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Cross Keys, Milton Keynes

Newport Road
Woolstone
Postal town: Milton Keynes
MK15 0AA
Phone: 01908679404

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Reviews (Current Rating Average: of 10) Add Review see review guidelines


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Blue Scrumpy left this review about Cross Keys

Thatched village pub which has now been swalloped up by Milton Keynes. Most of Milton Keynes' pubs appear to be branches of chains, but this one appears to be more of a free house, formerly a Charles Wells pub. It appears popular with locals.

It was quite busy on our Sunday evening visit. We sat in the rather noisy and boisterous bar area. There is also a separate restaurant. Whatpub promised a selection of Brewpoint beers, but the real ale range was limited to 4 national beers - Fuller's London Pride, St Austell Proper Job, Timothy Taylor Landlord & Black Sheep Best Bitter. There were a couple of unclipped handpulls on the corner of the bar, which presumably normally carry Brewpoint beers.

On 25th January 2023 - rating: 5
[User has posted 2442 recommendations about 2441 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Gill Smith left this review about Cross Keys

Called in while visiting Buckinghamshire's 2019 Good Beer Guide pubs in the Milton Keynes area. The pub is owned by Charles Wells brewery, and is a period thatched roof pub that was refurbished earlier this year. 6 ales available but they were all mainstream beers rather than locale, and we chose Wadworth 6x which was ok.

On 18th November 2018 - rating: 7
[User has posted 1339 recommendations about 1222 pubs]


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Blackthorn _ left this review about The Crosskeys

An attractive old thatched pub that no doubt at one time was in a pleasant village near the canal, but now unfortunately is surrounded by the concrete jungle. Inside it would appear that it’s recently been refurbished, and whilst this was pleasant enough, it has perhaps lost some of the character that it may have had previously. It’s quite a contemporary design, and certainly seemed a little out of kilter with the exterior.

It’s divided in to two rooms, with the “village bar” on the right and a lounge to the left. On a recent midweek evening visit, there was nobody in the lounge, but a few punters in the bar. This has a fairly small wooden bar counter in the corner, and this was quite tricky to get to due to a few locals (and their dog) propping it up, and none of them showed any propensity to move so that I could actually get there to order a pint. Bar staff seemed friendly enough once I had managed to get there.

The floor is red tiling, and the walls mostly pale green plasterwork with exposed stone along the front and a few beams on the ceiling. There is a fire place to one side, but all this had in it was a basket of logs and some fairy lights. A bit of a missed opportunity on a snowy January evening. As previously mentioned this looks as though it may have been recently done up, and the furniture in particular looked very new. The lounge to the left was perhaps more geared up for dining, and featured a wood laminate floor and some wood panelling on the walls.

The “bistro” menu offered a reasonable selection of pub grub dishes such as Fish & Chips, Burger, Beef Pie, Sausage of the day, etc., although with most of the main courses around the £10 mark, it is perhaps priced slightly above your usual bar food. My Thai Green Curry was decent enough, if slightly on the spicy side, and consisted of an unspecified fish rather than the more usual chicken, along with (as the menu was keen to point out), lemon rice and a braised spring onion.

Beer choice seems somewhat diminished since the previous reviews. As far as I could see there were only three pumps on the bar and these were all from the Young’s stable with their Bitter, Eagle IPA and Bombardier. The solitary cider was Symonds Founders Reserve.

On 23rd January 2013 - rating: 6
[User has posted 1937 recommendations about 1850 pubs]


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Linda Greenwall left this review about The Crosskeys

A very nice old village thatched pub, the younge bar man said about 450 years old.
A big garden with lots of nice flowers on the pub and around the garden. ( very nice to sit outside on a nice day).
Me and my husband came in on 25/09/2011 for a nice sunday roast, was not to keen on the menu though but the food was brillant.
Alot of real ale on and me and my husband are big fans but we had no clue witch one to try so we asked the lady behind the bar, she was abit confused with what to do so she asked the younge lad to serv us, he was very pleasnt and knew what he was talking about and recommended us a very nice pint of PotBellys Yelly Belly and a pint of St Austells Trelawny, in all the staff where very nice and friendly, highly recommended.
Their was a couple of bad points.... the toliets where not atall nice very standed stuff, i would say they need a refurbish.
We will go back again soon.

On 28th September 2011 - no rating submitted
[User has posted 1 recommendations about 1 pubs]


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Thuck Phat left this review about The Crosskeys

Another traditional, thatched pub which has been swallowed up by the ever expanding MK metropolis.
There are two distinct areas, the bar area with plastic covered benches and a more welcoming lounge with individual wooden tables.
Despite being a Charles Wells boozer, there's obviously a real effort being made here to offer a wide selection of ales. There are 11 handpumps offering: Wells Eagle IPA and Naked Gold, Youngs Bitter and Special, Courage Directors, Tring Jack O'Legs and Brock Bitter, Olney Hopping Mad, Crouch Vale Brewers Gold and Summer Breeze and Bath Ales Gem on our visit. An impressive smattering of microbreweries represented there, some local, in addition to the underwhelming Wells offerings. My Summer Breeze was ok without being stunning and I'd tend to agree with Mr Fastard that 11 ales may be a touch ambitious if the quality is to be kept high. Nonetheless, much better to show this level of ambition and reduce numbers if need be than never give the more adventurous choices a go.
I'd pop in again to see what, other than the Wells beers, is on.

On 25th September 2011 - rating: 7
[User has posted 679 recommendations about 678 pubs]


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Bucking Fastard left this review about The Crosskeys

As you approach this attractive looking building the Charles Wells insignia might cause consternation but keep the faith because thankfully the pub offers a lot of ales not brewed in the Bedford mega-brewery.11 cask ales are available ,and on my visit there were two each from Crouch Vale and Tring and one from the nearby Olney brewery.As you might expect the Bedford brewed Youngs Ordinary and Special,Courage Best and Eagle IPA also rear their heads.
Steve describes the interior well,the public bar area was empty when we pitched up ,but the locals were well represented in the lounge side.No musak but rhythmic belching did break the silence.
The maps on the walls show the area when it was countryside before the development of MK,but this is now a town boozer.I think that 11 handpumped ales might be a bit ambitious when the throughput is modest and the beer I had wasn't as crisp as it might have been.However it is worth popping in to see what might be on offer,a wide range of changing ales have graced the bar.

On 23rd September 2011 - rating: 7
[User has posted 2709 recommendations about 2709 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Steve of N21 left this review about The Crosskeys

The Cross Keys is a very pleasant on the eye thatched Country Inn, down a quiet road in the Milton Keynes area of Wollaston, but is only a 5 minute drive from the centre of Milton Keynes.
Internally it is a nice two area layout of some character with flagstone walls and wooden seating in one section and a carpeted tabled area more aligned to dining in the other. The pub has the benefit of ample outside seating with a tabled area to the front and side of the pub and then a garden area equipped with kids play frame out the back. And with the added advantage of a very large car park this is a very good country pub for a drink.
On the beer front I was not disappointed. And the Cross Keys is one of the very few establishments I have come across where the hand pumps have been trebled clipped. This is probably due to the fact that there are groups of three hand pumps only on two sections of the bar and there were 9 beers and ciders available, and their web site advertises that there are at least 5 different casks on the go. Being a CW branded pub these included Bombadier and Eagle IPA, but these were supplemented by Wadsworths 6X, Youngs London Gold, Courage Directors, and two brews from the Potton brewery, namely the Shannon IPA and Shambles Bitter and the latter was a very well kept pint.
There is also a decent traditional pub food menu avaiable at what looked like reasonable prices, but I didn't try it so cannot pass judgement.
What I was not overly enamoured with was some of the locals, who in a moronic way decide to eyeball you every time to enter and leave ‘their’ pub. But the landlord cannot be held responsible for this so hopefully these friendly characters are not present when you visit.

On 22nd April 2011 - rating: 7
[User has posted 2094 recommendations about 1985 pubs]