Wolverton House, Wolverton Mill, Milton Keynes

A large and expansive pub that was presumably at one time a country hotel, this is set in it’s own grounds and approached by a long drive way. Once you’re out of the car park you walk through an archway in what may well have been a stable block at one time in to a large gravelled courtyard with plenty of picnic benches. The pub itself is a rabbit warren of at least half a dozen different rooms. The main bar area is a fairly nondescript, mass produced area with carpet on the most of the floor and some wood parquet down the centre and around the L-shape bar counter. There is some highly patterned wallpaper on the walls, and equally patterned upholstery with the colour scheme being a mixture of red and cream. There are a few old photo’s of the local area on the wall, but overall this has little in the way of atmosphere. A plasma was mounted up in one corner showing a news channel, although the volume was off and instead there was piped music playing. Unfortunately this was insufficient to drown out the noise made by various toddlers that were running around. A few steps led down in to what may be an older part of the building with a flagstone floor. A small room was off to the left, but the dominant feature was a large carvery counter on the right. Beyond this a few old brick steps led to several further rooms. These had somewhat more character than the main bar and gave the feeling that you were in an old hotel with many of the rooms having old fireplaces, although unfortunately the clientele and their offspring didn’t really do it justice. A machine like you get in arcades with soft toys and a remotely operated grab handle was in the hallway, which completely spoilt any ambience or character that the place may have had. Food wise, the carvery was clearly the dominant feature and there appeared to be a constant queue at the counter. Various notices advertised the cost of this at £3.99, or you could opt for a pie at £3.79 apparently. Another notice proclaimed that they were the winner of the Great British Pub Food Awards 2010 which sounded slightly implausible given the price, but further reading revealed that it was in the “Best branded food concept” category, whatever that means. A machine in the gents offered not only a choice of three prophylactics but also a choice of two performance boosting pills as well as packs of Anadin Extra. Quite what the connection is I’m not sure. Something to give the wife if she’s got a headache maybe? Beers on tap were GK IPA and Bombardier. A third pump appeared unused. Ciders were Strongbow or Bulmers. Service at the bar was a little slow, although whether this was due to the inefficiency of the bar staff or more to do with most of the punters ordering food and paying by card I wasn’t quite sure. All in all I felt this had quite a downmarket feel to it, and other than perhaps being a nice spot to sit outside on a warm sunny day I can see little reason to return.

Official pages of Wolverton House at the Crown Carveries site - www.crowncarveries.co.uk

Official pages of Wolverton House at the Crown Carveries site - www.crowncarveries.co.uk