Red Lion, Brixworth, Northamptonshire (Closed and demolished)

Sometimes a blog post just gets away from you, which has sadly been the case with the Red Lion in Brixworth. I posted a single solitary photo of the pubs skittles table (below) way back in 2011, taken on my first visit to the pub following a pleasant Summer afternoon walk from nearby Pitsford Reservoir. I tried all three pubs in the village that day, the Red Lion being the most down-to-earth and all-round attractive to me, and the only one with any significant games interest at the time.

The WT Black & Son Skittles Table was set up ready for play in the games area adjacent to the public bar. I spent an hour or so 'practising' my throw on the table, and remember being pretty self-conscious about it because every time I hit the front (quite a common occurrence for a novice like myself) the hard boxwood cheeses came flying back and clattered very noisily on the tiled floor.

The pub was unusual in that the beers were from the Hook Norton Brewery, something of a rarity in this part of Northamptonshire. The bar itself was as honest and traditional as they come, nothing fancy, just cream painted wood and simple furnishings around a matchboard fronted servery. It was the kind of traditional bar room that you could easily lose an afternoon in, and quite why I didn't take any photos of it remains something of a mystery to me. I don't recall anything about the plusher lounge bar, and left planning to return and do the pub justice at a later date...

The next time the Red Lion came to my attention was later on that year, when the pub made local headlines for all the wrong reasons following an outbreak of fire. Thankfully, nobody was seriously hurt during the incident, which started in that lovely bar and caused widespread smoke and heat damage, but I guess it could easily have spelled the end for the pub right there. Thankfully the owners felt otherwise and the pub reopened a short while later.

The photos here were taken six years later. I recall that the pub had been refurbished shortly before the fire, and this is reflected in the smart appearance of the games area, which now featured Table Football (still no photos of the bar area, sorry!). The tradition of the Sunday afternoon/evening in-house skittles tournament is something I've come across at other Northamptonshire pubs, indeed my own local often had an informal game of 'Killer', a lengthy competition which roped in practically everyone in the bar at £1 a head, 'winner takes all'. I can't remember if the pub was fielding a team for league play around this time, likely it would have done at some point given the popularity of the game in this part of the county. Once again, I left with an intention to return and document the pub a bit more extensively...

Fast forward to 2018 and the Red Lion is closed, on the market, and as is often the case with pubs like this, being hawked by the agent as a prime development opportunity. An opportunity that serial pub destroyers the Co-operative Group haven't missed, and who later that year applied to demolish the pub and build a new Co-Op store on the site. This application was rejected by the Parish Council and subsequently by Daventry District Council, though sadly the reasons given have little to do with retaining the building as a pub.

The current state of the Red Lion, Brixworth is shown below, a hazy pic through a gap in the curtains the closest I've got so far to photographing that bar room. Given their track record at other community pubs like Broadleys in Hereford, I've little doubt that the Co-operative Group will appeal the planning refusal, and it remains to be seen what the future holds for the Red Lion.

Update (2023)

Sadly, the pub has now been demolished with a set of flats going up in its place. Thankfully the village of Brixworth still has two pubs, The George and the Coach & Horses, though neither of which are venues for the local tradition of Table Skittles.