Marlborough Head, Colchester

Official site of Marlborough Head - www.themarlboroughdedham.co.uk

Official site of Marlborough Head - www.themarlboroughdedham.co.uk

A substantial street corner pub in the middle of this very pleasant village, it’s an attractive building with much black and white timberwork on the outside and a number of different rooms within, as well as a small patio area off to the side. A small cart was selling ice creams here on our visit which was a good idea in the current hot weather. First impressions were perhaps a little disappointing, with the room that houses the bar counter being somewhat more contemporary than might have been expected from looking at the outside of the building. Although there was some of the old timberwork in evidence, the room had been freshly plastered and painted in a khaki green colour, with some cream wood panelling on the lower part of the walls and stripy carpet on the floor. Persevere though and it gets better as you go on in to the depths of the building, with the central room in particular being somewhat more attractive looking with a large brick fireplace and a cast iron chimney hood, a large cauldron full of logs, plenty of beams on the ceiling, pale yellow paintwork and a sofa or two either side of a wooden table that was made to look like two books stacked on top of each other. Other rooms either side included pale blue paintwork and wallpaper covered in postage stamps. By the time I left, despite my initial reservations, I had formed the opinion that they had actually done a pretty good job in renovating an old building and combining the contemporary and traditional. Beers on tap were Southwold and Ghost Ship from Adnams, along with Woodforde Wherry, whilst the solitary cider was Aspall’s Suffolk.