Samuel Lloyd - Corby

A sleek, modern nod to Corby’s greatest pub tradition

The Samuel Lloyd is new. Very new! Although at around 15 years since opening it's not quite the new kid on the block the nearby Chequered Flag is. It certainly looks newer though, a sleek, modern, big glassy affair. New it may be, but it clearly represents a modern day homage to that most traditional of all Corby pub archetypes, the Heritage Flat Roof Estate Pub. Just look at it, that roof couldn’t be any flatter! And yet...

All the pub

In point of fact it’s actually closer to that other modern day pub theme, the traditional Airport Departure Lounge Bar. The Sammy Lloyd (as nobody calls it) has everything but the low flying aircraft and passengers sobbing over delays and lost luggage. A swift pint(s) at the Samuel Lloyd is like the start of a particularly good Spanish holiday. Just secure your cerveza of choice, find a comfy seat, browse the in-flight magazine (not recommended!), and wait for the call to board. Maybe bring a wheelie suitcase and giant Toblerone/Stuffed Donkey for the full Dan Air experience.

Ok, so it may lack the heritage of other more established Corby pubs, but what it lacks in history it more than makes up for in good old-fashioned Corby hospitability and boozy bonhomie. I popped in on a busy Bank Holiday weekend, the place a-buzz with life and laughter on a beautifully sunny Sunday afternoon. A good percentage of the crowd were getting into the holiday mood in the tidy sheltered beer garden, basking and baking over cold pints of 'Heritage Craft' Tennent's Lager, the expansive interior comfortably busy with families, friends, and locals queueing patiently at the bar.

Queueing? Queueing! That's right folks, no unsightly bar room scrummage allowed here. Queueing in a single orderly file is clearly de rigueur at the Samuel Lloyd, which is... just so damned civilised. Other supposedly upmarket pubs and bars could learn a thing or two from the polite folk of Corby. In fact the Corby sense of good Scottish fair play is very strong here. A rosy-cheeked local who seemed to know absolutely everyone in the pub kindly deferred to me as I joined the tail end of the queue. “Nae pal, you go-on!” sez he, "I've already had a few, you look thirstier than me". He was right too, the walk across the road from the Chequered Flag had been arduous, if not in fact any great distance. Such lovely-lovely nice people you meet in Corby pubs.

There's a typically wide choice of beers on offer, including what's almost certainly Corby's widest range of Real Ales. Not necessarily a good thing at pubs where one is more than enough, but this is a very busy pub, your ale of choice is much more likely to have ran out prematurely (as my first choice had) than be 'off' due to poor sales. A cast iron guaranteed shoe-in for the 2023 Good Beer Guide I'd say.

Not murk! The traditional 'Corby North' Pour

Hats Off to the friendly and efficient bar staff!

So my first choice wasnae on, but I was expertly directed to the other end of the lengthy bar where a couple more tasty 'guests' were available. My extensive notes tell me this was a 'cask beer' from a 'brewery (?)', and 40 years experience as a Lay Beer Sommelier tells me it was almost certainly not the Doom Bar. Well, you can get the Cornish/Burton-on-Trent classic practically anywhere in Corby, let’s live a little eh! Great friendly service and cheap at one-and-a-half the price I’d say.

Now I find a pint is just about enough to get a feel for a pub. Two pints and you’re really getting to know the place. Half a pint is just too rushed (unless you’re an experienced GBG ticker obvs!), 3-8 pints and you’re likely to have totally lost your blogging objectivity, made lifelong friends with the pubs ‘bad influences’, and been caught feeding the pub dog mustard smeared beermats. I stuck at just the two, which gave me ample opportunity to observe the calm of a classic Corby pre/post Sunday Social settle over the pub like a cosy tartan rug. It was a thing of real beauty.

Which is more than can be said for the carpet I'm afraid. Come on Samuel Lloyd, Corby expects better!

Too warm to light, a flaming view of the fire can be viewed here

The Art at the Samuel Lloyd is of course Riveting

The view from Table 138