Royal Oak Inn, Chesterfield

Our final stop of the day in Derbyshire was the Royal Oak in the village centre of Barlborough. There are a couple of rooms. To the left is a modern bar with a pool table around the rear of the bar. TVs were showing live FA Cup football and also basketball. The larger room to the right-hand side was also showing the football (Sheffield United) were playing and was much busier. There may also have been people eating in there, but we ended up in the bar area instead. Sharp's Doom Bar is the regular real ale. The guest beer was Acorn Stone Heart, which we ordered. The clip was turned around not long after we arrived. It wasn't really my sort of beer, but we agreed that there was nothing wrong with its condition. So, it seemed that the cask had simply run out. This pub felt a bit too modern for my liking. With the Apollo Inn directly opposite and the Rose & Crown and De Rodes Arms just down the road, it seems a lot of pubs for a village of this size. We weren't surprised to see that the Apollo was closed and possibly now only functioning as accommodation.

Official site of Royal Oak Inn - www.royaloakbarlborough.co.uk

Official site of Royal Oak Inn - www.royaloakbarlborough.co.uk

I visited this pub a couple of year ago and it was fairly smart inside with two real ales on these were Ruddles Bitter and GK Abbot.