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CHESHIRE - Alphraham, Travellers Rest National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors Part One Chester Road, Alphraham, Crewe, CW6 9JA (on A51) Tel: 01829 260523 Listed Status: Not listed View this pub on a local map
This is a wayside, brick-built pub on the busy A51, Nantwich to Chester road. The original part consists of a T-plan building of c.1850 and has Tudor-style windows. This has been extended, notably to the rear, in 1937. The pub retains four rooms and has been in the hands of the same family for 110 years. The last changes were in c.1970 when the fourth room was brought into use as a public room. The fittings are plain and date from shortly before the Second World War. In the centre of the pub is a small public bar with a counter which extends into the lounge at the rear. Fronting the main road are the tap room (right) and darts room (left).
The corner door leads to the Tap Room which was probably the main drinking room in the past even though it has no bar as beer would have been served straight from the cask and brought to you prior to 1937. It has a genuine Victorian tiled, cast iron and wood surround fireplace and a 1930s Ind Coope & Allsopp mirror. A doorway leads to the very small Public Bar - the room most in use these days. It has a bar counter believed to have been installed in 1937, which is also the date of the fixed seating and bar back shelving. The cast fireplace and beauty board panelling around it were installed in c.1970.
The Lounge Bar is situated in the extension at the rear and retains the original fittings of 1937 - counter, bar back shelving and brick fireplace. The counter front has wallpaper added to the wooden frontage and one wall has more beauty board added in c.1970. The room which has its own separate entrance and is usually closed but if you want to take a look just ask the bar staff. It is used by Bowling Club members - between the pub and the fields to the rear is a bowling green in regular use. Also at the rear is a wooden building, originally a WW1 Army Hut, which was in use as a Tea Room between the late 1940s to 1989. It is still used occasionally for darts competitions and as a small function room. The toilets, both ladies and gents, are outside - take a peek into the gents and you will see it is home to a family of swallows, who first came in 2003 so please do not disturb the nest!
Just beyond the domestic entrance is the Wicker Room / Darts Room on the front left of the pub and it was brought into use in c.1970. It was decided the Tap Room was too busy for darts to be played so a little used domestic room was converted into public use. It has a glazed brick, cast ion and wood surround fireplace and beauty board added to the walls. Look for the half door which creates a serving hatch to the back of the public bar but also is the door at the top of the cellar steps.
There is no electronic gadgetry here - the till is a drawer in the bar counter and there is no TV, piped music or fruit machines - so in the event of a power cut it can continue to fully operate with candles! If you visit the pub on the Sunday lunchtime before Christmas Eve then expect to see people coming from miles around wearing a topical or themed hat. Back in 1990 a chap came into the pub wearing a bowler hat and ever since this has become 'Hat Sunday' and carols are sung etc.
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