Swan and Royal Hotel

 * Edit Jan 2011 - The Swan has re-opened again after a long period in which it was closed due to serious fire damage.

Situated bang in the middle of Clitheroe, the Swan & Royal is difficult to miss, and a typical old coaching inn. Rooms are available and the yard behind now full of small shops must have been stables in the past. It's famous for having both Winston Churchill and Ghandi stay there, which is really quite extraordinary when you know the size of the town.

It's a large building, with many of the original features. Large rooms too, with quieter ones near the front windows, a slightly more raucus one (at times) at the back near the bar. Beer is mainly by the Cumbrian brewery Jennings, and my usual 'Cumberland Ale' is found both on smoothflow or cask.

Food is decent enough - nothing particularly special, and service tends to be friendly. The Friday night disco is a bit dire, and my advice is to avoid it if you can hear music leaking out the doors!

Clitheroe Pubs

Clitheroe is the largest town in the Ribble Valley with a hefty(!) population of 14,000. It's a market town full of small, but interesting independent shops including one of the best wine shops in the country (Byrnes) . Fresh food is exceptional, and only a food would get their meat & vegetables from the supermarkets rather than the market or local butchers.

Pub-wise, Clitheroe is blessed with many, though as most are large coaching inns, they can feel a little samey. A few rise to the top of the pile though, and future posts will concentrate on the various pubs individually.

Just a few observations on the pubs as a whole. Most of these pubs change character through the day as a different crowd visits. Go to the Station at lunchtime and you could be surrounded by pensioners enjoying a bargain meal. Go to the White Horse on a Friday evening and it might be rammed to the gills with drinkers of all ages. The locals like to move from pub to pub over the course of an evening too, so don't be surprised to find the pub where you were enjoying a quiet pint in suddenly being invaded by a crowd in the throes of bacchanalean revelry.

It's a friendly town, lacking the violent edge sadly found in most British towns these days. You might get a quizzical glance if you wander into one of the more 'local' (ie. out of the town centre) pubs but it's because people are genuinely wondering who you might be rather than trying to make you feel unwelcome. Stick around for a couple of pints and you'll undoubtably find yourself having a laugh with the locals.

Anyway, a closer look at the individual pubs will be scattered above.