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.