The Mug House, Worcester

The Mug House is located in the pretty village of Claines, just to the north of Worcester. It has quite an interesting history detailed on the pub's website and is one of 7 original Mug Houses along the River Severn. The only other one with the same name and still around appears to be the one in Bewdley, which I visited many years ago. Although I'm not sure if that was one of the original 7. Standing in the churchyard of the parish church, it's a fantastic looking building with some outdoor seating at the front and the outdoor toilets off to the left. Inside, there is a short corridor with access to the bar. This leads to a room with a mural which is slightly larger than other rooms. The small bar itself can be found to the left of the corridor, whilst there is a further room to the right of the corridor with no access to the bar. We chose to sit in the rear room, as the bar was pretty much all taken by a rather rowdy local cycling group. They had all cycled to the pub, but I'd imagine that if they were cycling home, there would have been a few injuries! 4 ales were on, 2 from Wye Valley (HPA & Butty Bach) and 2 from Salopian (Oracle & Firkin' Freezin'). I enjoyed my visit here. This is a really atmospheric and historic pub that has unpredictable opening hours. We visited on the Friday between Christmas and New Year, but had we'd have tried visiting the day before, we would have found it closed. So, it may well be worth your while giving them a call before you visit, as there's very little accurate information online. Surprisingly, the pub has not featured in the Good Beer Guide since the last reviewer visited in 2010. My Firkin' Freezin' was in good condition.

Official site of The Mug House - www.themug.co.uk

Official site of The Mug House - www.themug.co.uk

This pub is such a rarity it may even be unique. While there are other pubs in the UK within a churchyard, this one stands on consecrated ground (meaning that the land is set aside for sacred use in perpetuity. The consecration of a church or a burial ground can only be undertaken by a Bishop). Fairly easy to access from the M5 junction 6 and then turn off the A449 between Worcester and Kidderminster. It’s a quirky building with a fair sized beer garden, with gravestones at the front and a ploughed field to the rear. The church bells never stopped ringing the whole time we were there. Apparently there were some guest campanologists paying a visit and they were performing a piece that peels for 3 hours and 22 minutes! Inside there is a small central bar area and 3 small rooms. Straight ahead from the front door is the largest room, the lounge with benches for seating around the outside of the room, a serving hatch through to the bar and a mural on the wall depicting how the pub may have looked in 1745. (In fact, this one time church brew house was built at least 600 years ago but the exterior has seemingly has been renovated with some modern brickwork.) To the right hand side of the entrance corridor is the snug with an open fireplace and mugs hanging from the ceiling. Service to this room is through another serving hatch between the corridor and the bar. We sat in the smokeroom which has wooden chairs and 4 round tables around the edge, a coal fire and a bar that is just about big enough for 3 people to stand at. There were 3 or 4 middle aged male punters in and a few other people in the lounge. These chaps and the staff all seemed friendly, unless it was in reference to one of the locals to whom Christian kindness was not extended (I’ll call him Turner): “Turner’s Missus was in here last night” “Maybe that was to get away from him” “He hasn’t been in here for a while” “Good. Boring barstard (sic)” “Is he banned?” “Maybe he’s banned himself” “That’d do us all a favour” Both the male and female toilets are outside and surprisingly, given its location, display some very saucy seaside postcards on the wall of the gents that would make a bishop turn in his grave. If you visit here at night and you are of a nervous disposition you may want to hold it until you really need to go because the gaffer assured us that the place is haunted (and I don’t just mean there are spirits behind the bar) - by a former landlord amongst others - and that there are several bodies buried underneath the building. I asked him if he’d though of getting the ghosts exorcised but he claimed that they were happy and didn’t want to stir them up by trying to change things. Food at lunchtime was basic but acceptable – ploughman’s with either cheese or pork pie, or ham, egg and chips cost between £5-6. Tap stuff included Guinness, Kronenburg 1664, Gold Somerset Cider, Fosters, Carling and Pedigree. On handpull there was Banks’s Original, Banks’s Bitter, Jennings Cock-a-Hoop and Brakspear Oxford Gold. A 2010 GBG entry. Fascinating place (the number of photographs I felt compelled to take says it all) and well worth a visit.