The Three Cranes, Kettering

Village pub that re-opened a couple of years ago. Opening times are fairly limited and not very well publicised. We arrived shortly after 2pm on a Sunday to find it just having openen, in spite of some of the timings found online. This is very much a pub for the local community. So, as long as they know it's open, it will probably prosper. For the record, it is open from 4pm Thursday, Friday & Saturday and 2-6 on a Sunday. It is closed Monday-Wednesday. We arrived to find some loud music. The landlady without any customers was enjoying some of her own music. She soon turned it down when we arrived and she enquired as to whether we were visiting relatives, as she had not seen us there before. We explained why we were passing by and she became very interested in our pub exploits. In fact she was so impressed with our endeavours, that she gave us packs of crisps on the house! On the bar were Phipps NBC IPA & Kingswell Gold. A third handpull was unclipped. Beavertown Neck Oil was the pick of the keg beers. The cider was Orchard Thieves. The pub has a real fire on the left-hand well, with the landlady almost setting her hair on fire whilst getting it stoked. There was a TV on the opposite wall. Buckets of flowers on the bar were a nice touch. Board games are available to play and food is available for the local dogs. Toilets are partly unisex and were very clean. A wifi password is available on the fireplace. I found this to be a very welcoming community pub with some good local beer and a friendly landlady who had given up a career in the events business in the capital during Covid to take this place on with her husband. Now being in the Good Beer Guide, I imagine she will get a few more passers by, which should hopefully support their efforts further.

The Three Cranes is set sideways oto the road and is set above it. Once inside there was a single oblong shaped room with the bar facing,the room was carpeted and had normal tables and chairs to the right,there were narrow bench seating and chairs to the left,there was also a nice warm real fire on the go in this area. There was one pump on the bar,this had Banks's bitter on which was quite a nice drink,Pedigree was on but only the keg version. This is a smart and comfy pub,i quite liked this one. Pub visited 30/11/2013