N0253 Brock Inn

After a modern roadhouse that had become a hotel, and a modern roadhouse that is still a roadhouse; we come to a much older roadside pub; once called The Thatch and still featuring the former adjacent shop. 

The different atmosphere compared to the Coolquoy is down at least in part to that old pub feel. The areas inside the pub are laid out a bit oddly, there's old decoration and equipment - worryingly, we can definitely consider the VCR that's above the bar as part of this - and just generally more of a "proper pub" feel to it; despite the services on offer being basically identical. 

An interesting side note here is that, according to a newspaper feature on the pub in the 1980s, this was a Beer House until 1961 - only changing its licence to sell wine and spirits at that point.

I've given up always recording the "round number pubs", particularly as a register change can re-set them on me, e.g. I've got two 600th pubs due to the hefty number of previously visited places which closed in 2021; to the level that I'd need to do a count-back to find out what pub 800 might have been; but this time I'd only updated the register the day before and can confirm this was my 850th. 

A decently round number for a decent traditional pub.