The Ram Jam Inn originally opened as a
coaching inn called the Winchelsea Arms, It was frequented by the
highwayman Dick Turpin in the 18th century, and it is claimed that one of his
confidence tricks inspired the pub's name. An alternative, similar, account is that an unnamed con-artist, not specifically named as Turpin, made the landlord fall for the trick so the trickster could try and seduce the landlady. A third tale is that by the 19th century "ram-jam" was a term that meant both eating to capacity and a place full of people. In
The Great North Road (1974), Norman W. Webster writes: "Its original name was the Winchilsea [sic] Arms but by the middle of the eighteenth century it was generally known as the Ram Jam. This striking name was the basis of its success for, although it was never a posting house of any importance, its memorable title established it as a land-mark on the Great North Road, contemporary topographers referring to the spot as Ram Jam House. The title derives from the name of a spirit sold by an officer's servant newly returned from India; he called it Ram Ján, the name for an Indian servant, and as such it achieved a similar kind of fame to that of Stilton Cheese sold down the road. Imaginative legends have been invented to explain the curious title, the present sign showing a man stopping the holes of a cask with his fingers. The original spirit has not been sold here since the early years of the nineteenth century, the secret of the recipe having been lost or forgotten." Webster adds that the Ram Jam was one of three "half-way inns" providing sustenance and a change or horses between Stamford and
Grantham, but was at the time of writing the only one to have retained its license as an inn. In 1878,
Hugh Lowther, 5th Earl of Lonsdale ran 100 miles from
Knightsbridge Barracks to the inn in under 18 hours in order to win a bet. Soul singer
Geno Washington claims that he named his backing band
the Ram Jam Band after the pub, as it was a popular place for the band to stop en route to gigs. But it was the Ram Jam Band's founder
Pete Gage who named the band before Geno was invited to join as their singer. When reviewing the inn in March 2000,
The Telegraph's Paddy Burt described the meals as "simple food, well done". Immediately to the south of the inn's site is the Ram Jam Service Station, a petrol station with some amenities, serving northbound traffic only. ==Closure and demolition==