Murrell Arms: a host of eccentricities

Next month one of the country's longest-serving pub tenants, Daphne Cutten, retires from the Murrell Arms, Barnham, West Sussex. For 47 years she has run one of the country's most eccentric hostelries, serving up a mix of old-fashioned pub grub, nearly forgotten pub games, morris dancers, folk music and, of course, ale from the cask. Phil Mellows finds out more.

The pub​

This was originally a farmhouse, built around 1750 for William Murrell, a local yeoman. It became a pub in 1866, and the licensees we took over from in 1964 were Fanny and Bill Brown, who was also a blacksmith. We had the blacksmith's forge next door demolished to make way for the car park.

We've had five different brewers as landlords — Friary Meux, Allied Breweries, Ind Coope, George Gale and now Fuller's.

Half pub, half antiques shop​

My husband, Mervyn, who died four years ago, and myself were torn between opening a pub and opening an antiques shop. So we filled the pub with antiques and got both. The pub was bare when we moved in and everything you see we collected over the years.

The signs are among the oldest things; customers brought in a lot of the old pictures of the pub and the area. We have three gas lighters, modelled as different figures (right), for customers to light their cigar-ettes from and we keep the flames burning even though there's a smoking ban.

I'm looking for £15,000 for the contents, and I'm hoping someone will take the pub as is. Otherwise it'll all go to auction.

We haven't made any structural changes. There's a stable bar and a public bar, and we can divide off the Bottle & Jug bar by just pulling the settle across.

When we started here a pub was a good living and we had a thriving trade — and that was with no food or wine. We just concentrated on selling beer. Now you get people coming in and asking for things like Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc.

We even had someone the other day who asked for a high chair! It's not a restaurant. We've just always tried to do things that are different to what everybody else does, and I think that's the attraction really.

The beer​

All the ale is served straight from the casks, which are on stillages in a room behind the bar. I think it's better that way because you don't have the beer sitting around in the lines. In any case, we can't have a cellar here because the pub is built on sand.

We don't need any cooling in the winter, but we use cooling rods in the summer. I can still manage the beer myself. There's a hoist to help with the lifting.

We only have three different cask beers, so we make sure we have the throughput to maintain the quality — Gale's HSB, which sells the most, London Pride and Seafarers. We sell a lot of Guinness, too, and people tend to switch to lager in the summer.

The food​

There was no food when we came here. None of the pubs did food. I started doing my own dishes and my bacon hock has become quite famous. There's a good butcher, Earley's, across the road where I get all my meat and everything is cooked by me. You won't see any manufactured stuff here. And we don't do chips, either.

It's a simple menu. We don't have a big kitchen. We do ploughman's lunches — without the rabbit food — and a daily special. Today it's coq au vin and every Wednesday it's another one of my specialities — bacon and onion suet roly poly.

Fun and games​

This is one of the few pubs in the country where you can play Ring the Bull, and we host tournaments for charity. Last time we made £434 for Cancer Research, and we're doing it again for the British Heart Foundation at the end of February.

There's also darts, crib and shove ha'penny. We used to have two men's and two ladies' darts teams, but we just have the one men's team today.

There's live music in the stable bar once a week — folk and rock mainly — and we have a piano in there, which customers still come and play.

We hold functions in the garden in the summer, and hog roasts. And we have morris dancers, too, which attract a good crowd.

The staff​

I employ all part-timers behind the bar, mostly housewives, and try to get in as many different people as possible, to give them a bit of extra money. There will usually be somebody different every lunchtime and evening. And me. I'm here all the time.

We used to have three people on at busier times. Now we just need two.

The customers​

It's mostly people from the village. We've had the same people coming in for years, the same families. I've seen them born, married and divorced. We take care of the pensioners and do them special rates.

We get a lot of racing people stopping off here when Fontwell races is on, and we'll open early for them in the evening if they ask us. We also get campers who are here for the Goodwood Revival motor racing festival in September.

It's a pub you don't see much trouble in, so that's a good thing.

Leaving the Murrell​

When my husband died I had no thoughts of giving up the pub, I wanted to keep going. But I was healthier then. I had a heart attack last year and I need a triple bypass operation.

And it's becoming harder all the time to run the pub. A lot of the pubs around here have closed. You're in competition with the supermarkets these days. And the smoking ban didn't help. There are more houses in the village now, but people come to the pub less.

And there's the red tape, the regulations. This pub has been like this since we got here and people still come in and say we've got to change this and that. It's ridiculous.

I've got a place to live nearby in Ford. But I'll certainly miss the pub and the things we filled it with over all those years.

Facts 'n' stats​

Years in pub: 47

Landlord: Fuller's

Agreement: three-year rolling tenancy

Turnover: £3,000 per week

Beer sold per week: four barrels (13x11s)

Current rent: £24,000 a year

Staff: seven part time

Best-selling ale: Gale's HSB

Best-selling dish: bacon hock