Norton Disney – Green Man

The Green Man in Norton Disney has one of the more detailed pub histories on their web-site that I’ve come across, it’s always a delight when a venue is proud of their heritage. The Green Man is an early name for the pub, which was trading in the early 1840s, but it changed its name to the Sportsman by 1851. From around 1909, the pub was renamed as the St Vincent Arms in honour of the local landowner Viscount St Vincent. It was unfortunate enough to have been taken over by Punch Taverns in the early part of this century, but after they messed it about the pub was sold in 2009 and renamed as the Green Man, remaining as a free house.

The interior has been sensitively restored.

There’s a nice open and clean feel to the whole arrangement. The service was immediate and welcoming, with the pub having an inviting feel to it. The pub is also very well reviewed on-line and it appears to have a strong food, particularly Sunday lunches, offering judging from those reviews. They do seem to have picked up a small number of negative reviews which are just odd, at least the pub has responded in full to each one and I can imagine they feel a little hard done by given the nature of some of them.

The beer choices and there was a brewery I hadn’t known about before, Beermats Brewing Co of Winkburn in Nottinghamshire. I went for the brewery’s Legitimate bitter, all very agreeable and well kept. This was the best selection of real ale in the local area, I’m not entirely sure why it isn’t in the Good Beer Guide, although maybe it’ll be in the next edition.

The pub wasn’t serving its usual food menu, but they did have a BBQ going so a pint of beer, a hot dog and warm weather all combined to make a rather lovely afternoon. Those cabins in the background are part of the accommodation offer, in conjunction with Outdoor Inns, but more about them in later posts.