Pub Heritage Butt & Oyster
Suffolk - Pin Mill
Two star - A pub interior of outstanding national historic interest
Listed Status: II
Pin Mill RdPin Mill
IP9 1JW
OS ref: TM206379
Tel: (01473) 780764
Email: buttandoyster@debeninns.co.uk
Website http://www.debeninns.co.uk/buttandoyster/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/buttandoyster
Real Ale: Yes
Lunchtime Meals: Yes
Evening Meals: Yes
Public Transport: Near Bus Stop
Bus: Yes
View on: Whatpub
The pub occupies a 17th-century building which was enlarged both in the 19th century and again in 1932. The public bar, overlooking the water and with its red floor tiles and high-backed settles is especially attractive, containing some 17th-century fielded panelling and an early 20th-century brick fireplace. The counter was moved back some 18 inches in 1988: it is hard to date but may be of inter-war vintage, along with the shelves at the back. Also enjoying fine views across the river is the dining room, doubled in size in 1932 but with a section of raised floor from 1997, when the panelling and seating in this area were renewed. Across the quarry-tiled corridor, which runs through the building is a small smoke room: over the brick fireplace is a 17th-century carved panel with naively treated figures and contemporary ornamentation. Casks are stillaged within the servery.
Beautifully situated beside the Orwell estuary, the pub occupies a seventeenth-century building, extended in the nineteenth century plus two flat-roof extensions - the front one now part of the dining room was added in 1932; the rear one with the toilets is post-war. Featured in films and TV's Lovejoy (as 'The Three Ducks'!) this is a popular pub - at busy times use the pay & display car park half way up the hill. Its little-altered interior is as a result of being run by the Watts family from 1933 to 1988.
The red-tiled public bar with its two high-backed settles is especially attractive and has great views of the river from its bay window. It contains some seventeenth-century fielded panelling and an early twentieth-century brick and tile fireplace; some panelling looks as though it may date from the 1930s. The bar counter is hard to date; the stillage is still in use for cask beers (but nowadays for show with the actual casks in the cellar and beer dispensed via pipes through the tap), and the lower bar back shelves are also of some vintage. The only changes in the last 70-odd years have been the moving back of the bar counter some 18 inches in 1988 - careful inspection of the dado panelling and wear on the quarry tiled floor confirm this; and replacement of some of the upper shelving.
Also overlooking the river is the dining room, originally the second small pub room, which is double its original size due to the 1932 extension. It has another early twentieth-century fireplace and old fixed seating around the bay window in the front section but in 1997 a raised wood floor was added in the extension end and dado panelling and seating around the bay window is much more modern that in the first half of the room. Across a quarry-tiled corridor running through the pub is a small smoke room with a door and the figure '3' on it, bare wood floor, and over the brick fireplace is what the listing description describes as "C17 carved panel with naively treated figures to sides and varied ornamentation".
