Five Pilchards, a Dock and a Lugger in Cornwall

And so to Cornwall and a lengthy county-wide circuit courtesy of the indefatigable Maltmeister.  By the end of a torrential Easter Sunday getting to places like the Five Pilchards in Porthallow involved driving down narrow lanes that increasingly resembled rivers. The mural in the toilets of the Five Pilchards (above) seems faintly disturbing in a……

Devon and Dorset- the Highlights Package

Contrary to the impression given by my two previous blogs, Devon is (mostly) not all nonagenarian landladies and Red Lions. Its many pubs are variously rural, urban, ancient, modern and all points in between. The size and geography of the county make it a particular challenge to complete each year. First we had to tidy……

More Veteran Devonian Landladies

Another day in Devon, another cracking National Inventory pub and tales of another veteran landlady.  Mabel Mudge passed away aged 101, having retired when she was 99 as landlady of the Drewe Arms, Drewsteignton. Mabel was universally known as Auntie and ran the pub for 75 years, believed to be a record. Built in the……

Like it or Luppit

Meet Mary.  The Luppitt Inn is a parlour room in her farmhouse. It is not so much a pub as a beer house, from the days when licensing laws permitted their creation. These days it would be called a micropub.  Mary is 96 years old and has been there since the 1940’s, formerly with her……

The Lion o’Morfe Roars Again

The Lion o’Morfe is, as pictured, undoubtedly a red lion, albeit one with a disproportionately large head. I wonder if it was omitted on a naming technicality or anatomical grounds by Cathy Price, the Red Lion completist who visited 656 of the blighters.  Perhaps by now she has moved on to Black, Golden, Yellow, White……

Sip Advisor goes to….Norfolk

The Sip Advisor feature in the last post was so popular with one person (“more please” asks Tim E. Tokill) that it makes a second appearance, this time in Litcham, Norfolk. Due to the selfish conduct of some people unwilling to eat and drink all day, the opening hours of rural pubs have been shrinking.……

Askam what time they’re open

Cumbria doesn’t give up its pubs without a fight. Askam is a small village north of Barrow-in-Furness, tucked away in the south-western corner of this large county. It was a Sunday lunchtime but a sign on the door of the Railway Inn said it wasn’t open till 3. The usual ruses didn’t work. A helpful……