Cross in Hand, Heathfield

The Cross In Hand is a large pub on the A267 in the strangely named Cross in Hand village that seems to consist of a big petrol garage, sports clubs, a motorcycle dealer and furniture shops. I’ve ridden past this pub many times and early one afternoon last week I was feeling a bit peckish so I decided to park the rust bucket on the forecourt and pop in for some food. The mains cost around £8 and seemed to be usual pub grub. There are take-away options of fish/sausage/burger/scampi and chips for £6 which seems like a reasonable deal. The bar area is located at the front of the pub and there is a standard draught selection alongside Amstel. There are also two hand pumps that were drawing Young’s Special and Courage Best. A half of the latter went down a treat with a tasty £4.50 sausage sandwich. There is a dartboard in this bar area along with some conventional seating and to the right is another small seating area. To the left of the bar is a larger seating area and the rear exit to a grass covered beer garden with picnic tables. There is also a long extension at the rear that houses a pool table and two more dartboards when it is not being used to host private functions. I found the service to be friendly, but the couple of locals at the bar were gawking in my direction a bit too much for my liking. This pub’s location dictates that it must be purposely driven to and I don’t think that it is a worthy destination pub. I don’t plan a revisit in the near future.