The Kings Head, Rugby

Visited Thursday 22nd September 2011 A Hook Norton Road side pub, which is how pubs should be, with the additional restaurant area. There were a few locals holding up the bar enjoying the politics of the day, with us and a couple of others enjoying the food from a proper pub grub menu of scampi, cod, sausages, eggs, chicken and chips either as a large plated or a smaller version of a basket!! Haven’t seen that on offer since a kid! It should be noted that food is served up until 8pm, (this could just be for weeknights) The Landlord and Lady were welcoming and made sure all was good with beer and food. It was great to see a choice of Hook Norton’s, Old Hooky, Hooky Bitter and Dark Hooky, all went down rather well, just wish we could have stayed longer. This pub is worth the walk from the canal but it is along busy roads, so after dark a good idea to have torches and fluorescent clothes on. You can reach it from Bridge 109 or 110 and it’s about 5 minutes from there, but the towpath isn’t very clever to moor up. We moored up before the Napton Junction after bridge 108 and it was about a 20 minute walk, using the road track alongside the canal.

The Kings Head is something of a roadhouse which has always provided a friendly welcome on my visits and is popular with the villagers of Napton. The pub is split into a large lounge/bar and seperate dining room which I've never seen open. Food is of the standard pub variety and my sandwich was fresh and decent value. Beer is Hook Norton: Bitter, Old Hooky and Dark with all that we tried in good condition. A reliable stop for a quick one.