Gardeners Inn, Cossall, Nottinghamshire

The area to the north of Nottingham centred on the village of Kimberley is noted for having some truly excellent pubs. Good beer pubs of course, but also some fine heritage survivors, as well as a raft of new micropubs bringing greater beer choice to local drinkers. This makes the area something of a delight for folk like myself who love visiting good traditional pubs, and ideally drinking good traditional beer in them.

This part of Nottinghamshire is also thick on the ground with ex-Hardys and Hansons pubs, Kimberley being the site of the former brewery. Most of these pubs are now in the hands of Suffolk regional giant Greene King following the sell-out of the business in 2006 (Greene King itself has now been swallowed up by a Hong Kong property company!). Not a popular move for many locals who still miss the locally brewed Kimberley Bitter and dark Best Mild. It can make visiting pubs in the area something of a lottery given that the Greene King brewed replacements are not to everybodys taste (they're certainly not to my taste!), meaning there's always a temptation to stick to tried and tested favourites that specialise in beer, rather than be adventurous and try somewhere new.

Being adventurous can often reward the drinker with a very good pub though, as was the case with the Gardeners Inn, variously located in Cossall or Awsworth depending on which way round you hold the map. Now the village of Awsworth is a case in point. The temptation to stick with what I know and visit the Gate Inn for a pint was pretty high on a recent visit to the area, particularly given that my first-choice pub had turned-out to be closed when all indications were it should have been open (a lucky break in the end as it didn't look particularly inviting). The Gate, which has already featured on this blog, has it all as a pub for me. Great beer, an unspoilt heritage interior, and a well-used skittle alley out the back. The Gardeners Inn on the other hand was new to me, but conveniently located nearby, and perhaps even more important, open! As it happens the pub proved to be a very good choice indeed. So a 'win' for being adventurous.

It perhaps goes without saying that the Gardeners is a proper locals pub, because if you avoid the more obvious family dining venues in this part of Nottinghamshire, they pretty-much all are. It's one of the major attractions of the area for me. Some good pubs may have fallen by the wayside in recent times, but the culture of social pub-going remains strong in this part of the East Midlands and the Gardeners Inn is no exception.

A smart two-roomer that went through the Greene King mill along with so many others, but has emerged unscathed and is now happily trading free of tie, its future secured for the local community. Local taste at the Gardeners is now catered for with guest beers from the nearby Blue Monkey Brewery amongst others.

The pubs official status as an Asset of Community Value was secured in 2016 by Nottingham CAMRA, and is proudly displayed on a certificate in the bar (above). This recognises the pubs value to the local community as an important social hub, and provides some measure of protection against unwelcome development by the kind of business interests who view pubs like the Gardeners as little more than valuable real estate. Next to the ACV certificate is yet more evidence of the pubs importance as an asset to the local, and wider North Nottinghamshire community.

Long Alley Skittles remains popular and well supported in the area, with competition across two divisions in the Border Skittles League. The home team are currently skittling in Division 1 of the Winter league following success in the 2018/19 season, hence the certificate in the bar and subsequent promotion to the top table. The current league tables show a record of played 2, won 2 for the Gardeners Inn team, which seems a healthy enough start to the season.

The pubs skittle alley is located in a relatively new extension to the rear of the pub, which suggests it was probably an outdoor alley originally, quite possibly in a different location. There are still quite a few outdoor skittle alleys in the area, not all of which are still in use it has to be said, but a stipulation of play in the Border Winter League is that the alley must be effectively indoors. This is obviously for the comfort of skittlers during the colder Winter months, and the arrangement at the Gardeners Inn is fairly typical of alleys that have been upgraded in this way.

In Long Alley Skittles, the balls are not 'bowled' along the floor but thrown through the air to arrive just short of, or directly into the front pin. A very different skillset to other types of skittles. The yellow metal sheet located a few feet in front of the front pin must be cleared by the ball for a throw to count. If it falls short and hits the sheet, it's deemed a foul throw with no score recorded. The use of a metal sheet is universal in this versions of Long Alley Skittles, the noise of a ball clattering into the sheet helping determine whether the ball has made the distance. At the Gardeners Inn, a selection of small change litters the sheet, presumably for the benefit of the hard of hearing. The rattle when a ball hits this particular sheet must be quite an encouragement to throw the ball correctly!

Anyone who's played skittles will know the peril of throwing a 'Duck', the rare and highly embarrassing feat of scoring '0' with all three throws. I noted a small plastic Duck keeping watch over the business end of the alley, it's role in the game at the Gardeners Inn can only be guessed at but it's unlikely to be a prize anyone wants to win...