The Mug House is a traditional public house

Public house

A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

 located in the village of Claines

Claines

Claines is a small village just to the north of Worcester, England, on the left bank of the River Severn. Claines is situated in the heart of Worcestershire on the A449 between Worcester and Kidderminster. It has a church which dates from the 10th Century....

, Worcestershire

Worcestershire

Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, which dates back to the 15th century.

Overview

The Mug House pub is owned by Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries and offers several Banks's bitters along with one or two other guest ale

Ale

Ale is a type of beer brewed from malted barley using a warm fermentation with a strain of brewers' yeast. The yeast will ferment the beer quickly, giving it a sweet, full bodied and fruity taste...

s which rotate every few weeks. The current landlady is Judy Allen, who has chosen to maintain a traditional atmosphere by not introducing games machines or music to the pub.

The Mug House has featured in the local news several times over the last few years due to stories that the pub is in some way haunted

Ghost

In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...

. The past few landlords have all claimed that there are regularly strange occurrences at the pub such as glasses smashing or dull knocking noises coming from the beer cellar at night. This has only increased the popularity of the pub.

Location

The Mug House is situated in the village of Claines, about three miles north of the city of Worcester

Worcester

The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...

. The exact location of the pub is near the junction where Claines Lane meets Cornmeadow Lane, just to the rear of Claines

Claines

Claines is a small village just to the north of Worcester, England, on the left bank of the River Severn. Claines is situated in the heart of Worcestershire on the A449 between Worcester and Kidderminster. It has a church which dates from the 10th Century....

 church. The situation of the pub is such that one has to walk through, or very near, the graveyard of the church in order to access it. The pub is one of only two pubs in England to be situated on consecrated ground.

Interior

The pub consists of four main public spaces inside on the ground floor. There is a back room, bar, hatch and a snug. The back room is most commonly used by diners at lunch time and from this room there is a view of the Malvern Hills

Malvern Hills

The Malvern Hills are a range of hills in the English counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and a small area of northern Gloucestershire, dominating the surrounding countryside and the towns and villages of the district of Malvern...

. The hatch tends to be frequented when the other rooms are fully occupied. The ceilings inside the Mug House are quite low and as the building is timber framed many of the walls are not straight, because the building has settled over time. In order to access the toilets one must exit the main building because the toilets themselves are located in a separate outhouse. The building is timber framed but there is a cellar.

Awards

The Mug House has won a Jubilee Heritage Award in a national competition to find Britain's prettiest pubs. Mounted by the Green Organisation, the competition was launched to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee in 2002 and the role pubs and landlords play in safeguarding natural heritage. The garden, described as a stunning blaze of red, white and blue blooms by all that have enjoyed it, helped secure the award.