After leasing the pub to S&N for many years, St John’s College took back this pub in 1999 and, after initially threatening to close it, they began operating it as a free house. The upstairs rooms were converted into student accommodation, and some of the profits from the pub are used to provide bursaries. The pub is in three parts: the oldest at the rear is medieval; the middle section is around 400 years old, and the front part is Georgian. Has literary connections although was not the Lamb & Flag in Thomas Hardy's novel Jude The Obscure - that was actually the Turf Tavern. The management company running the pub collapsed during lockdown and a community interest company, The Inklings Group, has taken on the lease. Has 12 interesting keg lines as well as the regularly changing real ales.