The Griffin Inn, Uckfield

Dating from the 16th century the Griffin Inn is a hotel, pub and restaurant in the well-to-do village of Fletching. The right-hand entrance opens into a rectangular wooden floored wood panelled bar with open plan seating and a counter up the left. On the other side of the counter, which can be accessed via the pub’s left-hand door, is a second bar area with a piano and a red carpeted seating area with set tables adjacent to an interesting old fireplace with burner. Panelled walls are also found in this section where old pictures and paintings can be viewed, one of which is our now king having a beer in here some years ago. An L-shaped wooden floored dining area runs up the left of this carpeted seating and across the rear to a fireplace on the right-hand side. The hotel reception is found in the right rear adjacent to the toilets. This is a Youngs pub, or it has some affiliation to Youngs, so their London Original was available alongside Harvey’s Best on the two out of four hand pumps that were in operation. A premium keg selection was also available, as was a gastro food menu. I think this pub gets it just about right between the wet and dry, but it’s not the sort of place I would stop in for long.

This turns out to be an upmarket traditional inn although it looks more like a solid village local from the street. Anyway, the bar and dining rooms have 3/4-height dark wood panelling with black-and-white photographs and coloured illustrations of various cricketers and their teams. Slightly oddly, the four handpumps are on the restaurant side of the central servery, with Youngs 'London Original' and the more local Harvey's (£5.85) available (and the presence of the former is perhaps explained but that company's name appearing on the wi-fi connection).