Spread Eagle - Great Oakley, nr Corby

The Spread Eagle in its former Oakley Inn guise.

Corby Town has expanded so much in recent years that almost all North Northamptonshire postal addresses will now be appended with ‘nr Corby’ (affording a welcome boost to house prices in the area I shouldn't wonder). This rapid urban expansion has inevitably engulfed a couple of nearby villages, former rural communities that are literally in Corby now, and more than happy to be so (I'd imagine!). Weldon village to the East is now only separated from the town by a thin strip of warehousing, a legacy of the former Steel and Tube Works, and Great Oakley village segues almost seamlessly into Corby’s popular Danesholme estate at the southern tip of the New Town.

Great Oakley lies on the Kettering, nr Corby side of Corby, and still maintains many element of its former rural aspect, principally in the Oakley Hall area and surrounding estate parkland. The old village has two notable claims to fame both of which I'm sure you'll be familiar with. Roger Moore, the internationally famous (?) Jack Russell Terrier was from Great Oakley (more of which later), and perhaps more pertinent to readers of this blog, Great Oakley Brewery began life on the estate. Brewers of fine ales such as Wot's Occuring and Abbey Stoat* (left), award winning beers that are much harder to find in the area since brewing moved to Tiffield, nr Corby. The village was also home to at least two pubs, the Chequers, sadly long gone, and the Spread Eagle, which I'm happy to say is still going strong.

The Spread Eagle today, little changed though now lacking its Pond

The Spread Eagle has stood on this site for well over 200 years, a prominent position that overlooks a bridge spanning the mighty Harpers Brook, a tributary of the even mightier River Nene. Originally known as the Eagle & Tower and later the Oakley Inn, it would have been an important staging post and refreshment stop on the busy Oakham to London road. But times change and roads inexplicably shift their course, so the pub is now tucked away on a road to nowhere, though close enough to a junction of the equally busy Kettering and Oakley Roads to still be regarded as a roadhouse. The pub is also handy for the local Aldi, something our forefathers would have been thankful for I'm sure.

Go on! Treat yourself...

The modern day Spread Eagle encompasses a number of attractive and historic old buildings on a very large plot, most of which seem to have changed little over the years. Inside it's a different story though! A comprehensively refurbished warren of smart modernised dining areas, all within easy walking distance of a central bar servery. Because let's be absolutely clear, this is a Foodie Pub first and foremost. A popular destination dining venue, and a clear favourite with local Corby folk and their many dogs. Because let's be absolutely clear, this is a Dog Friendly destination pub first and foremost.

The Help Yourself Buffet

Dogs are very well catered for at the Spread Eagle, with plenty of fresh water, a selection of tasty snacks, and a choice of stylish bowls that I'd be happy enough to drink out of myself! So dogs are an important aspect of the Spread Eagle offering, and as such I was looking forward to getting to the bottom of the aforementioned 'Roger Moore' Jack Russell story. Fully expecting the pub to be plastered with sepia images of the mutt in question, perhaps accompanied by gushing tales of canine bravery and/or hilarious Terrier style biting shenanigans. Hmm! Not so much as a Cassius Marcellus Coolidge painting of the plucky lad playing cards and smoking a cheroot with his mates! This dog can hardly have been that famous then! Seriously though, if anyone reading this knows anything at all about 'Roger' (possibly not his/her real name) the Jack Russell (seriously, who knows!), maybe they've even met the tyke out for walkies on Oakley Park, I'd be delighted to know...

Family fun! Apparently...

I popped in for a pint Sunday lunchtime, and it was exactly how you'd imagine a family destination pub to be on a Sunday lunchtime. Families of all shapes and sizes enjoying the early Spring sunshine, dining-it-up of course, chewing on a bone in some cases. Because let's be absolutely clear, this is a Family Pub first and foremost.

Something was definitely wrong though, a strange nagging feeling that all was not as it should be. Like one of those 1950's sci-fi movies where the hero wakes up to a world where everything's exactly the same, except tea doesn't exist! It took me a while to figure it out, but there it was, staring me in the face as I ordered a pint of very nicely kept Marston's Pedigree. No John Smiths Smooth! In a pub! In Great Oakley, nr Corby! An Every Pub In Corby first no less!

No football on the telly neither, though for all I know the season may well have finished by now. I think the terrific garden takes precedence on a day like this, even above the football. In Corby! What a garden though. Corby's finest pub garden? I'd say so, and plenty of it too.

No doubt you'll still be reeling from the shocking John Smiths Smooth revelation, but the clue was on the gable-end all along. The Spread Eagle is that rarest of all things in Corby, a pub proud to display a real live brewery logo, in fact a pub actually owned by a brewery rather than yet another faceless pubco. Marston's Brewery as it happens, offering the full range of Pedigrees, and a 'guest' Hobgoblin for the more 'southern' taste. A beer pub first and foremost then! Ironically the local CAMRA pub guide of 1990 lists the Spread as being a John Smiths house, and keg only at that. What could possibly have gone right! This takes the EPIC cask hit-rate up to four pubs now, five if we include the occasional handpump action in the White Hart. Respectable and slightly surprising? Didn't I tell you Corby was a Beer Town first and foremost!

So there you have it. It's a family dining pub that welcomes real ale drinkers and their dogs. Not really my kind of boozer it's true, but the beer was very good, the garden a delight, the Pizza & Pool Night perhaps worth investigating. It's as good an example of its type as you'll find anywhere I guess, and with a startlingly geometric carpet that Corby folk should be rightfully proud of too. Would I 'Spread' again? Yes I believe I would!

(*obscure late 20th century Red Lion Middleton in-joke. Trust me, it was hilarious at the time...)