Blue Ship, The Haven

Tucked away rural classic with no bar as such - you are served beer drawn direct from the cask via two hatches / doorways. The pretty Victorian red-brick and tile-hung exterior with latticed leaded windows conceals an eighteenth-century, if not earlier, structure. The place has grown with outbuildings at the back and the late nineteenth-century extension on the left. The public area used to be much smaller because the left-hand rooms are relatively new additions, having been taken in from private quarters in c.1973 (front ) and c.1986 (rear).

The front latch door leads into a splendid old room on the right - the real focus of this unspoilt pub. It is small with an uneven bare brick floor, exposed beams and inglenook brick fireplace with bare benches either side and wood burner. The simple seating includes four scrubbed pine tables, wall bench seating on the left and front walls, three basic low benches and a settle - sadly the old curved settle as shown in photos and drawings on the wall has gone to be replaced by a modern one with a straight back. Originally it appears to have consisted of two rooms which were knocked together when the pub was established about a century ago. Originally service seems to have been at a tiny hatch to the right of the present doorway-cum-hatch.

A short stone-flagged corridor to the left leads to another small room with a doorway, parquet floor, dado panelling that may date from c.1973 when it became a pub room, marble surround cast-iron fireplace (electric fire), and a bar billiards table which is usually covered over. The old wall cupboards on the right of the fireplace confirm this was part of the private quarters.

A part flagstone and part concrete passage runs from between the front two rooms and leads to the rear there are two more rooms. The rear left small room has a carpet, an early 20th century glazed brick and cast-iron fireplace (disused) and recent dado panelling. There are two sections of built-in old cupboards confirming this room was also a domestic one until c.1986.

The original second room is a much smaller one at the rear right with a carpet, panelled ceiling and a doorway-cum-hatch to the servery. The cellar with its panelled ceiling is best viewed from there. There are casks on stillage and some old shelves above and on the right but those on the left are modern and the ubiquitous fridge has been added.

Both ladies and gents toilets are outside on the right of the building and look like they were added in the 1930s with its Crittal windows.