Fox Inn, Wilbarston, Northamptonshire

The Fox at Wilbarston has already featured on this blog, but that was more than eight years ago now and as we all know, eight years is a very long time in the pub trade. Since then the pub has changed hands more than once, and typically for a rural village pub, some of that time has been spent closed, future uncertain. The nearby George at Ashley is the current mothballed pub in the Welland Valley, its own future far from certain, the Queens Head down the road at Sutton Bassett has almost certainly closed for good, and whilst my own old village local the Red Lion in Middleton may be in better shape, it's currently trading as an Indian Restaurant, not a pub. So you'll perhaps understand why it's so pleasing that the Fox Inn has emerged from the recent national lockdown largely unscathed, and is now open for safe, socially-distanced trade.

The Fox sits at the very centre of the village on a crossroads opposite Wilbarstons other great survivor, the Shop & Post Office. This road would have been a great deal busier in the days before Wilbarston and nearby Stoke Albany were bypassed in the 70's, indeed there are records of around ten pubs that would have served locals and thirsty travellers in the village at one time or another! The Fox remains a real focal point for villagers and visitors like myself, many of which arrive seeking refreshment after a walk along the popular Jurassic Way footpath that follows the south side of the valley.

I've no idea when this photo of the Fox Inn liveried as a 'Free House' was taken, or which (if any) local brewery would have owned the pub back then. Certainly toward the end of the 20th century the pub seems to have been a distant outlier of Burton-on-Trent's Marston's Brewery estate, and more recently it was sold as part of a package of pubs to Greene King of Bury St Edmunds. The pub is now in the hands of Hawthorn Leisure, a pubco with no brewing interests as far as I can tell, making the Fox effectively free of 'brewery' tie again.

The age and importance of the pub as a wayside Inn can be gauged from the substantial size of the cellar, which unusually has two barrel drops, the lower of which is shown in the foreground here

Free or not, there was a very real possibility that the Fox might close for good before current licensee Shirley Morgan and her son Andrew Warhurst took on the pub last Summer. With the help of a few locals, the new team at the Fox immediately set-to sprucing-up what had become a rather tired looking pub, and I have to say that in the short time that we've been living in the Welland Valley and visiting practically all the pubs on a regular basis, I don't think it's ever looked better than it does now. Local beer is flowing again, the kitchen is up and running, and there are plans afoot to bring the pubs three letting rooms back into use taking the Fox back to its full 'Inn' status.

In truth, these ups and downs in recent years have done little to affect my appreciation of the Fox. It remains a typical and very traditional village local, thankfully avoiding the kind of serious decline that so often leads to permanent closure or inappropriate gentrification. It's also one of just a handful of pubs in the area where the connection with the regions most traditional pub game has been maintained. It wasn't so long ago that practically every pub in the area had a Northamptonshire Skittles Table. The George in Ashley, Royal George Cottingham, Plough Inn Drayton, Sun Inn Great Easton, Talbot Gretton, Red Lion Middleton, Sondes Arms Rockingham, and White Horse Stoke Albany all had tables until relatively recently. Now only the Spread Eagle in Cottingham and the Fox Inn maintain the tradition of skittles play locally.

These two photographs were taken several years ago when the Skittles Table and Dartboard were located side-by-side in the busiest part of the pub, just to the right of the front entrance and adjacent to the bar counter. In fact this would have been around the time I was playing for a Red Lion midweek team, and if I remember correctly we actually used the Fox as a home venue for a short time following the untimely closure of Middletons village pub at the halfway point of the season. I certainly recall playing either a league or cup match on this table at some point, and used to cycle to the pub on occasion to get a bit of practice in during the quieter afternoon sessions.

The skittles table sat neatly in the bay of a window, hence the sturdy metal grill across the back to stop wayward cheeses smashing into panes of glass. When a match was being played the rattle and clunk of cheeses crashing into boxwood pins would tend to dominate the bar area, so both the Skittles Table and Dartboard have now been removed from the main trading area of the pub to somewhere less intrusive.

So the only major change in the layout of the Fox is the creation of a Games Room (below) in what was originally a separate dining area. Now don't get me wrong, I think there's nothing better than having traditional games like these situated at the heart of the pub, on show and part of the general goings-on that make pubs such special social spaces, but in this case I think this is a good move that makes a lot of sense. There's no doubt that at many pubs, dining and pub games (and skittles in particular) make for uneasy bedfellows, so moving the noise of play away from the main bar areas will undoubtedly make the pub a more attractive space for those not actually playing. It should also help safeguard traditional games like these at the Fox, something that could so easily have been lost in the refurbishment.

White Swan, Newark, Nottinghamshire

So it's just over three months now since pubs were forced to close, and finally we're on the verge of many of them reopening for on-sales (unless of course your local happens to be in Leicester!). My last pint actually sitting in a pub was on the 18th of March, the last time I was in a fully open pub for a takeout of beer, just two days later. Three whole months without our beloved boozers just didn't seem possible back then. This was going to be a short-term, drastic solution to save lives, and hopefully save the Summer!

There's been plenty of talk since then about what we're missing and how keen we all are to get back to the pub, but it seems that the closer we actually get to the big day, the more caution has crept into the discussion. Because the reality is that many of the pubs we're missing the most are those least equipped to reopen safely and profitably under the current rules. Some of course may never reopen...

There are three pubs local to me that I'd particularly like to spend time in right now. Small-town traditional locals serving great beer for the most part, pubs that I love and aim to visit as often as I can under normal circumstances. Of these three, one has already declined to reopen on the 4th July, and I can't in all honesty see the other two working within the guidelines to trade safely, particularly given their customer base which is predominantly made up of older drinkers. So the principal attraction of these pubs to me, traditional multi-room layout, relatively small, highly sociable places for drinking, chat, and of course pub games, and with little or no opportunity for outside drinking, also represents the main stumbling block to their reopening. A situation that's likely to be repeated at thousands of great local pubs throughout the country.

This is all very worrying to me, because pubs like these are not exactly the cash-cows of the hospitality sector, even when trading relatively successfully. Many limp along on the goodwill of modestly paid staff, and licensees who work ridiculously long hours for very little return other than the 'vocational' pleasure derived from running a community local. That several of the property companies who actually own these pubs have shown scant regard for their tenants predicament, continuing to demand rent on non-functioning businesses throughout this period of closure, will already have signalled the death-knell for some of the more marginal businesses.

So the choices available to customers over the next few weeks will present us all with something of a moral dilemma. A lot of pubs are aiming to open their doors on, or close to the 4th July. Of the pubs that I'm most likely to visit, I'll just have to use my own judgement on matters of safety. Perhaps equally as important to me though, is whether the (necessarily) limited social experience on offer is anything like the one that attracts me to pubs in the first place! I really want to get back to the pub, but probably not so much if it means drinking in an environment more akin to a restaurant, because it's the social side of pub-going that matters to me the most. One thing is certain though, if pubs are ever to get back to anything like the 'old-normal' that we know and love, their licensees and staff are going to need our support during these 'new-normal' times, even if it means a lesser pub experience than many of us would like.

So let's take a look once again at what we're all missing. In this case a town-centre pub during the 'old normal' of just a year ago in the historic market town of Newark. The White Swan sits at the very edge of the town centre on what I've come to regard as an inner ring road enclosing the commercial heart of the town. It's a pub I've taken almost no notice of over the years if I'm absolutely honest.

As far back as the early 1990's we were regular visitors to Newark, taking advantage of cheap day returns on the train from Leicester for boozy days out. One of the key attractions for us was the 'exotic' Mansfield Brewery ales served onboard the Castle Barge, a novel floating pub on the River Trent. Another regular haunt was the nearby Old Malt Shovel freehouse which had a better than average range of beers, and just happens to stand directly opposite the White Swan. Back then the focus was firmly on the beer rather than pubs, of which there were many. In fact Newark remains very well pubbed to this day, and with no shortage of good beer pubs. Unassuming boozers like the White Swan just didn't figure in our plans at all, though with hindsight I wish they had, particularly those that have subsequently closed and been lost forever...

So I have to admit that until recently the White Swan has remained neglectfully outside my field of vision. Which is a shame because the classic 'mock tudor' frontage conceals an attractive, if slightly threadbare multi-room interior that I felt immediately at home in when I popped in last year. Having said that, the pub is accurately described as having no real ale by the local CAMRA branch, a serious disadvantage in a town regarded as something of a beery destination these days. What's not so apparent is the full-set of pub games that are a major feature of the pub.

At many of the more traditional pubs in town, those which have yet to join Newarks increasingly vibrant beer scene, pub games are still very important. In fact they're the lifeblood of a pub like the White Swan which is very much a locals pub in the old style. Newark is an Eastern outpost of the Nottinghamshire Long Alley Skittles tradition, as well as being home to the unique Lincolnshire version of Doubles Darts, recognisable by the all-black Dartboards used in the Newark and Lincoln Leagues. Standard trebles Darts, Fives & Threes Dominoes, and Pool are all played enthusiastically at the White Swan, and outside in the car park can be found the steel frame used to set the pins in a game of Long Alley Skittles.

There are still perhaps half a dozen pubs in the town itself that are active in the Newark & District Long Alley Skittles League, most of which have outdoor alleys like this one, though many are now covered to some degree providing protection for skittlers against the worst of the British weather. I don't think there's a team playing out of the White Swan at present, due in part to the fact that the pub was under temporary management awaiting new tenants/owners when I visited last year.

The small polished cup shown above is the James Hole Challenge Cup, a small but significant relic in a town still dominated by the impressive Castle Brewery site (right), home to Hole & Co Ltd until the brewery closed in 1983. As a major local brewer and pub-owner, it would have been entirely natural for a brewery like Hole's to sponsor games leagues and competitions like this in the town. Whilst Hole's Family Ales are long gone, many of their pubs are still going strong, and I'm pleased to say that the Newark & District Dominoes League is also still active in the town.