We visited a traditional, no-frills, award-winning and proper drinkers pub in Bridgnorth run by a former mining engineer who made a career change

For David Brown, his life in 1984 had been working for his father and making hydraulic pit props for his engineering and mining company in Nottinghamshire, but when the strike happened, he said that the company collapsed and he was left looking for work.

It was then that a friend called Joan Wood called him and told him about a pub in Bridgnorth that she had taken over and invited him to come and work at.

That pub was the Fosters Arms, a popular locals' pub in the heart of the Low Town area which has stood in the town for nearly 300 years and has become renowned as a proper place for a proper pint.

Mr Brown spoke about his journey to working at and eventually running the pub and how little he had done to changing it since taking over.

He said: "I moved here in 1984 to work for the landlady Joan and then bought the pub from her in 1989, so it's been 36 years and I think I'm the longest serving landlord in town by a long way.

"My background in is engineering and the mining trade and I was working at my father's factory in Nottinghamshire when the miner's strike happened and everything collapsed, so when I heard from Joan that she was buying this pub, I decided to go as I had no work and nothing to do.

"I thought I'd try it for a few months, then ended up staying five years and when she said she wanted to sell, I took it on and I was 24 at the time.

"I can honestly say it hasn't changed all that much since I first came in here and it is a very traditional and old fashioned boozer, what I would call a proper pub."

The pub has a busy front bar which faces Mill Street and is usually packed with locals enjoying sport on TV or playing darts.

Towards the rear of the building, down a corridor, there is a comfortable lounge to the left and a pool room at the rear with cast iron tables and chairs, and the garden is accessed from the pool room or from a narrow road to the side of the pub.

The pub was voted Bridgnorth Pub of the Season for Spring 2025 and Mr Brown said it was very much a drinkers pub, something he said was something of a dying breed.

He said: "We don't do food, apart from filled cobs, and we don't allow children and we are just an old-fashioned pub which sells loads of beer.

"There's very few, what I would call, proper pubs left now, as we don't do entertainment and things like that, and I think a lot of those types of pubs have disappeared and there's not many left."

The Fosters Arms is a freehold, which Mr Brown said meant he could sell whatever beer he wanted and had no ties, and while the most popular beers were Hobson's Town Crier and Wye Valley HPA, the pub had a rolling list of beers on offer.

He said: "We sell a lot of Banks's Amber and we've served beers from Oswestry, Ludlow and Birmingham Brewing Company, plus we also have Banks's Mild on keg.

"We have Guinness and ciders like Thatchers Gold and Thatchers Haze, plus Dark Fruits, and a selection of four lagers, so I think we've got something for everyone to enjoy."

Having been the landlord for 36 years and at the pub for nearly 41, Mr Brown said the Fosters Arms was his whole life and he just loved the community side of it.

He said: "It's my whole life, from my social life to my job, and we do so many trips out as a pub community, so as going on a mystery trip to Kosovo and North Macedonia for my 60th birthday.

"It's all about community and about helping the locals out if they're in trouble and doing things to help charities, so I really love the pub and I have it just the way I want it."