Sir Charles Napier, Leicester

A little off the beaten track as it is, I'd recommend making the effort to visit the Sir Charles Napier. The pub is a classic inter-war years community local, recently refurbished, but still retaining three separate rooms including a cosy wood panelled lounge, and more functional games oriented bar. The interior is considered of sufficient merit to be included on CAMRA's inventory of Real Heritage Pubs, and more information on this and many other unspoilt classics can be found on the excellent searchable website: www.heritagepubs.org.uk.

Traditional, and some not so traditional games play an important role at the pub. League Dominoes, Darts, and Table Skittles are all popular, and compete for space with the more recent additions of Poker and Quiz nights.

The Skittles Table at the Sir Charles Napier is the somewhat rarer Leicester version, distinctly different to the more common Northamptonshire tables found in the south of the county. The pins and cheeses are the slender hardwood variety unique to the Leicester game, as opposed to the more chunky Boxwood or plastic used elsewhere. This makes for a very different game, one where the higher scoring 'Tips' (Whackups in Leicester) and 'Floorers' (Nine-a-Ball) of the Northants game are much harder to achieve.

The table is turned round and 'parked' in an alcove when not in use. It's a very smart and well maintained table, and the team presumably want it to stay that way. Skittles night is on Wednesday, with play in the South Leicestershire League which covers quite a wide geographical area including Earl Shilton, Syston, and Wigston.

Darts, Dominoes, and Skittles trophies jostle for position in the trophy cabinet.

2019 Update

I recently had the opportunity to revisit the Napier and take a few more photos with the kind permission of the licensee, including a few of the unspoilt and attractive front lounge bar that was just a little too busy to photograph on my last visit. Whilst the pub seems to have had a lick of paint in places since I was last there, it could probably do with a sensitive makeover now with some of the upholstery looking a bit threadbare in places. Nevertheless, it's still well worth the walk out from town, and I found the handful of early-doors locals chatty and welcoming in the more basic public bar. It's not entirely obvious from the Lounge Bar, but two or three real ales are usually available.

Whilst Darts and Dominoes are still played at the Napier, sadly the Skittles team have moved on taking the original table with them. There's still a decent old Leicester Skittles Table in the bar (below), but with an incomplete set of pins it's unclear how much use it gets these days. With the nearby Tudor closed, future uncertain, the traditional Leicester game appears to be struggling in this part of the town.

2024 Update

This latest update on the Sir Charles Napier is likely to be the last on here given recent changes at the pub. I hadn't been to the pub for some time after the previous post in 2019 so it was sad, if perhaps not surprising, to hear that the pub had closed in 2023. As documented by one of the Napier's locals that has also followed this blog post, the pub reopened not long after, but this was a short-lived reprieve as it closed again just a few months later, the feeling being that this may be the end for the pub. But the good news is that the Napier is now back open again following an extensive refurbishment which has re-badged the pub as a Craft Union house, and if we're absolutely honest the pub is now in better shape to succeed than it's been for several years.

When fellow pub blogger Britain Beermat posted the comment reproduced above, few would have disagreed with him given the turmoil in the pub trade at that time. It now seems somewhat prophetic given the timescale, because whilst the pub is still very much the community local it's always been, and has even managed to retain cask beer in the form of Fullers London Pride, much that was of interest to the pub heritage and/or pub games enthusiast has been sacrificed to what we might regard as necessary change. The kind of change that will hopefully ensure the pub survives, maybe even thrive for the foreseeable future.

Thankfully the original three room layout survives, rare enough when so many similar pubs have been knocked through to give a single large space around a central servery. I note too that the original corner entrance is back in use, this leads into a vestibule with a choice of the Public Bar to the left, or (what was) the smaller Lounge Bar to the right with onward travel to the Function/Concert Room that now also serves as a large and comfortable Lounge. The Bar is little changed in truth, though sadly the Leicester Skittles Table that was of particular interest to this blog is long gone. In fact I doubt whether it survived the original closure given that it was little used in the end. So yet another on the list of former Skittles pubs in this part of Leicester, including the nearby Crows Nest, still open but without its two Skittles Tables, and the long closed Tudor. The single Dartboard in the bar has been expanded to an impressive 'floodlit' twin Oche, and other than a lick of paint, new lighting, and some of the older signage removed, the bar remains much the same as it was, that is to say the social hub of the pub, and busy enough with locals when I popped in for a pint on a midweek afternoon recently.

It's the Lounge Bar (above) that's perhaps the biggest loss to us non-locals though. All the fixtures and fittings that qualified this room as a Heritage asset, largely unchanged since the 60's, have been removed. The removal of the curved bar servery and fireplace in particular have changed the whole look and purpose of the room from what was originally an old-fangled Snug to its current use as the pubs Pool Room.

Of course the difficulty with assessing a pub like the Napier is the baggage that we ourselves bring to it. The dynamic of the pub with its basic Public Bar, traditional games, and the more 'cosy' Lounge Bar which was popular with older customers, was something that made the pub special for me. Yet there's no denying the place needed to change to survive, and it's also true that if this latest visit to the Napier had been my first, I'd undoubtedly have judged it a great multi-room locals pub, a largely traditional suburban survivor that will hopefully remain an asset to its local community for many years to come.

Raglan Arms, Rugby, Warwickshire

It seems a very long time ago that a pub with a Northamptonshire Skittles Table featured on this blog. I guess familiarity breeds complacency when it comes to covering your own local pub game, indeed my own village pub has a table that's yet to feature on here. Even then it was an afternoon visit to Rugby and not Northants that led to this post.

Despite a great many trips to Rugby over the years involving numerous good pubs (most of which are still with us I'm pleased to say, though sadly not our old favourite and former Hoskins Brewery house The Peacock), this would be my first visit to the Raglan Arms. A slightly negligent state of affairs you might think given that the Raglan is undoubtedly my kind of pub. But as the current relief landlord explained to me, even though the pub is on the very edge of the town centre, and barely a stone's throw from some of its very best boozers, it seems to get missed by visitors to Rugby, myself included obviously! This is a great shame as the Raglan has an excellent reputation as a friendly and welcoming locals pub, as well as being one of the towns premier destinations for real ale. It's also a pub that opens all-day every-day throughout the week, which as anyone who visits pubs on slow midweek afternoons will know, is an increasingly rare and welcome thing.

The Raglan has recently had a bit of a spruce-up too, reopening in the house style of new owners Black Country Ales, a small West Midlands brewery and pub company that's helped secure the future of many traditional pubs like the Raglan in recent years. In fact the pub very nearly closed for good way back in 2007, with plans submitted to redevelop the site as residential flats. Thankfully the Raglan was rescued on that occasion by local businessman David Hines, revitalising the pub as a popular real ale destination and CAMRA award winner in a town not exactly short of great beer pubs.

From the front entrance there's a separate quiet Snug to the left, before the pub opens out to the main bar with a raised games area at the rear. This is where the Dartboard and Skittles Table are located. Keep going and you'll eventually find yourself in a partially covered beer garden to rear of the pub.

Anyone that's visited one of Black Country Ales more recent acquisitions will recognise the overall look of the pub. Very traditional in appearance with stained wood and brass fittings throughout. It very much reminds me of Black Country Ales pubs the Salmon and Kings Head in Leicester, even down to the televised beer list, a necessary requirement given the number of beers on tap.

The skittles table is a long-term fixture of the pub, although actually owned by the home skittles team and not the brewery. A beautifully maintained WT Black & Son table, it's early history can be found stencilled on the underside (below). Once you realise this information is hidden away underneath the table, it's very hard not to go looking for it, though it's probably wise to explain to the bar staff what you're doing before getting down on hands and knees and crawling around on the carpet for a better view!

The numbers seen here tell us that this would have been the 80th table produced by the Northampton company, and that it was constructed in 1957, probably in September of that year. I believe the other dates refer to a series of refurbishments by WT Black & Son, dated at 1963, 1971, and 1973.

By modern standards these dates might seem unusually frequent. A full restoration of a skittles table today would probably only occur when it was truly worn-out through a decade or more of play. But it has to be remembered that when this table first went into service, it would have been used for league matches several times a week. Add to that a whole host of cup, charity, practice, and casual weekend games, and you can imagine it would have taken quite a hammering in a way that few tables do these days. I've little doubt the table has been refurbished since then as it's in very good condition, but by who is not clear as WT Black & Son ceased business toward the end of the 20th century.

At the time of my visit, the home team were skittling in the Summer season of the local Dunchurch & District Skittles League, but were actually playing their games at the nearby Webb Ellis pub rather than on their own home table. This was an enforced relocation due to the refurbishment of the Raglan earlier in the year, and the team are set to return to the Raglan for the forthcoming Winter season. Darts is played in the Rugby LVA Darts League, though quite why there's a trophy at the pub from the Leicester Inner City League is not entirely clear...

New Engine House, Carlton, Nottingham

The steam engine that gave the pub its name in situ in the 1970's

It's perhaps some measure of the lack of ambition in much of the pub trade, that on those rare occasions when the larger brewers and pub owning companies spot an opportunity to build a new pub, they invariably settle for such dull, utterly characterless, off-the-peg designs. Functional, single-room family dining venues, safe and similar, almost entirely lacking in charm, let alone the kind of local distinctiveness that makes pubs at their best so special. Hasn't it always been this way though?

Certainly breweries have always had their 'house styles' when it comes to new pubs, and it's true that many of the later 20th century estate builds were far from attractive, even by the standards of the most innexpensive post-war architecture and design. But they were always essentially 'pubs' at heart, usually multi-room, and designed to encourage social interaction on many different levels including provision for games and sport of course. Also, there would always be space in the pub for locals to stamp their own identities, interests and personal tastes on, even if it was just a noticeboard for local leagues and societies.

When Nottingham's Shipstone Brewery commissioned The Engine House pub back in the late 60's, a new-build on the site of the former brickworks at Carlton, they clearly followed what was then the house style for many Midlands estate pubs. Red brick, flat-roof, very plain, very functional. But somewhere along the line it was decided that several tons of horizontal steam engine from the defunct brickworks would make a fine and fitting addition to the front of the building, because breweries did that sort of thing back then! The engine was a major feature of the pub that reflected the areas recent industrial past, and was such an ambitious installation that in 1982 when it was eventually removed to the Industrial Museum at Wollaton Hall, it had to be lifted by crane through the roof. These days, a few historical prints on the wall and a plastic ball-pit for the kids seems to be the limit of the architects imagination!

In all honesty, the pub itself is fairly typical of the time, and I've little doubt it would have been regarded as somewhat lacking in character by most pub-goers back then, this at a time when there was still plenty of Victorian and Edwardian splendour to be found in nearby pubs and clubs. A brick-built estate pub like the Engine House would have been entirely unremarkable if it wasn't for the massive steam engine on prominent display. But today, with every closure and subsequent demolition or redevelopment, utilitarian multi-room estate pubs like the New Engine House are becoming rarer, and perhaps that little bit more appreciated by some of us.

Of all the pubs we've lost in recent years, classic 1960's estate pubs have suffered more than most. Victims of a general decline in the pub trade, widespread indifference to their social (and sometimes architectural) importance, and the fact that most were built on substantial plots to accommodate the new trend for car ownership making them prime sites for residential development or conversion to neighbourhood supermarkets. Very few if any from this era of pub building have been granted listed status. Even the nearby March Hare, a wonderful unspoilt boozer recognised as having important heritage status, as well as being an Asset of Community Value by the local CAMRA branch, has no listed building protection. Sadly there's very little, other than strong local opposition, to stop rapacious pubcos from destroying these post-war boozers, so do enjoy and support them while you still can.

The New Engine House has certainly been altered and refurbished over the years, the most recent makeover giving the pub a smarter, brighter, and more attractive interior than has previously been the case. The pub retains a separate room to the left of the entrance for Pool and Darts, a multi-level L-shaped bar where the Wimbledon tennis held customer attention when I visited, as well as another room toward the rear of the pub with Dartboard and older formica-topped tables which would have been used for Cards and Dominoes. Off this room is that rarest of pub-games assets within the urban confines of Nottingham, a fully functioning alley for the local game of Long Alley Skittles.

Whilst Long Alley Skittles is still played throughout much of the East Midlands, in common with many traditional games and particularly those which take up a bit of space at the pub, skittles has practically disappeared from city centre locations. In Nottingham there are perhaps three remaining pub skittle alleys within the wider suburban area, of which the one at the New Engine House is probably the closest to the town centre that's still in regular league use (the Embankment has a recently refurbished skittle alley in the basement which is available for functions, but this hasn't been used for league play for several years now).

The alley is something of a rarity then, and one of only two that I'm aware of in the local league at pubs, most being located at clubs. There were originally two alleys at the Engine House, one located on the upper section of the bar area which has now been removed (I guess it's still there, just covered in carpet and seating), and another which when I first visited the pub some six years ago was an outdoor alley at the rear of the pub. Within a few months of that first visit, the outdoor alley had been covered over and effectively brought indoors in an extension to the rear of the main pub building. Whether one or both of these alleys were included in the original layout of the pub is unclear, but it's highly likely. Another local brewer, Hardys & Hansons, tended to include a skittle alley as standard in their late-20th century pub designs, and skittles would have been very popular at the time the Engine House was built with alleys at several pubs in the area, all of which are now gone of course.

So the pub has changed in many ways, yet remains essentially how it's always been. Skittles is played on Monday nights in Division 'A' of the Nottingham Summer Skittles League, as well as in the smaller Graham Broen Sunday League. Pool and Darts are also played in local leagues, and needless to say the New Engine House is a focal point for televised sport of all kinds.

Perhaps what's helped the New Engine House survive where other similar community locals have been lost is the pub has no car park of its own and occupies a fairly compact site for the size of pub making it less of a development opportunity. The pub would have drawn its custom from a very local area, a walking destination boozer for the residents of the estate which is how it remains today. I doubt whether too many pub or beer enthusiasts take the trouble to visit the New Engine House. It's hidden away off the main road to Carlton, and real ale plays no part in its day-to-day business. I found it friendly, welcoming, and very well-maintained, with plenty of interest for those of us who prefer to drink in proper locals pubs rather than the glorified restaurants that the larger pub owning companies see as the future.

Wheel Inn, Ashbourne, Derbyshire

I think it's safe to say that Ashbourne, along with near neighbours Bakewell and Buxton, is one of the Derbyshire Peaks and Dales more upmarket destinations. A thriving market town that has commanded a position of importance for local traders and travellers for hundreds of years, the towns modern-day prosperity can be attributed in the main to its appeal as a tourist destination, because it goes without saying that this is a particularly beautiful part of the English countryside. A compact market town in an area of outstanding natural beauty, littered with historic buildings, smart tea shops and cafes, and some surprisingly high-end shopping. All this, and a very good town for pubs and drinking too...

Alongside the hugely popular 'Beer Town' that Buxton has developed into in recent years, Ashbourne has also become something of a destination for beer and cider enthusiasts. The town punches well above its weight in terms of speciality beer pubs, bars and micropubs, with numerous outlets for locally produced beer and cider, all within easy walking distance of the central market place.

So Ashbourne comes highly recommended for a boozy day out in the Dales, but one possible drawback when visiting a place as touristy as this is the likelihood that the more traditional pubs and community locals, the ones that are of particular interest to me, may be in short supply. Thankfully this is not the case in Ashbourne, although it certainly is the case that the direction of travel for most of the towns pubs is toward a more upmarket food and drink offering than the traditional staples of Darts, Dominoes, and a few pints.

The direction of travel at the Wheel Inn remains pretty-much the same as it's always been, a seriously traditional locals pub on the fringe of the town centre. No food, just drinks, and the serious business of conversation and competition in all its myriad forms.

Landlord Steve Bull has been at the Wheel for over 25 years now, which is a rare and very welcome example of continuity in a trade which seems hell-bent on constant, often unnecessary change. Promoted as the towns premier sport and games venue, the Wheel covers pretty-much all bases in this regard. When I popped in on a warm Summer Sunday afternoon, the main focus in the bar was on what would prove to be a very successful innings by the England Cricket team in their World Cup match against India. If there's a major sporting event on the telly, chances are it'll be on here, and I doubt there's a better place to watch a sporting occasion than in the bar of the Wheel, chewing the fat with the locals over a pint or two of the excellent Draught Bass.

So sport is taken very seriously at the Wheel, and none more so than during the two days of a unique local football game for which the town has become internationally famous.

The Royal Shrovetide Football match is an ancient tradition that engulfs the town of Ashbourne on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday every year. A massive scrum between the towns Up'ards (those born North of Henmore Brook) and Down'ards (those to the south), the aim being to touch a stitched leather ball to your own sides goal post. The position of the two scoring points is a mere three miles apart, and a ball can only be 'goaled' by standing in the river!

The large leather balls used in the game are traditionally decorated ahead of being 'turned-up' for a game, and can often be seen displayed in prominent positions around the town. Indeed one can be seen hanging above the bar of the Wheel Inn in the photo above. Crucially, the pub is located to the south of the brook, and it's therefore no surprise that the Wheel is regarded as the spiritual home of the towns Down'ards. The 2019 match finished 1-0 to the Down'ards, an appropriate scoreline for a game of 'football', where a whole days play can finish without a hint of a ball being 'goaled' by either side, such is the passion that locals bring to the game. It must have been quite a night in the Wheel when victory was finally secured on the second day of the event.

When not involved in the push and shove of ancient football games, locals at the Wheel are busy competing at Darts, Dominoes, Long Alley Skittles, and Pool in their respective leagues. Sunday is presumably a day of rest at the pub as there can't be many gaps in the weekly schedule to squeeze this level of competitive games play in.

The Long Alley Skittles team compete a little further afield than most, playing in the Second Division of the Belper & District Skittles League. The Wheel is something of an outlier to the core of venues in the Belper league, and this means an away match can involve a 25-30 mile round-trip, which represents quite a commitment to the game at what is currently the only venue for skittles in the town. The alley is a pretty basic outdoor affair at the rear of the pub, albeit with one of the most robust horseshoe 'chock holes' I've come across (above), and an increasingly rare uncovered alley at that. I've noticed that over the last few years, more and more alleys are being partially or fully covered against the weather, yet oddly enough, most of those which remain uncovered tend to be located in the Peaks and Dales, an area noted for its higher than average rainfall!

Foresters Arms, Newthorpe, Nottinghamshire

What to do on a wet Tuesday afternoon when you're free of work, and the garden is having a long luxurious soak? The pub of course! Several for preference, which is why I found myself thirsty and dripping at Langley Mill station recently, and with a bit of a walk in mind. A walk that got so wet I eventually decided the bus was the only sensible walking option, and in so doing I unwittingly joined the ranks of a growing number of pub and beer enthusiasts doing what's become known as the Rainbow One Route. And I thought I was just out for a stroll and a few pints...

Turns out the 'Rainbow One' is a bus route that runs in a north/westerly direction from Nottingham along the A610, stopping at a number of sizeable settlements before eventually depositing passengers into the Derbyshire towns of Ripley or Alfreton. What turned a standard county bus route into something of a big-day-out for those of us with an interest in beer and pubs is the transformation that the areas drinking scene has undergone in recent years, particularly with regard to those new-fangled Micropubs.

Now I couldn't begin to guess how many micropubs are trading along or near the bus route, suffice to say that just one of the stopping points, the former coal mining town of Eastwood, has no less than five of them! That's an awful lot of speciality beer venues for one small area, and a good clue as to why you'll find the area thick with beer enthusiasts whenever buses are running and pubs are open.

But I wasn't there for the micropubs, which is just as well because many of them are not open on a Tuesday afternoon! No, my interest was in the older, more traditional boozers in the area, and particularly those which maintain the traditions of games play, still relatively common despite the efforts of some of the less 'local' pub-owning companies. Because whilst enterprising individuals and imaginative local brewers are doing their best to create a thriving beer and pub scene in the area, the lumbering national brewers and pubcos seem hell-bent on doing precisely the opposite. Closing, or repurposing pubs with off-the-peg refurbishments that have little regard for individuality or local distinctiveness.

Greene King are now one of the major pub-owning concern in the area, the unfortunate result of Hardys & Hansons, the local brewery based at nearby Kimberley, selling out to them in 2006. When Greene King bought-up and subsequently closed the Kimberley Brewery, they inherited a substantial pub estate made-up predominantly of the kind of solid traditional community locals that national pub companies have little interest in these days. Since day-one of the takeover, the more traditional boozers in the area have been under threat. The New White Bull in nearby Giltbrook is a classic example, a pub that was well-loved by its locals, but despite strong opposition is now yet another pub-shaped Co-operative store. A similar fate was proposed by Greene King for the Foresters Arms in Newthorpe, but thankfully local opposition prevailed this time around, and the pub survives to take its place on the Rainbow One Route.

The Foresters Arms is tucked away in a residential area at the heart of Newthorpe village. Just a short walk from the bus route but well worth the detour (there were beers from Castle Rock, Dancing Duck, and Oakham Ales when I popped in). Under threat of demolition, villagers and locals of the pub rallied round and formed a campaigning group (Save Our Foresters Arms - SOFA), garnering 700 signatures for a petition in very short-order. Clearly Greene King had underestimated the genuine local support for the pub and promptly backed down. Since then, the Foresters has gone from strength to strength, revitalised by a community who clearly value their local pub, under new ownership, and with a much improved beer range. The pub is a smart but traditional two-room pub with a beautifully maintained garden to the rear, which is where you'll also find the pubs well-used traditional Skittle Alley.

As you can see in the images above, Long Alley Skittles in the area north of Derby and Nottingham is distinguished by alleys that are more often than not located outdoors, and sometimes entirely uncovered. The alley at the Foresters is partially covered, only the unfortunate thrower has to brave whatever the English weather is throwing at them on the evening of a match. A good compromise for venues in the local Ilkeston & District and Border Skittles Leagues where some alleys remain entirely uncovered. With skittles often a wet-weather game in the north Midlands, the pins are given a wipe-over with Linseed Oil between games (above). A full set of skittles and balls comes in at around £250, so it's important to keep them in good shape throughout the season.

A wooden return chute for the balls, like the one shown above, is becoming an increasingly rare sight at outdoor alleys now. This one is painted and well-maintained, others have been allowed to rot through neglect or lack of use. Whilst I've seen one or two steel constructions for the job in the Newark area, most have had the wood replaced with a functional, but not exactly attractive plastic pipe, so it's nice to see an older one like this still in use at the pub.

You know you're in a pub where the locals take their Darts seriously when the board comes complete with a deeply-grooved sharpening stone like the one shown above. Darts and Dominoes are played at the Foresters in the Eastwood & Distict Darts & Dominoes League, and with some success judging by the number of trophies and shields on display in the bar.