So runs a local rhyme of the nineteenth century, foretelling the fates of the four public houses in the centre of Farndon. The Masons Arms lost its 'charms' and its licence about 1928; the original building of the Raven 'flew', while the Greyhound was entirely destroyed by fire on 12 January 1905. The Nags Head may not have been the only public house to be drunk dry in the last war, but it was forced to close on more than one occasion during licensing hours as the dray had not been able to deliver.

It is likely that the Nag's Head Inn had a long history stretching back centuries, as a coaching inn, but also as a farmhouse probably licenced to sell ale well before the late eighteenth century building that stood until its demolition in 2015. The land behind the Inn was the 'Townfield' where village farmers tenanted field strips, an arrangement medieval in origin. Farmers living on the High Street (Bridge Street) had a share in this land. Tenants of the Nag's Head were also farming this land well into the late nineteenth century, although by this time the medieval arrangement had been modernised by the enclosure movement. This transition can been seen on the Map of 1735.

Ownership of the land had long been in the hands of the Barnston Estate, and they are shown as owners in the tithe survey of 1840 shown below. A leaded light over the front door depicted a nag's head in white glass with a red surround (a feature on an early Barnston crest). Tenants of Barnston land and property came to the Nag's once a year to pay their rents, a practice which continued for many years even after its sale to Border Brewery in 1948.

The cellar was hewn out of solid sandstone, and there was also access to a well. A long barn stood to left side of the gateway while in the rear plot there were three stables with seven stalls, harking back to its days as a coaching inn. They remained in situ until 1970 when they were dismantled, and the oak used to make the window boxes which later adorned front of the Inn.