Only a fifteen-minute bus ride from Newark is the Old Coach House Inn, located on the corner of Easthorpe in Southwell, just down the road from the Minster. Voted Newark CAMRA’s Summer 2000 Pub of the Season, it is a great pub that seems to embrace all of those things that CAMRA is about. Formerly the White Lion, it was bought by Steve and Sandra Hussey, and the Old Coach House Inn opened its doors to the public in October 1999.

Steve & Sandra have been married for fourteen years, Steve previously being a driving instructor. But Sandra had been in the licensed trade herself for 12 years before. In her total of 26 years in the trade she has had six pubs, the most two recent being the Bromley Arms at Fiskerton, and the Lord Nelson at Sneinton which was a Nottingham Pub of the Month winner in ’87 and ’91.

They had always been passionate about the quality of their beers, but weren’t able to offer the range they wanted because they had always been in tenanted houses. All that changed when they bought the Coach House freehold. They now support a wide range of National, Regional and Micro-brewers, many of the micros locally sourced. Indeed, when walking through the doors of the pub, one never knows what beers to expect and the turnover is sometimes so quick that your second choice of beer is no longer available upon returning to the bar after finishing your first!

There are always six hand-pulled beers available: Draught Bass, a mild (usually from Hardys & Hansons) and four others. The quality is no less than excellent. “I can’t take any credit for that” says Sandra. “Steve does all the ordering and cellar work”. Favourites with the customers seem to be from Glentworths, Maypole, Newby Wyke and Oldershaw. “I think the standard of beers from the micro’s is first class” said Sandra. “We very rarely have a problem. When we do, it’s usually sorted out straight away”.

It is obvious that their decision not to serve food (a rarity nowadays) has allowed them to focus their attention on the quality of the beer. However, this decision was taken during Sandra’s fight against cancer. “I’d done all the cooking at my previous pubs, but I was so poorly, I just couldn’t manage it any more”, she told me. Happily she is better now, and business certainly hasn’t suffered.

Aside from the beer, the pub itself is about as traditional as they come, with three distinctly separate drinking areas and no less than three real coal (or log) fires which, when lit during the winter months, makes for a really cosy atmosphere. Conversely, the paved and planted patio area at the back makes a pleasant sun-trap in which to enjoy an outdoor pint during the summer months.

The staff and customers give a warm and genuinely friendly welcome, but if conversation is not your thing, as well as the usual darts and doms, there is shove ha’penny, cribbage, Jenga and a large selection of board games available with which to while away the oncoming dark nights.

The Old Coach House Inn
01636 813289

BoldBelvoir
Aug '03