The New Inn Hotel, Bideford

Official site of The New Inn Hotel - thenewinnclovelly.co.uk

Official site of The New Inn Hotel - thenewinnclovelly.co.uk

Tiny hotel in middle of tourist trap. The bar, which runs beneath the building, is kept in fairly basic form in keeping with its surroundings, with plain wooden furniture. It seems to be more popular for lunches and cream teas than drinking, but nonetheless had a couple of Country Life ales on offer. Beer garden to rear. Provides much needed refreshment half way up the steps but not much else to commend.

The New Inn Hotel lies right in the very heart of the potted living museum village that is Clovelly. It’s difficult to give an objective view of the New Inn , and the other pub in the village, the Red Lion, as we were just day trippers, paying the £6.50 entrance cost to visit the village, and I guess you don’t see these two places perform in the way they are intended unless you are actually holidaying in Clovelly and are then virtually forced to use their services. It is more a hotel and restaurant for holidaymakers to the village rather than a traditional pub that you would go out of your way to visit. So if you are going to stay in Clovelly I would suggest utilising Trip advisor to get the views of others who did the same. But I can give you my experience of what these two places are like just to have a pint, as we utilised The Red Lion when we finally made it to the harbour side, and then stopped for another in the New Inn on the way back up for another shifter before attempting the final climb to the car park. Originally built in the 17th Century, the New Inn has been a hostelry for well over 100 years and in 1996, on the centenary of his death, the 8 bedrooms were refurbished in the style of William Morris Outside it certainly looks the part, being a lovely period whitewashed stone building and fits into the quaintness of the village very well and there is a pleasant outside section amongst the stone walls for a beer. Internally I just thought it didn’t live up to the exterior and lacked a bit of character, primarily because it probably functions more as a restaurant than a pub. But it does have three hand pumps on the bar serving beers from the nearby Country Life Brewery located in the Big Sheep tourist attraction. These were Old Appledore Ale, Golden Pig and the seasonal Pop Wallop. And if you can get it, a seat on the Upalong bar balcony overlooking the cobbled street is an excellent place to sit with a beer and watch everyone trudge up and down the cobbles below. And if you are lucky you may see the beer barrels being delivered to the pub on the strange wooden sledges that they have to use to get them down to the pub as there is no road access.