Royal Oak, Kings Langley

This has now been converted into an Indian restaurant named Spice Village.

The Royal Oak is a traditional pub in the Hertfordshire Village of Chipperfield, which has been in the Good Beer Guide for over 30 years. This is primarily due to the beer keeping efforts of long-time landlord, Peter Bone, who retired in Sept 2011 after 34 years behind the bar of the Royal Oak. And also during that time he made no alterations to the traditional interior of the pub. And fortunately on my visit the other evening, it was reassuring to find virtually nothing has changed since he left. It is still a two room pub either side of the central bar serving which still leans to the old school Public and Saloon set up. Interesting collections of match books cover the wall and foreign bank notes hang from the ceiling. And the unusual wooden cask stools, copper topped tables, and decorative brasses make for a proper pub atmosphere. There are three hand pumps on each bar section and these regularly dispense Adnams Broadside, Fuller's London Pride and Young’s Bitter. So not the most exciting choice but it was good to find them well kept as they were in Mr Bone’s day. This is a very good country local but a couple of beers from smaller local breweries away from the main brewery regulars would make it even better, as its sad to note that the bland Chef and Brewer chain pub further down the road has the most interesting ale selection in the Village.