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HEREFORDSHIRE - Leintwardine, Sun National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors Part One Rosemary Lane, Leintwardine, Craven Arms, SY7 0LP Tel: 01547 540705 Web site: www.suninn-leintwardine.co.uk Opening Hours: 7.30-11 Mon-Fri; 12-2.30; 7.30-11 Sat & Sun. May open longer hours - please ring ahead. Draught Beer & Cider: Hobson's beers (2 minimum), plus guests (normally Wye Valley, Woods or Ludlow) Public Transport: Infrequent bus service to/from Ludlow Pub Food: None Accomodation: None Listed Status: Grade II View this pub on a local map
A stone and brick built cottage pub some 200 years old and possibly the most unspoilt pub in the country. Four small rooms with some public use and service still like it has been for over 60 years. In fact it is like how hundreds of pubs operated in the past. You enter into a small lobby with a basic bench down one side and a table. On the left is the landlady's "parlour" - just a small simple cottage room, what might be called the "lounge", but it is really Miss Lane's sitting room with a carpet, 1950s tiled fireplace, half panelled walls, a dresser, sideboard and armchairs.
To the right of the lobby is a larger room which has much more of a public bar character with a red-tiled floor; a number of low basic benches all round; a brick fireplace from the 1930s - no alterations for years. You can sit here and order your beer (very few other drinks are sold here) which is fetched from the "kitchen" on the far left, where the beer is stillaged, and brought to you. Nowadays you are more likely to find it is one of a band of locals rather than the landlady that serves you. Opens 7.30 to 11pm each evening and also 12 to 2.30 on Sat & Sun lunchtimes.
The following article on how the Sun was saved appeared in the Beer on the Wye Festival programme:
THE SUN INN, LEINTWARDINE – A SIGN OF HOPE FOR OUR PUBS?
Proof that active campaigning does work,
It was in danger of not just being the end of an era, but the end of one of Britain’s most remarkable pubs. What followed the death of England’s longest-serving landlady, Flossie Lane, back in June 2009, is an example of what can be achieved through positive campaigning. Back on Saturday the 13th June, 2009, the world learned the very sad news that Florence ‘Flossie’ Lane, landlady of the Sun Inn at Leintwardine, had passed away in Leominster Community Hospital following a short illness.
She was a remarkable lady who ran a remarkable pub. Located just this side of the Herefordshire-Shropshire border, the Sun Inn is considered by many to be the least spoiled pub in Britain. Not many people knew about the Sun Inn and Flossie back in 2009, but for those who did it was something quite special to cherish. This might help to explain how Flossie managed significant obituaries in both The Times and the Daily Telegraph and featured on the BBC Radio 4 obituary programme, Last Word - the latter with contributions from both Jeremy Paxman and Herefordshire CAMRA member, and Beer on the Wye festival co-ordinator, Mark Haslam.
Timeless surroundings
Virtually unchanged in 200 years, the Grade II-listed Sun Inn is a true survivor from a much simpler age, when many rural communities would have had pubs similar to the Sun Inn. It consists of two very plain bars: a bar-parlour that doubled as Flossie’s living room and a red brick-tiled public bar area with benches, scrubbed tables and a solitary clicking clock above the fireplace. Beer is served direct from a stillage in the kitchen, and was always brought to customers by Flossie. Stood in its timeless bars it is almost possible to hear the echo of laughter of long-past generations enjoying the simple pleasures of the Sun after a long day spent toiling in the fields.
Back in the late summer of 2009 the future of the Sun Inn was cast into doubt when it was due to go to auction with a guide price of up to £300,000. Although mention was made in the auction sales particulars of the pub’s special history and circumstances, CAMRA was concerned that this price, and further mention of ‘development potential’ in the auction sales particulars, meant its sale might attract interest from property speculators who would have had no interest in running it as pub. Consequently a campaign was set up by Herefordshire CAMRA to publicise the threat, and hundreds quickly signed up to support a viable future for the Sun Inn on a ‘Save the Sun’ website.
BBC visit
The campai
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