Country pub which has gone through changes ready to welcome customers in

The Boycott Arms, near Claverley, has been an established food-led pub for years, but has fallen on hard times since the departure of one landlord in August 2022.

The next group to take over lasted only three months as a sports bar before the doors were closed again, but after Admiral Taverns took over, it looked at bringing in the right people to help revamp the pub.

That's where Donna Robinson and her team came in, with Donna, who had worked as a HGV driver up in Lincolnshire, making the decision to move to east Shropshire and take over the pub.

She recalls: "It was just a general feeling for me about this pub and my situation had changed, so I decided to just move lock, stock and barrel down here as I've been in the pub game before.

"When we took over, it wasn't very good as it had been taken away from the traditional pub and been operating more as a sports bar, which only lasted three months.

"We took over and completed a full internal refurbishment including all the fixtures, fittings and redecorated throughout, so the plan was to make it a traditional country pub again and that is how we are going to run it."

The pub is on the edge of the village and has a terrace on the front with benches and an area covered by a pagoda.

Inside, it has a main bar area with an open fire and a traditional bar, as well as a dining area on the left and another room which can be used for dining and as a separate function room.

The pub has been serving food daily, with traditional pub classics on the menu along with a variety of different foods and drinks, and a Sunday carvery is available each week.

Donna said there had been a lot of work to return the pub to its original country pub feeling, with Sky Sports and BT Sport removed, as well as the pool tables previously found in the pub.

In terms of drinks, there's the standard selection of lagers such as Carling and Madri, Guinness on tap and a few other ciders, plus two current ales that Ms Robinson said the customers had asked for.

She explains: "At the moment, we have just the two pumped ales, which are HPA Butty Bach and Timothy Taylor Landlord.

"We have what was here to start with and the customers told us what they liked, so we've tried to cover all angles as they told me they like Butty Bach and Landlord, so the brewery started stocking them for us to sell.

"The whole change of the pub has been a community effort and that's one of the things that makes it work."

The pub has been part of the village for years and Ms Robinson said it had a unique feeling to it that drew people in and had helped her, as someone not from the area, to feel part of the community.

She continues: "I'm not from this area, so the whole area is new to me, but the people in the village have made me feel welcome.

"It's also a beautiful location and you can sit outside and look at the hills over Shropshire, so it's got a great feeling about it.

"I would say to people to come along and give us a go as we're open every day, we serve great food and we're just trying to get the word out there to bring more people in."