for generations.
The story behind
The Cock & Rabbit.
Every good village pub has a story. Ours involves the founder of Liberty, a rather inconvenient view, a little taste of Italy and more than a few appearances on television.
The building you see today dates from 1907, but the story of The Cock & Rabbit — and its place in village life — goes back further still. There have been a few changes along the way. Some rather more deliberate than others.
A new pub for
a changing village.
Arthur Lasenby Liberty, founder of the famous Liberty store in London and Lord of the Manor at The Lee, played an important part in shaping the village we see today.
In 1907, during the reconstruction of the village green, the old Cock & Rabbit was removed and the present pub was built beside the green.
Village history has it that the old pub rather inconveniently “obscured the view from his manor house”.
Apparently even in 1907, location was everything.
The pub has occupied that same spot at the entrance to the village ever since.
Built to last.
The Cock & Rabbit is recognised on the Local Heritage List and sits within The Lee Conservation Area.
Look closely and you can still see much of the character of the 1907 building, including its original brick chimneys, open porch, wooden casement windows, decorative half-timbering and Arts & Crafts details.
Midsomer comes to The Lee.
Television viewers may recognise more than a few corners of The Lee. The village appeared in the very first episode of Midsomer Murders as Badgers Drift and has returned to the series in several different guises.
The Cock & Rabbit has had its own starring moments too, appearing as pubs including The Safe Haven and the Rose and Chalice.
Fortunately, village life is usually rather less eventful when the cameras aren’t here.
A little taste of
Italy in The Lee.
In 1985, Franco Parola arrived in The Lee and began what would become one of the longest chapters in The Cock & Rabbit's story.
Together with his family, Franco brought Italian cooking to this little corner of the Chilterns. In time, the Italian restaurant became known as Graziemille, and for decades locals and visitors came for pasta and Italian food alongside a pint at the bar.
For nearly four decades, a little corner of Italy found a home in The Lee.
When the Parola family finally left in 2022, it marked the end of an era — and the beginning of the next chapter in The Cock & Rabbit's story.
Bringing The Cock & Rabbit
back to life.
Oliver had known The Lee for years and understood pretty quickly that taking on The Cock & Rabbit wasn’t simply a matter of doing up an old pub.
It meant taking responsibility for a place that had been part of village life for generations.
Somewhere locals would genuinely use, visitors would be glad they’d found, and where you could come for a coffee in the morning and somehow still be there considerably later than planned.
Since then, the building has been carefully refurbished, the bars brought back to life and Café au Lee opened in 2023. The restaurant has grown, the food has evolved, Sunday lunch has become a firm favourite, and the diary now fills with quiz nights, music, celebrations and village events.
Oliver is usually somewhere in the middle of it — talking to customers, discussing menus, catching up with locals and keeping an eye on what’s happening around the pub.
The idea has never really changed: look after the pub, look after the people who use it, and make sure The Cock & Rabbit feels like it belongs to The Lee.
Some things change. The important things don't.
More than a century after the present Cock & Rabbit first opened beside the green, people are still coming through the door to eat, drink, celebrate, catch up and occasionally arrive on horseback. The names, menus and faces have changed over the years. The reason for having a village pub really hasn’t.
