Pub seeks permission to serve food from converted barn

THE owner  of a pub in Benson wants to convert part of a barn into an outside kitchen.

Hook Norton Brewery, which took over the Crown Inn on High Street last year, has submitted a planning application to South Oxfordshire District Council.

It wants to use the barn as a means to serve food via a hatch to customers using the pub’s garden.

Miles Partridge, who manages the pub, said: “We wanted to offer something different to the community. As soon as the application for the hatch is approved, we will be able to serve a new smoke house menu.

“We talked to a lot of residents and we are really chuffed with the support, everyone was really positive about it. I get questions all the time about when our smoke house will be ready and we are really keen to go ahead with it.”

Mr Partridge said that the inn could be serving the new menu within a week of receiving approval from the council.

He said: “As the kitchen is ready to go, as soon as we receive the council’s approval we can be up and running.”

The Crown re-opened on May 17, when the government eased coronavirus restrictions to allow hospitality businesses to serve customers indoors again.

Mr Partridge said: “It was really nice to have a new wave of people coming in and we get people coming to the inn not only from Benson but from Wallingford, Henley and Didcot, too.”

The Crown is an 18th century coaching inn dating from 1709 and is a grade II listed building, adjacent to other listed buildings and within the Chilterns conservation area.

Hook Norton Brewery, near Banbury, took over the pub from Greene King and re-opened it in October last year.

Benson Parish Council had explored the possibility of buying it to save it from being turned into housing and was quoted an asking price of £495,000.

A public consultation on the plan ends on Wednesday and the district council is expected to make a final decision on Thursday.

Meanwhile. the Spire and Spoke pub in Watlington has opened a new outdoor area.  

It is called the “secret garden” because when the pub used to be the Carriers Arms, the area was a private garden for the landlord at the back of the building.

When John Riddell and his wife Katy took over the pub, which had been closed since 2019, in July last year they had not realised that the garden existed.

Mr Riddell said: “When we took over, we saw the garden for the first time and we had no idea it was there.

“We thought the views on the hills were absolutely amazing and it was a private garden before so customers had no access to it.”

He added: “It’s a nice space and we can’t wait to put it to good use.”

Last month, it won the pub of the season award for spring by the Campaign for Real Ale for its selection of local beers.