Duke of York, Lichfield

The building was covered with scaffolding at the time of my recent visit with some football mates from Luton, but inside the pub was still very presentable and we enjoyed our brief stay here. There are five hand pumps in the front room and another four in the back bar, all with Joules beers on as far as I could make out. The room we were in was too big to be an original room for a building of this age, I would say, but whatever work has been done to it has aimed at preserving the feel of the place and been successful. I had the excellent Joules Pale, and would happily have had another but for the necessity of lending support to our team at Tamworth within the hour, so we just had to content ourselves with planning another visit some time soon.

This is a fantastic 17th century grade II listed coaching inn that was bought by the Joule’s Brewery from Punch Taverns nearly two years ago, the pub is two buildings which have been knocked in to one, the right hand side is the original inn which dates from 1644 and the left hand building was a cottage that was built a little later. The pub lays claim to being the oldest inn in Lichfield. There are two front entrances but if you take the right hand one you will find a corridor that gives access to all three rooms, the very traditional front public bar, the more modern rear bar in the back left of the original building and a conservatory type room in the back right of the pub. The front public bar is on two levels as the cottage had been built lower than the adjoining inn, there is a wood bar counter in the back wall of the inn side of the room, fixed wooden bench seating arranged in booths opposite the counter, a large fire place in the right wall with a thick wooden beam lintel across the top and a very large log burning stove, there is an inglenook fire place in the left hand wall that has been converted in to a booth with brown leather seating, dart board on back left wall, genuine oak beams and posts, bare wood floors and various Joule’s Brewery decorations on the walls. The rear bar was a stable block in a previous life, but it now has a bar counter across the front wall, a small fire place with log burning stove in the back wall, full new oak panel walls and ceiling, carpeted floor and brown leather bench seating along the left and right, above the fire place and on the right wall are two large Joule’s Brewery mirrors and in the back right corner there is a mounted wild boars head! The conservatory has a stone floor and large beer barrels for tables which you can stand at, behind the building is a nice flowery patio area with half a dozen picnic tables and a bowling green. Regular ales are currently Joule’s Pale Ale, Blonde and Slumbering Monk with a single changing guest beer on this occasion which was Blue Monkey BG Sips (GBG 2012). I tried the Slumbering Monk and BG Sips which I considered to be in good condition. A magnificent traditional pub with good character and nice olde worlde charm. I have visited several Joule’s pubs over the last twelve months and I appreciate the way that they refurbish the pubs in a sympathetic fashion, I get the impression that they really care about the heritage of the buildings and they also seem to purposefully go for pubs with some history. I would definitely pop in for a couple if in Lichfield again.