The Shire Horse - Corby

Those of us with a liking for classic post-war pub design will surely love The Shire Horse on Corby's Willow Brook Road. Opened in 1965 to serve the new housing that sprang up in the wake of Corby's industrial revolution, it's been at the very heart of the community ever since. This was a time when pub-going was at a real peak of popularity, and a substantial urban local like the Shire Horse would have been regarded as an essential service by local residents, helping bind the new community together. Some would say it still does of course...

It's likely the Shire Horse had three or more separate rooms when originally built, now down to just two. The large Public Bar is located (slightly confusingly to me) in a flat roofed annexe to the rear of the building. The long Lounge Bar, which stretches the entire length of the front elevation, seems to have been created from two separate rooms. Photos hanging in the lounge suggest the pub originally had a Lounge Bar (above) and a separate Smoke Room, and I think it's these two rooms that now make up the current Lounge area.

A slightly later Shire Horse, the free-standing sign/lantern gone. Note the 'Bass' signage!

Externally, the pub has changed very little since it opened in the 60's, the most notable absence being an impressive brick built Sign/Lantern that stood where the swinging sign now hangs at the front of the pub. Presumably this seemed like a good idea at the time, but it probably got in the way of traffic and was eventually demolished. A unique and highly distinctive feature, and a great shame that it's gone. The other significant change is that the two separate entrances that were originally located underneath the canopy were bricked up at some point, and are now just windows. The single entrance to the Lounge is now from a side door to the right.

As you can see in the old photo above, the Shire Horse once bore the classic sloping Bass sign, which is perhaps misleading given that the Bass Brewery never owned the pub. Many pubs sold and advertised Bass back then, a widely recognised and trusted brand that sold at a premium in 'rival' brewers pubs. In an earlier image of the pub the name 'Hole's' can be seen on the right-hand side of the frontage, and a search of the encyclopaedic Brewery History Society pages confirm that the Shire Horse was indeed a James Hole & Co Ltd pub. This explains why later images of the pub show John Smith's Brewery livery. Hole's of Newark-on-Trent were taken over by Courage Ltd in 1967, and Courage would also come to acquire the John Smith's Tadcaster brewery, hence why many of the former Hole's pubs were rebranded as John Smith's houses.

The Shire Horse is a popular pub, always has been as far as I can tell, and it certainly needs to be given the stiff competition from nearby Wetherspoon and Greene King Hungry Horse pubs. Now for all their undoubted appeal to thrifty drinkers and families that dine, neither of these are as authentically 'pubby' as the Shire Horse in my view, and thankfully the locals seem to like it that way. It must be said that neither of them has a handsome Shire Horse frieze mounted on the front either, or any kind of equine imagery for that matter, and they're clearly the poorer for it!

The Shire Horse is yet another of Corby's all-day, every-day openers, and other than on Sunday Lunch days, it's an entirely food-free social drinking pub. We popped into the Bar, which we later discovered was the Lounge, early-doors Saturday evening. The post-Football come-down session. One of the best times to judge a pub I'd say, and whilst it wasn't exactly packed, there was a good crowd (of mostly blokes) in. All sociably crammed into the front end of the Lounge, chewing the fat over the performance of far-away football teams. We were greeted warmly at the door, and bid a fond farewell on leaving. Standard for Corby, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise!

There was a lone Doom Bar handpump on the bar, sadly too good to be true as it's been out of action for a while now. I went for the craft keg alternative, Atlantic Pale. With absolutely no thoughts of blending in or pretending to be 'local', I took my tasty pint for a bit of a 'nosey' around the room. A very attractive room as it happens (just look at that bench above!), liberally decorated with old photos from the very earliest days of the pub. Loads of them, and there's little I like more than noseying old photos of pubs, in a pub. I do urge you to go to the Shire Horse, have a pint of the craft, and nosey the old photos, you won't regret it.

The Lounge

Now, once you're settled in the Lounge, it's not an easy thing to go and explore the Bar. As mentioned previously, the Bar is located at the back of the pub with its own entrance, and there's no way of getting to it from the Lounge without leaving the pub and walking round the outside. I'm not entirely sure whether this is the done thing! Older pubgoers might remember the days when there was a small price differential between the Public Bar and the Lounge (or Smoke Room, or Saloon Bar). In my youth I frequently got 'the look' from the gaffer of my local when I'd absent-mindedly wander into the Lounge for a chat with friends, innocently holding a pint I'd already purchased in the Bar. Because a pint cost a few pence more in the Lounge. Stupid me! I wonder whether the inaccessibility of the bar from the Lounge/Smoke at the Shire Horse has something to do with these old norms. Anyway, Mrs EPIC didn't want another drink, so the Bar would have to wait for another day...

Another Day

Enigmatic Vintage Signage

Another Saturday afternoon, this time at the start of the Six Nations Rugby and the hotly contested Calcutta Cup match between England and the locals. I went for a stroll to the Shire Horse for that elusive Bar experience.

Another day, another group of blokes, this time clustered around the huge television screen for Kidderminster Harriers heart-breaking FA Cup exit at the hands of a big London club. This bar boasted a solitary handpump for Bombardier, sadly too good to be true, it hadn't been in use for some time. I had the craft keg alternative, Atlantic Pale. The barmaid was a beaut' and assured me she'd put the rugby on after the football. As I sat drinking my beer and observing the locals, it became increasingly obvious that was never going to happen. The Sky football results programme was always going to take precedence in a bar like this, I'd been here before, many times. I wasn't too fussed, it was only the Ireland/Wales warm-up match. The beer was certainly good, and I could happily have stayed for a few more in the hope the Scotland match would arouse some patriotic interest, but my work was done.

The Bar (above) features a massive lighting rig and sound booth, live music and turntable shenanigans a feature most weekends. In fact the whole bar is decorated with photos and posters of rock bands. Quiet boozing continues in the separate Lounge of course...

Reader response to the Flush Bracket photo on the White Hart post has been truly remarkable (hello Mark!), so to keep my Bench Mark fan(s) happy, here's one of the more common Cut Marks on the front elevation of the Shire Horse. I can't promise a Bench Mark every post, but I can promise I'll keep promising them in the hope it attracts more Blog hits. And that's an EPIC Bench Mark promise!