Bulls Head, Whetstone, Leicestershire

Of all the really good, and occasionally really great pubs I've visited over the years, there's often been a single crucial factor that goes a long way to explaining their particular appeal. Not heritage, though that's clearly a bonus at times. Not the number of hand pumps on the bar, which is of course the 'only' measure that some folk use to judge a pub. No, for me it's the less obvious, but fundamental issue of how long the licensee(s) have been at the pub. Long tenure at a community local was once the norm, it's now very much the exception, and it's this increasingly rare aspect of the pub trade that often determines whether a pub is merely 'decent', or whether it delivers something really special for its locals and visitors alike.

The seemingly endless 'churn' of licensees in the pub trade is so normal now as to seem hardly worthy of comment, but I believe this is one of the major factors in the overall decline of pubs. This constant instability, which usually brings with it regular and often highly inappropriate refurbishment, change for change sake, is anything but attractive to locals. Yes, pub-goers have always enjoyed the novelty of the new, but novelty quickly wears thin. It's a fact that for a pub to be regarded as your local, somewhere you care about and are happy to buy into on a regular basis, there has to be some measure of stability in the faces behind the bar and the direction that the business is moving in.

Which is not to say that a new business can't deliver an instant wow-factor that's highly attractive to customers, particularly with regard to beer range or a great food offering. But what I'm talking about here is that indefinable 'rightness' that you get in a well-established community pub, and in a business where licensees come and go at a truly bewildering rate, I think this goes a long way to explaining why so many pubs struggle to be truly 'great' at what they do, and why it's such a pleasure when you 'do' find one that has that indefinable 'rightness'.

Which brings me to the Bulls Head, a thriving village local on the very edge of Leicester's southern urban sprawl. I used to drink quite regularly in Whetstone some 20 or so years ago, which was an easy half-hour walk from home in nearby Littlethorpe. At that time, of the five pubs in the village we tended to favour the Wheatsheaf, a low-beamed, sticky-carpeted, horribly smokey locals pub with a consistently excellent pint of Ansells Mild, a beer I miss the taste of to this day. The nearby Bulls Head just never figured for some reason. Perhaps it was just a little too much of a locals pub back then, perhaps it was simply that we could get our Everards beer fix at our own great local The Plough. I'm glad we chose the Wheatsheaf though, because sadly the pub is no longer there! Bulldozed quite recently for a small housing development in a village not exactly short of housing...

Many of the locals from the Wheatsheaf have moved their trade to the Bulls Head, a pub which has been in the same safe hands for over a dozen years now. Now this may not sound a particularly long time in the grand scheme of things, but the fact is it's a significant period in the current topsy-turvy market, and certainly represents a firm commitment to the business that's been recognised by pub owners Everards on more than one occasion. Licensee Jayne Irwin and her team run a tight ship at the Bull, but always with an eye to what her loyal locals actually want from 'their' pub, which I think is how it should be.

The pub itself is a fairly substantial red brick and mock Tudor affair, sitting on a large plot that includes a well-used garden. It retains a traditional two-room layout of bar and lounge, the latter the quiet space, the former equipped with Pool Table, Dartboard, and when I popped in, the current afternoon bar-fly obsession of Snooker on the telly. The pub dog was lazing on a big floor cushion, and there was a smattering of locals in for a pint even on a slow midweek afternoon when so many pubs don't even bother to open these days. The pub supports numerous games teams, including those for Darts and Pool, and I think Dominoes is still played at the pub if the silverware in the trophy cabinet is anything to go by. There's also skittles of course, Whetstone being at the very heart of Leicestershire's Long Alley and Table Skittles tradition.

The Skittle Alley is in a separate building at the rear of the pub, possibly re-purposed many years ago as it has something of the look of a former garage with at least one set of double doors along the length of the brick building. This space is available for functions as well as skittles play, though the pub don't currently field a team in the local Long Alley league.

Instead, league skittles play is represented at the pub in the Dunton Basset Ladies and Mens Leagues, as well as a couple of mixed teams in the smaller Lutterworth League. That makes for a lot of skittles play, and the Bulls Head is clearly one of those pubs that derive a great deal of trade from its support of traditional pub games.

While I was there rooting around and taking photos in the alley, a local popped his head round the door to see what I was up to and a bit of a chat. He'd spent the morning sprucing up and cleaning the alley ahead of a function, and I could tell the place was his pride and joy. He was also effusive in his praise of Jayne who is clearly the beating heart of one of the finest and well-run community locals I've had the pleasure to visit in a good while.

The skittles table is a local Leicester model, and in common with all similar examples I've seen in the area, there's no indication of who made it. As far as I can tell, the table is used exclusively for the 'county' version of the game with its distinctive yellow plastic pins and cheeses, rather than the thin wooden skittles used in the unique 'city' game and which this style of table was probably originally designed for.

The tables shown here are unusual. I've seen plenty of games tables with alcoves for a pint, but not this steel frame design. Sadly, they're on their way out in favour of new furniture, all part of the day-to-day upkeep of the alley and the pub in general.