02-08-2025
The English county with the best pubs, according to our expert
There's nowhere to hide at the Coachmakers Arms in Stoke-on-Trent. When I visited recently, I was quickly ushered into the Lounge by the barman with the promise that 'the fire is on'. What he didn't mention was that the room itself was tiny, everyone else knew each other, and I was to be the entertainment for the next hour. Who was I, went the questioning, and what exactly was I doing in Stoke on this rainy Sunday evening?
For footballers, a 'cold, rainy night in Stoke' is a famous litmus test of quality; if you can do it there and then, the thinking goes, you can do it anywhere. For pubgoers, the challenge is less onerous – genial questioning rather than a howling gale and a vociferous home crowd – but the rewards for success can be worthwhile. Once I'd revealed I was on the hunt for England's greatest pubs, I was inundated with recommendations for other pubs in Stoke.
The Six Towns (Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke-upon-Trent and Tunstall), it turns out, are full of good options – but then again, so is Staffordshire as a whole. From Leek to Tamworth, this is a county stuffed with great traditional inns, a county that, I think (and having ummed and ahhed over it, changing my mind half-a-dozen times) is the best in England when it comes to pubs. What it offers is the most reliable blend of the elements that makes a great pub: atmosphere, decor, good beer and a strong sense of place.
For the last of these ingredients, you'll struggle to beat Burton-on-Trent, England's greatest historic brewing town, with its trio of very different but equally good pubs: The Coopers Tavern, a historic Bass brewery tap; The Devonshire Arms, delightfully cosy, with gleaming copper-topped tables and untarnished green banquettes; and the Burton Bridge Inn, where the town's brewing tradition still burns bright.
For atmosphere, there are the classics in Staffordshire's less well-known spots, from Leek's quirky Blue Mugge to the Anchor Inn by the Shropshire Union Canal. My favourite out-of-the-way Staffordshire pub is perhaps the Brushmakers Arms in Oulton, simple but so welcoming and comfortable. And in terms of decor and beer the Tamworth Tap, twice CAMRA's National Pub of the Year, is unparalleled. This is a micropub that feels like it's been in situ for decades, with one of the country's great pub gardens.
Of course, there were plenty of other contenders. Nearby, there's Derbyshire, with its marvellous blend of city pubs and Peak District delights, while the West Midlands, and in particular the Black Country, can match Staffordshire almost blow-for-blow when it comes to atmospheric pubs serving good traditional beer. Kent and Essex have a surfeit of excellent country pubs, and as many as half-a-dozen urban counties – from Bristol to Tyne and Wear – could have carried off the crown.
Why is Staffordshire so good? My guess would be that this is a place with a resolutely working-class culture, where the price of a pint remains within most customers' grasp. Squeezed between the West Midlands and the North West, it's not a place that appears to go too big on fads and fleeting fashions, very good news when it comes to pubs.
It's also a place that, in Burton, has a brewing tradition that very few other places can match, with the exception of London. But while all of London's great brewing names are now things of the past – remembered, at most, in elderly branded mirrors on pub walls – the drinkers of Staffordshire still cherish Bass, even if the owners of the brand (AB InBev) have only recently woken up to its potential.
Nowhere is this more obvious than at the Golden Cup Inn, one of the three Stoke pubs I included in my guide. There are many beautiful pubs in England, but none has quite taken my breath away like the Golden Cup. Recently restored to the tune of £250,000, it has a superb Edwardian green-tiled exterior, decorated with Bass's famous red triangle trademark and with the words 'Bass Only' above the windows.
This isn't quite true – there are lots of other beers available inside these days – but it was telling that, when AB InBev decided to put some cash behind the beer in terms of marketing material, beer mats and new pump clips, The Golden Cup was one of the first pubs to get them.
If that was all The Golden Cup had, it would be a nice place for beer geeks and history nerds. But when I visited, just before my trip to the Coachmakers, it was full of people, young and old, some enjoying a bank-holiday 'Daytime Disco', most just chatting happily in the pub's plush interior. That's the joy of Staffordshire pubs: they're connected to the past, but still very much alive. They've got the lot, and it's well worth testing yourself on a rainy Stoke evening to enjoy some of them.
