ReviewThe Printers Arms is located in the Thornsett/Birch Vale area of High Peak. From the outside, it's a fairly attractive village pub. Although the owners do appear to be renovating it currently.
The pub has very limited opening hours, only opening from 5pm to either 9 or 10pm on 5 evenings during the week. I arrived shortly before Wednesday opening having left this as one of my last 3 pubs of my day in Derbyshire.
The pub has one large room, with an adjoining games room containing a pool table at the left-hand end. To the right-hand side is a large brick fireplace. There are a couple of fruit machines, whilst a TV was showing the Now 90's music channel. Seating is a mixture of low tables with chairs, high tables with stools and leather sofas and armchairs around the fireplace. A few books can be found on shelves to the side of the fireplace.
Despite being a summer's day, the pub had a fairly cold feel to it. Despite there being 5 handpulls, only one was clipped with Storm Isobar IPA, but even that appeared to be well hidden. The pub operates a cash only policy, which the landlady and young barman quickly made clear to me. They were both fairly friendly and chatty.
Another customer did soon arrive with his dogs. Together with the pub dogs, there were just as many dogs as humans. The landlady soon departed to pick "him" up. I had no idea who she was picking up, but it was soon apparent that her husband had been drinking in the Mason's Arms in New Mills and it was "him" who she was picking up.
I recognised the landlord from my visit to the Mason's Arms earlier in the afternoon. I recalled a conversation he was having with another local about cooking paella. He instantly recognised me too. However, I got the distinct impression that he was very suspicious of my intentions. I'd explained why I was in both his pubs and the Mason's, but his questioning seemed a bit too direct for casual conversation. He disappeared upstairs. Who knows? Maybe he had gone to view CCTV footage of my visit. Either way, my pub exploits normally spark off some very interesting conversations. This time, it seemed to arouse suspicion and the landlord's questioning had made me distinctly uncomfortable.
I'm sure this could be a very nice pub. The landlady and barman were friendly, but the landlord came across as completely the opposite. The cold feel to the place, the lack of real ale and the limited opening hours all push the score down. As such, this was my least favourite pub of my day in High Peak.
