Real Ale and

Families in and around Skegness

The Boring Introduction Type Bit

Although Skegness has many attractions, an abundance of decent pubs with good family facilities selling real ale is not one of them. Over the last ten years or so (actually it's more like fifteen) we've sampled the delights (both dubious and desireable) of many of the pubs in the Skegness area. In the pages below you'll find a list of pubs that at sometime or other had both real ale (however poor) and family facilities (however basic). I've provided a brief description and 'history' of each pub, and as the information has been gathered over many years I've also tried to include what I believe the current status of each is. Hence pubs listed in green text are known to still have real ale and family facilities, those in amber I'm not too sure about, but those in red no longer provide both options.

In general, things improved considerably up to the mid-1990s, although one worrying trend was the disposal by Batemans of a significant number of pubs. In more recent years, however, and in particular this year, handpumps have been disappearing rapidly, such that the general situation is now undoubtably worse than it was back in 1990.

In my descriptions I've tried to be tactful about the deficiencies that certain pubs have (in my opinion). I apologise if I have upset anyone - but please look at things from my point of view. I like a decent drink and I like to take my family with me. There must be millions of people that are in the same situation, yet we are generally treated with a total lack of respect.

If anyone can provide any extra information, both good and bad, about the pubs that I've listed, or can provide me will details about places that I've missed, please let me know and I'll update the relevant pages. I'm at mike_rawson@lineone.net

UPDATE 6/6/01- During the Spring Bank Holiday week, a fairly leisurely tour around the area resulted in another five pubs being relegated to the red category. Things are now so bad that I have no doubt that decent real ale is harder to find in the area now than it was twenty years ago, when I first started holidaying in Skegness. It's so frustrating to think that ALL of the 'red' pubs were 'green' at one time. The only solution seems to be to nip into Safeway and buy some bottles of real ale to drink back in the caravan, or get in the car and get away from the coast! UPDATED 14 October, based on three weeks in the area during August. Actually, the individual updates have already been done much earlier, but the Surrounding Area section has been totally rewritten!

WHERE DO YOU WANT TO DRINK?

SKEGNESS
WINTHORPE
INGOLDMELLS
CHAPEL ST. LEONARDS
SURROUNDING AREA