We visited an Albrighton pub which 'feels just like home' for its new licensees - with a warm welcome, a cold pint and good food

There are numerous pubs which work to offer all of these intangibles and make themselves a place that people want to spend time in and want to spend their money in.

One pub which has managed to achieve all of the intangibles and become that place is the Crown Hotel in Albrighton, which is set within one of the oldest buildings in the east Shropshire village.

The earliest parts date back to the 16th century and it has been added to in the 18th and 19th centuries with some more work in the early part of the 20th century. and the Crown was one of six public houses in the 19th century.

It is one of four, alongside the Shrewsbury Arms, The Old Bush, and The Harp, which has remained to this day and visitors to the village can take a short walk from the railway station towards the large, multi-roomed Marston's Tavern.

It has been under the stewardship of Michelle and Alan Henderson for the last three months, with the couple having moved into the village from Sheffield after saying they were taken by the friendly welcome they received.

Mr Henderson said: "When we looking at pubs, Marston's gave us three pubs to choose from, with the Crown being one of them, so we paid a visit and had a day out in the village.

"Everybody was really friendly and really chatty and it just felt like a really comfortable village and just like home, plus the pub had a lot of potential to it, so it really was a no-brainer."

Both Michelle and Alan Henderson said the first step had been to update the kitchen, with Alan taking on running the kitchen as head chef and getting the food back on track and adapting a new menu for the pub, as well as moving a lot of furniture around.

Mr Henderson said: "We moved a lot of the furniture around and made it more like a restaurant near the front bar as that had been tailored more towards a drinking crowd than a food crowd.

"We moved a lot of things around, then put a few more things down at the bar, including a new cask ale as the previous cask ale wasn't particularly good quality at the time, and we've now got four cask ales on."

Being a Marston's pub, the selection on the bar is set along the Marston's range, with Banks's Amber and Hobgoblin Gold popular choices, as well as a guest ale from Ringwood Brewery, with Mr Henderson saying the pub worked well with what it offered and also provided a top food menu.

He said: "We kind of offer a bit of everything and none of the pubs in Albright are competing with each other because we all do different things, and while we're not a real ale pub like the Harp, we do a good range and get a lot of people in.

"The menu is a Marston's branded one called the community food menu and it's a very extensive menu full of pub classics, grills, steaks, burgers, mixed grills and also a different themed night during the week.

"We have a pie night, a curry night and a steak night, with a set price that allows people to have a meal with a drink for around £12.50, and we've been getting good reviews as the demand has started to pick up."

Mr Henderson said the philosophy of the pub was to make people feel welcome and appreciated, with staff encouraged to get to know customers, interact with them and know what their orders were.

He also said that the pub had become their home and their lifestyle, saying: "We live here now and it's very much become our home, our income and our business and we're just really enjoying getting to meet all the customers, with some of them becoming good friends."