A star is born near Shipston-on-Stour – The Royal Oak in Whatcote
Just outside Shipston-on-Stour in the tiny village of Whatcote, there’s a lovely independent pub called The Royal Oak. Recently, this picture-perfect pub has found out that it has been promoted from a Michelin Plate to a prestigious Michelin Star in the Michelin Guide 2020 – what a fantastic achievement!
A typical quintessential English pub on the surface run by a husband-and-wife team, The Royal Oak has been causing a stir since it opened, with food and drink critic Tom Parker Bowles writing this in his December 2018 Daily Mail feature on ‘The 100 cosiest pubs in Britain’:
Very much a local pub, albeit a rather smart one. But chef owner Richard Craven is one hell of a chef. Expect game in season, from roe deer tartare to pheasant with snails. Homemade bread comes with dripping butter, and there’s excellent fish too.
Just a stone’s throw from the stunning Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and just under 10 minutes away from Shipston Lodge Nursing Home, The Royal Oak is in a great location. Simply head out of Shipston-on-Stour towards the villages of Honington and Idlicote and you’ll find Whatcote before you reach Oxhill. It’s a lovely short drive through beautiful Warwickshire countryside with an idyllic destination at the end.
We’re grateful and excited to have such an innovative, forward-thinking pub so close by to our nursing home in Shipston-on-Stour and hope to pay The Royal Oak a visit very soon!
Award-winning whisky and gin in Shipston Lodge’s Lamb Inn
Did you know that Shipston Lodge has its very own pub? It’s called the Lamb Inn and it’s on our first floor above the library. Our pub has a proper bar serving all sorts of drinks, and our residents love it. It’s particularly great when friends and family members come to visit as it’s a wonderful spot to catch up over a beer or glass of wine.
We love to support local businesses whenever and wherever we can here at Shipston Lodge, and that extends to the beverages we stock in our bar. In addition to the old favourites, we stock a selection of local beers, and we also have local whisky and gin.
We’re incredibly lucky here at Shipston Lodge to have a renowned distillery so close by – Cotswold Distillery is the first full-scale distillery in the Cotswolds and it can be found just outside Shipston in Stourton. They started their story in 2014 and just five years later, the company makes award-winning whisky and gin, as well as a wide range of other outstanding natural spirits.
If you’re heading to Shipston-on-Stour soon, no visit is complete without a trip to the Cotswold Distillery. The amazing visitor centre is a popular destination for Cotswold holidaymakers, boasting a shop and café serving lovely lunches, snacks and drinks, along with beautiful countryside views. In fact, the distillery welcomes around 30,000 visitors per year for its award-winning Tour and Tasting, which runs three times a day, seven days a week. They also offer Gin and Whisky Blending Masterclasses in the distillery and in their shop in nearby Broadway, giving enthusiasts an opportunity to learn more about the award-winning spirits – and even make their own!
With a TripAdvisor rating of 5/5 from 1,889 reviews* and a Google rating of 4.7/5 from 71 reviews*, the distillery’s popularity is undeniable – and its success is only going from strength to strength, as the distillery has just launched its long-awaited Peated Cask Single Malt Whisky, made with 100% locally-grown barley. It boasts a wonderfully balanced rich and fruity taste with subtle notes of peat smoke so if you appreciate the odd dram or two, it might be worth giving it a try.
We’re pleased and proud to stock the Cotswold Distillery’s award-winning gin and whisky in the Lamb Inn here at Shipston Lodge. Our very own in-house pub is a great space that’s loved by our residents, their friends and family members, and we hope you’ll love it too.