Pub Heritage Cock
Bedfordshire - Broom
Three star - A pub interior of exceptional national historic importance
Listed Status: II
23 High StreetBroom
SG18 9NA
Tel: (01767) 314411
Email: nicksmith959@yahoo.co.uk
Website http://thecockinnbroom.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/166142850759090
Real Ale: Yes
Real Cider: Yes
Lunchtime Meals: Yes
Evening Meals: Yes
Bus: Yes
View on: Whatpub
This splendid village local is one of only seven pubs in England retaining their historic total lack of a bar counter or hatch. It is also characteristic of the way thousands of village pubs may have begun, with just one small room in a private house, then expanding over the years.
The original drinking area was to the left of the front entrance and is now a games room, Drinks were fetched as, amazingly, they still are, from the top of the cellar steps in the room beyond. The right-hand front room opposite was once a shop, hence the cupboards either side of the fireplace. It has lots of panelling, full-height on the rear wall and two-thirds-height elsewhere. The entrance corridor also sports a highly decorative display of woodwork, whilst the rooms at the back have been developed over stages since 1977, but do not impact adversely on the historic area at the front. However, traditional as it may look, most of the panelling is the work of a local carpenter, Richard Beasley, as recently as about 1980.
This village pub has changed over the years and now has five small rooms. It still has no bar counter - and is one of only six traditional pubs left in the whole of the UK without a bar counter including the other Heritage Pubs the North Star, Steventon, Oxfordshire; Tuckers Grave, Faulkland, Somerset; Rose & Crown, Huish Episcopi, Somerset; Kings Head, Laxfield, Suffolk; and Manor Arms, Rushall, West Midlands.
The Cock occupies a mid-19th-century row of cottages converted into alehouse and later a pub. Owned by Ballards, it was sold to Wells & Winch of Biggleswade, who were taken over by Greene King in 1961. It has grown from a single room with beer fetched from the cellar but retains a sense of its traditional character. At one time the only public drinking area was the left-hand room (now the games room with table skittles). Drinks were then brought, as they still are, from the top of the steps.
The room on the right-hand side was formerly a shop - hence the cupboards either side of the fireplace. This is the classic room in the pub with two-thirds height panelling. As you enter the pub from the front door, you encounter a highly distinctive display of woodwork - old lapped boarding on the right and further back a set of cupboards; the panelling on the left, however, is not so old, having taken its present form about 1980 (which is also the date of the panelling in the games room) and it was all added by local carpenter, Richard Beasley.
The uneven red-tiled corridor leads to the rear part where, on the right, a small snug has been brought into use in modern times. It has a red-tile floor, panelled walls, bench seating and an early 20th-century fireplace. Changes were made just outside this room in 1977 when the sink used for cleaning glasses was removed. Further alterations in the 1990s to bring the toilets inside also created a public drinking area in front of the entrance to the cellar servery. This has greatly expanded the size of the pub but has not destroyed the atmosphere of the old front rooms. At the rear left is a dining room that came into use in the 1990s.
