The Woodman Inn, Royston

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Steve of N21 left this review about The Woodman Inn

A family run free house in the small Hertfordshire village of Nuthampstead which was under the threat of closure last year due to mounting debts but ran various sponsorship and crowd funding events and seems to have survived.
The two roomed original thatched 17th century section of the pub is full of character with what looks like original beamed low ceilings, a large brick fire place in the main bar section and period table and chair furniture throughout. And then there is a large more modern family dining room extension to the back of the pub which has its own bar section but unfortunately none of the character of the period section of the pub. Like most of the country pubs in these parts it has a focus on food and nearly every table in the pub was being utilised by diners on the Sunday lunchtime we visited, and this included us. The pub is very family friendly, as I believe it is run by a young family, but it did mean the large family dining room more resembled and sounded like a crèche.
Then outside there is a large pub garden with a decent sized kiddie play area at the back.
The bar supports three ales and Adnams Bitter, GK IPA and a third badged ale which I cannot now recall were alongside the standard chrome tap draft options.
There is an interesting historical wartime link to the pub in that during WWII it was in the middle of the Nuthampstead Airbase which was used during 1943 to 1945 by the USAAF 55th Fighter Groups flying Lockheed Lightnings and the 398th Heavy Bomb Group flying B-17G Flying Fortresses. As well as the impressive memorial at the front of the pub to those pilots lost in the conflict there is a lot of interesting memorabilia and photos from this time throughout the pub including quite an impressive mural on the wall of the family dining room which shows a map of the original airbase and where the pub sat within it. The location of the original runways can still be reached by a walking path from the back of the pub car park.
Small note, the pub is closed on Mondays

On 8^th April 2019 - rating: 6
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