CAMPAIGN FOR REAL ALE

SHROPSHIRE - Selattyn, Cross Keys

National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors Part One

Glyn Road, Selattyn, SY10 7DN

(On B4579)

Tel: 01691 650247

Listed Status: Not listed

View this pub on a local map

A modest whitewashed building just a mile from the Welsh border which up to 1994 used to double as the village shop (see the big window on the right). It unchanged interior is due to there having been only two owners since 1939 - Bill & Peggy Jones ran the pub from 1939 to 1989 and Phil and Hilda Rothera have owned it ever since. The heart of this four-roomed village pub is the delightful small bar on the right of the red quarry tiled and dado panelled passageway. It has a red and black tiled floor, Victorian panelled counter, old tongue and groove dado with fixed seating around the walls. The main part of the bar back is also Victorian and there are some 1960s changes below; and the stone fireplace dates from c1970. Across the corridor is a further room - now called the Music Room as this is the venue for Irish musicians every Thursday night. This has good leather-covered fixed seating round the walls and an inglenook-style fireplace possibly from the 1930s.

Further back are two rooms that have been brought into use in modern times - a games room, formerly a living room, where the only old fittings are the wall cupboards. In what used to be the stables there is a large entertainments room which can hold up to 90, provided Phil borrows 30 chairs from the church! It is used for Irish set dancing on a Thursday night before the musicians appear, and hosts occasional folk nights. It can also be converted to a skittle alley including a ball return made from plastic drain pipes! The former shop is now a holiday flat offering good-value self-catering accommodation. Landlord Phil is one of the country's well regarded bell-ringers and is pleased to talk on the subject - see the certificate on the wall.