The Old Dunnings Mill, Sunnyside, East Grinstead

The Old Dunnings Mill is a large dining pub on the edge of town. I visited on a warm sunny day, so the gardens were busy; the road outside isn't that busy so it's pleasant enough. Sitting outside, table service was in operation (having checked-in at the bar). It's a Harvey's pub, with 3 ales on the bar. The House IPA appears to be Wild Hop rebadged, and was in good shape. Camden Pale was the craftiest of the keg offerings. It's a good option in East Grinstead, though not exactly conveniently located if you don't have your own transport. Having walked downhill from the town centre, I was glad to make use of the infrequent bus from the stop right outside for the return.

Located on the outskirts of town, this is a classy Harvey’s pub set in a converted water mill. The pub has a car park to the rear and a large garden wrapped around three sides of the building, including a very nice, part-covered space out the back which was nicely lit on my evening visit and had plenty of comfortable garden furniture, all overlooking the water wheel and stream. The main bar is in the rear half of the building, making it the first part of the pub you reach if entering via the car park (which you have to under the current Covid one-way system). It’s a long, wide space with dark wood floorboards partly covered by a large rug in the centre of the room, with the bar along the back wall and a few basic tables and chairs opposite. The bar has an unusual counter front with wooden slats used to create an interesting visual effect and some mosaic tiles filling in the space beneath. The counter bulges at the left-hand end, in what might well have once been a separate room, whilst the bar back is mirrored with some modern shelving units in front. The room extends to the left, past the end of the bar and a strange gated-off kitchen display area full of wine racks and fake cupboards, into a space with quarry stone walls and a good mix of chair, sofa and pew seating with a bookshelf on the far wall partially obscured by a large TV screen showing muted rolling news. A couple of doorways opposite the bar lead through to another wide room at the front of the pub which is also bare boarded with some faded rugs and simple bench and chair seating. The whole pub has been decorated with lots of old black and white photos, many of which had a wartime theme, old maps, paintings and the like, with hops hung from many of the lintels and beams. Some nice stained-glass panes have been used in partitioning screens between the Ladies and Gents toilets, depicting the pub’s water wheel, whilst inside the gents there were pictures of other Harveys pubs lining the walls. The staff were very friendly here and dealt with all the Covid sign-in protocol nice and quickly, whilst a half-decent 60’s and 70’s pop tunes soundtrack played in the background. There were two handpulls in action offering Harveys Sussex Best and Old Ale, with two more handpulls clipped but bearing the dreaded ‘Coming Soon’ sign. The Sussex Best was £4.20 for a pint and in very good shape – always worth trying this beer in a Harveys pub where you can be sure it will have been properly looked after. I really liked this place and thought it had managed a good compromise between the simple yet comfortable bar area to the rear and the more formal dining-style room to the front, coupled with an excellent garden and fairly unique pub feature of a working water wheel. Part of me wonders whether this place can lean too far over into ‘foodie’ territory at peak times, but on my midweek evening visit it was a very pleasant place to enjoy a well-kept pint of Harveys beer.

Attractive and interesting Harvey's pub, particularly at the back where the disused waterwheel can still be seen, although this is now bypassed by the stream. The interior has been partly opened-out to leave quite a narrow bar with a larger dining room behind a wall covered in local history photographs, and a number of further rooms branch off on both sides. Most of the garden seating is located under a large semi-open marquee that is used for beer festivals and other events. With two banks of four handpumps, I found Sussex (£4.10), IPA and Armada on, although the clips for Old annoyingly proved to be a mirage... The only other discordant note comes from the use of unsympathetic LED fairy lights in the counter area, but apart from that this is a pretty decent food-led establishment.