The Red Lion, Market Drayton

The Red Lion is the better of the 2 pubs in Cheswardine. On arrival, we entered into the room on the left, where there were a couple in the window and a lady doing some knitting. Locals were in the bar to the right-hand side of the entrance, where you can find the bar itself. The lady knitting turned out to be the landlady. Salopian Oracle is a regular beer here. Guests were Marston's Pedigree and the local Nomad Craft Nomad Pale. The landlady was keen to tell me about the Nomad brewery beers, showing me their pumpclips and their bottled beer selection. Most of the locals also appeared to be drinking it. So, I ordered the Pale. In truth, it wasn't really my kind of beer. Although, I was offered a taster before buying. A really friendly and traditional village local.

lovely traditional country pub in the village ! 5 mins from market -drayton. real beer for real people , lion-brew is an everyday beer with a special price too. well worth the visit , and regulars are great too. relax and enjoy, great variety of snacks too & a real wood burning stove . Robin Ainsworth (37) market-drayton

This is the tap house of the Lion’s Tail Brewery which is a microbrewery based in the small building directly behind the pub. If you enter through the front central door there are two further doors immediately on your left and right, left leads into the main public bar and right reveals a small snug, there is also a third room at the back of the main bar on the left. The public bar has a wonderful olde worlde feel with a large inglenook fireplace, low beams, horse brasses, framed collections of cigarette cards and an old map of Shropshire on the walls. There is a small L shaped bar counter at the back of the room on the right with a dart board and pump clips on the back wall. The snug has a small fireplace and paintings of various animals on the walls; unfortunately I did not enter the third room during this visit. Out the back door there is a small covered patio area and car park which is hardly worth mentioning as it only has three spaces! Regular ales are Lion’s Tale Lionbru, Blooming Blonde and Chesbrewnette with a single changing guest ale which was Marston’s Burton Bitter on my visit. I tried the three microbreweries beers and they were all well kept and very nice, Chesbrewnette being my favourite. Bottle conditioned beers are available on request (GBG2010). This is a great traditional local’s pub with loads of character and interesting beers that are exclusive to this pub, also the landlord/brewer and regulars that I met were very friendly. If you are in the area or passing via the A41 then it’s worth a short detour to experience this place. Note that the pub has roughly six or seven parking spaces in total (including three or four at the front).