People come from all over to try the carvery at this West Midlands pub and I don't blame them
For this week's Love Your Local feature, we're taking a trip to the beautiful market town of Bridgnorth, a place that has retained dozens of independent and traditional pubs that haven't been bought out by large-scale breweries.
People come from all over to try the carvery at The Down Inn – and I don't blame them.
Owner Steve Ruffell-Hazel tells me the ingredients are locally sourced, the food is homemade, and the customer service is the cherry on top according to hundreds of shining Tripadvisor reviews.
Steve bought the pub twenty years ago with a dream to serve delicious, hearty roasts to the community and beyond.
"I used to work in a Toby Carvery," he said, "but I really wanted to have my own pub and put on a carvery. I looked around for about a year. I needed a pub with enough space. I found this one and thought it was perfect.
"Twenty years on, we are still renowned for our carvery. We have people come from all over!
"Anyone who comes here would feel like they walked into a pub 20 years earlier; the big breweries haven't taken it over or modernised it, it is just how a traditional pub should be. Homely and cosy, with a couple of open fires."
Surrounded by stunning countryside, The Down Inn is also run as a bed and breakfast with nine large rooms. They were constructed ten years ago and have an 'oldy worldy' atmosphere, Steve says.
"When we built the bedrooms," he said, "we specified that we wanted bigger rooms rather than lots of rooms. So they are spacious, as well as being beautifully and traditionally furnished."
Those who do choose to stay over are also treated to a complimentary full English breakfast the next morning.
There is a traditional pub menu too – fish and chips, steak and ale pie, curry, cobs, even lasagne, and pretty much all of it is homemade.
"We get our meat from a local butcher and our vegetables from Wolverhampton market," Steve said. "Everything we can make ourselves we make – including the lasagne and the steak and ale pies. All of the desserts, apart from two of them, are homemade too."
What's more, and quite a rarity these days, is that the prices are reasonable. A full carvery with beef, turkey, pork and unlimited veg and potatoes costs just under £15 and is extremely popular, with around 550 roasts served every Sunday.
Soup of the day is priced at just £5.25, and a portion of crispy whitebait is £6.25.
Records of The Down Inn date all the way back to 1740 when it was an old coaching inn. Steve told me his neighbour's grandfather used to own it, and that it was an old ale house until 1950 when it became licensed to sell other alcoholic drinks too.
Let's talk a bit about those drinks.
Steve's ethos of locally sourced produce reflects in some of his real ales too, stocking some fantastic options from local breweries like Hobsons in Cleobury Mortimer, Wye Valley and Ludlow Brewery.
What makes this pub and the surrounding areas so special to Steve is the people.
"The people in the area are really lovely," he said. "I'm from Stoke-on-Trent and I moved here. The people are so welcoming and lovely. We have some regulars, lots of the farming community come in too.
"The best thing here is my team. There are people who have worked here for such a long time, such as the assistant manager who has been here for 20 years with me and the chef who has been here for 13 years.
"They are long-serving people who are passionate about what they do."
More information about The Down Inn can be found at thedowninn.co.uk.