Camp House Inn in Grimley is a breath taking riverside pub

The Camp House Inn in Grimley, near Worcester surely occupies one of the most beautiful riverside spots in the county if not the country. Few, if any, can rival it for the sublime quality of its views.

Here the pub endures, weathering the onslaught of besieging storms as she has done since before the English Civil War, an enchanting survival from a bygone age.

HELM: Jim and Lyn Wainwright at The Camp House Inn in Grimley, near Worcester mark the family's 85 year history at the pub (Image: James Connell/Newsquest) What other choice is there after all? The river, both friend and foe, is going nowhere. But neither, it seems, are the Wainwrights. With an indomitable spirit, this family has kept the place going for the better part of a century. 

Time and time again the floods (which regularly breach the pub's defences and are increasing in both frequency and severity) have failed to dislodge them.

Mops in hand, they pick up the pieces. They carry on. But it can be brutally hard. Yet it can never be forgotten that the river, ever a fickle mistress, also gives the pub its picturesque quality.  

RIVERSIDE: Jo Wainwright-Scarrott, 'the landlord's daughter', with dogs Sky and Sam at The Camp House Inn, Grimley (Image: James Connell/Newsquest)

Ever-resilient, the family even ferries customers to the pub by boat when the waters cut them off so, come hell or high water, nobody misses out on a pint.

The Wainwright family plans to celebrate a remarkable milestone - being behind the pumps for 85 years - at an all-day party this Saturday (September 7).

A DJ and two bands will be performing (Chalky's Mod, Soul and Ska Show from 2pm and Nice and Sleazy from 8pm) and all are welcome to join the family.

BEGINNINGS: L-R Theresa Wainwright, Violet Bailey, Percy Wainwright, Lucy Osbourne (with Hilda Wainwright behind her) and Patricia Wainwright at The Camp House Inn which the family took over in 1939 (Image: James Connell/Newsquest)

Percy Wainwright and wife Hilda took over the pub in 1939 at the beginning of the Second World War and now their son, Jim Wainwright, and his wife Lyn run the pub.

Officially the party to mark the milestone should take place on December 9, but owing to the ever-increasing risk of flooding the Wainwrights have prudently decided to hold their celebration early.

RIVER: The Camp House Inn in Grimley is one of Worcestershire's riverside jewels with beautiful views of the River Severn (Image: James Connell/Newsquest)

Landlord Jim Wainwright, 80, was born at the pub and has lived there all his life. He remembers a time when flooding was rare - no flooding in the pub in 21 years from 1971.

He said: "I love it here. It's getting harder, I must admit. The floods are getting ridiculous. We're out in the sticks. That's the attraction here."

FIREPLACE: The Camp House Inn is also a cosy location in winter provided the river does not get above herself (Image: James Connell/Newsquest)

After all these years, he is still not immune to the charm of the place and his daughter, Jo Wainwright-Scarrott, calls the pub 'a little oasis'.

Two dogs have the run of the place - but how many pubs can also boast four peacocks, all called Neil? The family first started keeping peacocks in 1973, the first pair being Emperor Kimble and Lady Katrina. 

HISTORIC: The front of the Camp House Inn in Grimley - the side that faces the River Severn (Image: James Connell/Newsquest)

"People love the positioning of it on the banks of the river. It has a strong pull for summer trade. In the winter, we do have nice log fires going. People tend to stay until the fire is put out by the floods," he says. 

The height of past floods are marked on the fireplace (although recent more severe floods have no plaques). Everywhere horse brasses gleam beneath heavy beams made from ship's timbers. The bathroom in the pub's domestic rooms was built with bricks from Worcester Gaol.

BEAUTIFUL: A peacock at the Camp House Inn - one of four, all called Neil (Image: James Connell/Newsquest)

Old photos hang on the walls, including some from the old days of Worcester Carnival when the pub raised thousands for good causes. 

The pub has been tied to many breweries, coming and going like the narrowboats gliding by - Speckley, Cheltenham and Hereford, West Country Breweries, Enterprise Inns, Stonegate and Social Cellar. 

ALCOVE: This former pantry offers a quaint and cosy space within the Camp House Inn complete with Worcestershire County Cricket memorabilia and historic photos (Image: James Connell/Newsquest)

During my visit, the pub serves a number of real ales - Timothy Taylor's Landlord, Wainwright and Butcombe Original Beer. It is also notable for its ciders - Stan's Thatchers Cheddar  Valley, Thatchers Haze, Thatchers Dry and Thatchers Gold. 

A surprising revelation - Queen Elizabeth I still owes the Wainwrights money from when she stayed nearby at Hallow Park.

The Virgin Queen went deer hunting and the coachman, a Wainwright, helped transport the carcasses but was never paid for his trouble.

DEBT: Queen Elizabeth I owes a debt to the Camp House Inn's landlord, Jim Wainwright (Image: Getty Images)

"I'm still waiting for the Royal Family to clear the debt. I'm still wondering how much interest there is on it," said Mr Wainwright with a broad grin. 

The pub sits snugly by the River Severn out in the wilds of Worcester's riverside hinterland, reached via an interminable labyrinth of narrow lanes. 

The Camp still retains a certain feeling of splendid isolation (or at least seclusion). However, the Kepax Bridge in Gheluvelt Park may change all this, bringing in more customers from Worcester. 

UNIQUE: The Camp House Inn viewed from the back (the 'front' if you arrive by car rather than boat) (Image: James Connell/Newsquest)

At the moment it feels like a retreat or refuge of sorts, a kind of hideout where you could go to ground, batten down the hatches, 'ride it out' as it were.

Indeed, that is precisely what happened at the end of the Battle of Worcester on September 3, 1651 when defeated Royalists hid nearby in the reedbeds and later sought sanctuary at Retreat Farm, next door to the pub (which is how the farm is said to have earned its name).

ATMOSPHERE: A beam from a ship's timber at The Camp House Inn in Grimley (Image: James Connell/Newsquest)

The pub even boasts a 'Cromwellian licence'. Cromwell set about investigating the quality of beer at all the inns in the country, sending out 'beer tasters' and those that passed the test received this special mark of quality.

The Camp is close to Bevere Island where the inhabitants have sought refuge three times - from Danish Vikings, from the great plague in 1637 and after the Battle of Worcester in 1651.

RECOMMENDED READING: Camp House Inn, Grimley use boat for customers in floods

RECOMMEDED READING: The Talbot at Knightwick is beautiful old riverside pub

During World War Two, the Home Guard were stationed at the farm (where the Wainwrights have been tenants since the early 1800s) and the outside gents toilet is a former pillbox. 

But it is slightly unfair to think of the pub as cut off and isolated - it was always meant to be reached by river which, in the past at least, was the equivalent of a busy main road.

Indeed, Mr Wainwright is quick to point out that 'the back of the pub' (to my mind at least) is actually the front as it faces the river.   

The pub, which was a boating inn, has a fixed landing stage and has affiliations to Worcester Rowing Club and the Mikron Theatre Company, an English touring theatre company, founded in 1972, which travels by boat.

Long live this Queen of riverside pubs and long may she reign and ride out the storms to come.