Space is the Rose & Crowning glory

Maybe in need of a little TLC, but room to roam and good to drink
Rose & Crown at Ulnes WaltonRose & Crown at Ulnes Walton
Rose & Crown at Ulnes Walton

A strange pub to be sure, is the Rose & Crown at Ulnes Walton – the sort of place that few bar the immediate locals are ever likely to find themselves in more than once.

Set back from the road as one passes through the small village between Leyland and Croston, the pub is just that side of scruffy likely to offend as many punters as it delights (and which the laid back middle will be neither irked nor grabbed by).

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The interior is a bit murky, even on the bright summer evening I nipped in, the beer garden errs on the shambolic, with healthy wilderness patches and wonky bench-tables and the food – to be candid – would have been given a hearty thumbs-up from this quarter only if it had been £1.50-£2 cheaper per plate.

All of which aside, however, there is much to praise. Staff smile and are welcoming, the saloon crowd in situ Sunday 5pm too, and the ale is clearly a well-kept labour of love, the pint of Ringwood Brewery’s Boon Doggle with which I wet my whistle being a case in point.

Bright clear golden beer with a creamy white head, malty biscuit whiff and sweet light hoppy taste, pure easy drinking refreshment.

The need for refreshment led me to Marstons Revisionist Craft Lager, a rare keg to me and one the arrival of sun compels all of sound mind to take in on sight.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Polished off on a stroll around the spread, a nipped ginnel came out in a ‘hidden’ beer garden out back the size of a football pitch, ideal for families to unleash their energetic young ‘uns while mum and dad enjoy quiet time.

Oh, and it boasts easily the most bizarre single bit of play kit I’ve ever seen in any beer garden.

Related topics: