The Fox Inn, Newmarket

First visit last weekend to the Ousden Fox after picking up that it is another in the trend of Suffolk village pubs to be rescued from the evil Greedy King Empire when it was bought by a local businessman in 2009 to save it from being closed down, and then turned into a Free House. The pub takes its name from the original 15th Century flint and brick brew house, the remains of which can still be seen in the car park, which was linked to the fox cottage next door. Clearly a former two room pub, it is now one open plan traditional décor space but with two bar sections at different levels separated by a few steps. One area remains a bar area and the other is now more aligned for dining, although food is only available Thursday to Saturday evenings and Friday to Sunday lunchtimes. The bars support four hand pumps with GK IPA and Woodforde’s Wherry as permanent fixtures and then regularly rotating guest beers on the other two. For my visit Oakhams JHB and a brew called Strummers Ale from Shortts Farm Brewery, a local micro, which was a new one on me. Strangely there are two large prominent barrel end clocks mounted on the brick wall sections and neither are set to the correct time. This apparently is in honour of a former landlord of the pub who changed the clocks to allow the local cricket team to drink out of hours and to confuse the village plod. Sounds like my kind of publican. I know you can’t truly judge a place on one visit, but I really liked the Fox and hope I can return to test it out again soon.