The Ram Jam Inn

The Ram Jam at Stretton, between Stamford and Grantham, grew from being a modest village inn to a Great North Road institution.

Though more a simple hostelry than a coaching inn, the Ram Jam did prove popular with generations of travellers. The building evolved and was greatly expanded in the early 20th century to accommodate the many motorists who wanted to capture a flavour of times past.

Sadly, its offerings of pub grub and alcoholic refreshments fell out of favour in the early 21st century. The pub closed in 2013 and stood derelict for nearly 10 years. The replacement building makes a nod to the old inn with a couple of gable ends facing the road, and it houses a “Brightside” fast food restaurant.

There are suggestions of an ale house on the site since Medieval times but the first known name is from the mid-18th century. It was the “Winchilsea Arms”, being part of the estate of Daniel Finch, 8th Earl of Winchilsea and 3rd Earl of Nottingham, who lived at Burley House near Oakham.

At some point during the coaching era it acquired the nickname of “Ram Jam House”. During the later 19th century its name was formalised as the “Ram Jam Inn” – this stuck until it closed in 2013. The “Ram Jam Services” live on including the new restaurant, a Wendy’s and a filling station.

Image Credit – HitchinLookers/Dragontree; waymarking.com

So just where did the “Ram Jam” name come from? It’s a game of Call My Bluff:

1. The answer is illustrated on the pub sign which hung outside. The jam refers to the pegs or spiles used to control the flow of air into a beer barrel. Dick Turpin had been staying at the Winchilsea Arms and had charmed the landlord and his wife with his manners and helpful ways. One Friday the landlord had taken a litter of pigs to Stamford market. Dick offered to show the landlady how to obtain both mild and bitter ale from one barrel. Having made a hole in one end he asked her “Ram your thumb in here whilst I make a hole at the other end”; that done he asked her “Jam your other thumb in there whilst I fetch the spile pegs”. Her husband found her hours later still hugging the barrel whilst Dick had was galloping south to London.
2. In fact, Ram Jam is a corruption of Ram Ján, an Indian name. In about 1740, the landlord was an officer’s servant, recently returned from India where he had won favour with the Earl of Winchilsea after nursing his sick son. According to Harper, the landlord brought back from the east the secret of compounding a liqueur or spirit which he sold to travellers down the road, this eventually becoming as well-known a delicacy as Cooper Thornhill’s Stilton cheese. His “Ram Ján” spirit was sold in small bottles for consumption on the journey or in cases of half-dozens for future occasions.
3. Nothing so outlandish I’m afraid. The more prosaic explanation for the inn’s adopted name was on account of its size and popularity. With more than 20 coaches calling at the inn each day it was a serious “ram” to accommodate all the clients, eager to sample its famous ales. There was rarely a seat to be found and more often than not it was a case of squeezing in to the crowded snug to find warmth and refreshment.

Just 30 seconds to consider your answer – which you can check at the bottom of this page.

Coaching Days

The origins of the hostelry are, like its name, lost in the mists of time. During the coaching era it was a modest establishment which happened to be almost exactly 100 miles from London. However, its name, its “special brew” and a few good coaching myths provided the foundation for a far more prominent role in the 20th century.

What we do know is that there is no evidence that it was ever frequented by Dick Turpin, or any other highwaymen; Turpin has of course been dubiously associated with a large number of coaching inns by coach drivers fishing for tips and landlords marketing their businesses.

We also know that whilst it is close to Thistleton Gap where the first “world boxing championship fight” took place between Tom Cribb and Tom Molineaux neither fighter used the Ram Jam as his base. There was however an engraved stone commemorating the fight attached to the building; this now resides in The Rutland County Museum.

The commemorative stone previously sited over the door of the Ram Jam Inn at Stretton. The stone is held by the Rutland County Museum, Oakham

The 20th Century (and beyond)

The Ram Jam Inn in 1913. Photo Credit – Jack Hart Collection

Early 20th century photographs show the inn as a five-bay Georgian building under a pitched roof with chimney stacks at each end and through the central part of the ridge. The inn has small single-storey extensions on the north and south ends.

The early days of motoring

A late 1920s water colour painting featured on a post card. Unknown artist.

Recently acquired by the Heskeths of Stocken Hall, the inn was, in 1928, reimagined. The building was transformed in Tudor Revival style with the addition of large gabled bays at both ends and stone mullioned windows. Below one of the first-floor windows of the left-hand bay was a small Medieval stone sundial found in 1926. The gabled bay on the right has a stone panel between the two upstairs windows with raised lettering – “THE RAM JAM INN”.

Inside the redeveloped inn there was an inglenook fireplace with substantial supporting beam, all aimed at recreating the ‘olde English’ coaching inn character for the modern motorist.

Upgrading the A1 to dual carriageway in the 1960s

The Ram Jam was a favourite haunt of the airmen (UK and US) based at the many nearby airfields. And this connection helped lead to the adoption of its name by a band of the swinging ‘60s.

Standing derelict in 2021. Image Credit – Rex Gibson

New owners gave it a makeover in 1986 but The Ram Jam’s trade was dwindling as the 20th century drew to a close. The last pint was pulled in 2013 and for 8 years it stood as a sad reminder of better days gone by.

In 2025, redeveloped as a new roadside restaurant. Image Credit – Rex Gibson

The Ram Jam Band was formed by Pete Gage and Geoff Pullum who knew the roadside inn from their tours north and east with a previous group. Gage was aiming to recreate a US soul and Motown sound for the rapidly developing London scene. In 1965 they took on USAF serviceman, Geno Washington as their front man; he was being demobbed, and they knew his high energy singing and crowd pulling capabilities from performing at East Anglian air bases.

Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band was one of the regular acts at a new club being launched in Brixton in 1966. At the last minute the planned name for the club was switched from New Flamingo to Ram Jam. The fame of our Great North Road hostelry had been further amplified.

Image Credit – Melody Maker

The first of two commercially-successful live albums was “Hand Clappin’, Foot Stompin’, Funky-Butt Live!” The LP reached number 5 on the UK charts, sticking around the top-10 for nine months into 1967 (outselling the likes of Bob Dylan and The Cream at that time).

Three Times Loser:

After a storming few years in the late ‘60s Geno Washington continued to pop up on the music scene for many decades. Geoff Pullum went on to a second career in linguistics holding senior university roles in the US and becoming a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the British Academy.

Stretton Heritage, St Nicholas Community Hub Project

Brixton Music Memories

Ram Jam Name – Answer

Well, the answer is – no one really knows! The Dick Turpin tale is probably the most nonsensical, and the Indian connection probably the most authentic.

A mid-18th century drawing of the inn by Samuel Hieronymus Grimm shows a sign above the door saying ‘Fine – Ram Jam’.

Thomas Blount provides a definition of Rambooz in his 1656 dictionary: Glossographia:

Rambooz, a compound drink, at Cambridge, and is commonly made of Eggs, Ale, Wine and Sugar; but in Summer, of Milk, Wine, Sugar, and Rose water.

Each of the origin stories was many times retold and embellished. The first inn sign mentioning Ram Jam only appeared in 1877.

It may be worth noting, that the sign of ‘The Ram Jam’ has never appeared on the front of the house, until September last; and the old sign, painted with the full coat of arms of the Earls of Winchilsea, remained up to last June, when it was replaced by a new sign-board, on which was painted (without the heraldic devices) ‘The Winchilsea Arms’. The sign only remained up for a few weeks, when it was repainted with the words ‘The Ram Jam Inn’ for the first time in its history. By the way, it was generally known as ‘The Ram Jam House’ and not ‘Inn’.
Grantham Journal, 26th October 1878