting Cocks, was taken over in the 19th century.

The latest man at the helm, Peter Borg-Neal, chief executive of Oakman Inns, describes the challenge of restoring the inn “as frightening”, with the estimated cost having risen from £1.3m to £1.8m.

“This is the largest investment the group has made to date. The building is so old, with substantial alterations made down the years, a lot of effort will be needed to do it the right way.”

Parts of the original building had been hidden behind plastic boards and new ceilings. Indeed, some of this earlier work amounted to vandalism, in Mr Borg-Neal’s view.

But the original beams of the 17th-century stables have been uncovered and will be a prominent feature when the stables are turned into a function room.

Thankfully, the inn retains a notable cobbled courtyard, with a fine wisteria growing beside the stocks and cannon, which is believed to have been planted over 200 years ago when the first coaches arrived.

The first mail coach arrived in Abingdon in 1794 and with the inn on the main road south from the town it prospered with the arrival of daily passenger services to London, its official description being ‘a family and commercial hotel and railway posting house’.

It is equally celebrated for many of its guests down the centuries.

John Ruskin, the Victorian art critic and social commentator, made the Crown and Thistle his home for a period in the early 1870s, while writing his Fors Clavigera — his letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain.

Ruskin had his own room on the top floor where he set up his desk and had a kennel for his St Bernard, Camille.

Tim Hilton in his biograpy of Ruskin wrote: “Ruskin soon became so comfortable in the Crown and Thistle that he felt he had left London for ever.

“The Crown and Thistle was the sort of hermitage he liked...There was a variety of public rooms on the ground floor. The fireplaces were grand, staircases took odd directions and pictures of hunting scenes hung on wood panelling.

“Upstairs, there was a private dining room. At the top of the rambling old house Ruskin had his own properly old-fashioned quarters, and here he set up his professorial desk.”

From the inn he would regularly walk the seven-and-a-half miles to Oxford, when giving lectures and visiting the university.

The future King Edward VII regularly drove over from Oxford, where he was an undergraduate at Christ Church, with Lord Hamilton and other friends between 1859 and 1861.

Douglas Fairbanks Junior’s appreciation of the inn and warm memories of his boat on the Thames are made clear in a postcard sent to the landlord J.B. Pennefather from the Hollywood set of Gunga Din, co-starring Cary Grant.

“This is a far cry from Abingdon,” he wrote. “So I wish I were on the ‘Grateful’ now and could drop in for the night. Have you any new pin-tables?”

James Powell, as well as being the Crown and Thistle’s longest-serving innkeeper was also the most interesting, playing a prominent part in the development of Abingdon over 50 years.

In 1767 he famously delivered news to another local landlord, John Alder, that he had won a £20,000 national lottery, the equivalent today of £32m. Alder, who became known as The Fortunate Copper, paid off all Powell’s outstanding debts to show his gratitude.

Then in 1770 he appeared in the notorious trial of William Brent, charged with a spectacular robbery, thought to be the biggest of its time, which involved gold coins and jewellery.

With the likes of Lady Catherine, Viscountess of Mayo and the well-known perfumier, Lewis Cartier, also giving evidence, Powell was in his element at the High Society trial, having been one of those who changed a £100 note.

The pub was taken over in 1887 by Morland Brewery, which had relocated to Abingdon in the 1880s. It would become a Berni Inn soon after being acquired by Grand Met in 1973.

Mr Borg-Neal said he was hugely impressed by the level of local enthusiasm for the restoration.

“We have been encouraged by the enthusiasm of people in Abingdon for the project and support of the business community.

“A lot of people came forward with old photographs and to tell us about its history.”

But Oakman has been far less happy with Abingdon Town Council as negotiations about the access to the inn car park ran into serious difficulty.

Mr Borg-Neal said the company was unhappy that the council wanted more money for the use of a narrow road that provides a back entrance to the inn from the rear of the Guildhall.

Mr Borg-Neal said the idea of cars having to reach the car park over the cobbled courtyard at the front was appalling.

He said: “The rumours indicating that we have been on the verge of withdrawing from the project are substantially correct.

“It was extremely annoying. If we had sold it on, the new owners may not have been prepared to do what we are doing in terms of restoration. They may not have even kept it as a hotel.”

He praised the role of the town councillor Iain Littlejohn.

“We are grateful for his intervention. There is still ongoing negotiation between our professional advisers but the major obstacles have ben dealt with.”

Clerk of the town council, Nigel Warner, said: “From our point of view it was a normal negotiation.

“We acted quite properly and I think it was really an issue of timing as much as anything else. Negotiations are ongoing. But I think we are past the main hurdle.”

When it reopens in November the Crown and Thistle will provide 40 jobs, 20 rooms each with a unique design style, an 80-seat restaurant and a function room for up to 60 guests.

Mr Borg-Neal said: “It will be affordable, not exclusive. We are not looking to win a Michelin star but it will offer high-quality food.”

However, it remains to be seen whether there will be an Iron Lady Bar or Blue Room, with gin and grapefruit and Moussec the specialities of the house.