Three Kings Inn, Hanley Castle is an ancient treasure

Standing proud and majestic in Hanley Castle as it has done (the building itself anyway) for more than 500 years, The Three Kings Inn has been in the care of the same family for over a century. 

STRANGE: A wig, perhaps that of a judge, was found inside the bricked up fireplace at The Three Kings Inn in Hanley Castle (Image: James Connell/Newsquest)

Just 10 miles from Worcester and a mile from Upton, this is a Royal banquet for the senses - a proper 'real ale' pub untarnished by the mania for modernity and fiercely resistant to the relentless tide of change.

Indeed, the landlady says, 'I don't change things'.  From the regulars comes the inevitable retort, 'Please don't!'

HOME: Sue Roberts, the licensee of the Three Kings, was born there, has never left and says she never will (Image: James Connell/Newsquest)

Full of idiosyncrasies (even peculiarities), it is all the richer for that, unspoiled by today's iconoclasts who have torn the heart and soul, not to mention the furnishings, out of so many of England's pubs.

Owl and fox eyes watch you from inside glass cases. Heirlooms, horse brasses and photos of much-loved customers now lost but not forgotten adorn the walls and fireplaces. 

SOUL: The Three Kings in Hanley Castle at the beer festival this year (Image: James Connell/Newsquest)

This pub is full of heart, soul and character, beautiful, brilliant and, at times, bizarre - in the best possible sense. 

Sue Roberts, the licensee, and also treasurer of the local parochial church council and chair of Hanley Castle Parish Council, said: "Once that character is gone, you can't put it back.

"There are some customers who don't get it. It's a place you either get it or you don't. This is a proper old world pub."

The beer (four ales served at a time) is a bargain at only £3.60 and prices only went up from £3 at this month's beer festival after around eight years.

She says she only put the prices up because the customers said she ought to. Butcombe is served all the time and is popular with regulars. 

CURIOUS: An owl and a fox in this cabinet speak of the rural character of the Three Kings at Hanley Castle (Image: James Connell/Newsquest)

The Worcester CAMRA pub of the year in 2015 is based in a building which dates back, in parts, to 1500, the very end of the Middle Ages.

Entry to the bar or 'snug' is through a sliding door (which is easy enough to miss - I did anyway) with the inglenook fireplace a marvel to behold, especially on a cold winter's night.

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Once inside, the visitor discovers a cosy, intimate bar with a small serving hatch. This room, famous for its ancient cruck beams, once formed the entirety of the pub before it expanded into the old cottage next door in the early 1980s.

A door to the larger, Nell's Lounge, is at the other side of the building, named after the woman who once owned the cottage.

ATMOSPHERE: The bar at Nell's Lounge in The Three Kings Inn in Hanley Castle (Image: James Connell/Newsquest)

The pub seems almost besieged by vegetation which creeps right up to the windows. It feels as if the building is nestled, enthroned, inside a snug fairytale hollow.

If anywhere should have ghosts it is the Three Kings but the licensee does not believe it - and she should know. Now 60 years old, she was born here at the pub and still lives here and vows never to leave.

So the pub's appearance in a book about haunted pubs of Worcestershire came as something of a strange surprise.

HERITAGE: The Three Kings in Hanley Castle has a rich musical and folk tradition (Image: James Connell/Newsquest)

"I refuse to believe it," said Miss Roberts. "I have never heard or seen a ghost. I checked with my aunt who had been brought up here and she never heard of it either," she said.

That's not to say it is not packed with rich and quirky history - the pub has been in her family for more than a century - since her grandfather Fred with his wife Ethel took it on in 1911.

COMFORT: The inglenook fireplace at The Three Kings Inn in Hanley Castle (Image: James Connell/Newsquest)

One of the most peculiar discoveries is what appears to be a mysterious 'judge's wig' found when a bricked-up fireplace was cleared.

It is not believed, however, that any pre-eminent member of the judiciary has been summarily immolated or, what may be worse, bricked up for eternity inside a fireplace.

On the day I visited a group of musicians were playing Americana in Nell's Lounge and the crooked old timbers echoed to the sound of Take Me Home, Country Roads.

But the pub is also the home of many English and British folk music traditions with Morris Dancers playing at the 29th beer festival on November 10, 11 and 12 which had beers from as far away as Orkney.

WOULD YOU LIKE YOUR PUB TO FEATURE? Please email James Connell on jc@worcesternews.co.uk.