The Finch Hatton Arms
Bar, Restaurant & Hotel
Main Street, Ewerby, Lincolnshire, NG34 9PJ, England.
Phone: +44 1529 460363
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The Finch Hatton Arms was built as an Inn and
was auctioned in 1875. It was intended to replace the cottage Pub called
The Angel Inn which was situated just to the North of the present
building and closer to the roadside.
It was purchased by the Haverholme Estate then owned by the Finch
Hatton family thus taking the family crest as it’s name ; The Finch
Hatton Arms. It was run by a manager as a kind of ‘Shooting Lodge’
for the Gentleman’s Estate which offered Hunting, Fishing and
Shooting. |
| The estate
was auctioned in 1926 with The Finch
Hatton Arms being offered as a Public House and a working Farm. However,
it appears that the Farm aspect remained with the Estate with the Public
House being bought by the Ind Coope and Alsops Brewery. It remained as a
Brewery Tied-House until 1967 when it was bought by a well-known local
business man, Mr. Reg Brealey. He modernised it and employed a manager
to run it as a typical village Public House offering the standard games
of Darts, Dominoes, etc. and live entertainment on week-end evenings.
In 1972, the establishment changed hands once again with a major
shift in the style of operation. The new owner was Mr. Jim Fenner , a
businessman from Leicester who transformed the place into a London-class
Restaurant. He commissioned a local man , Mr. Philip Carroll, to
decorate the interior with Hand-painted and Hand-crafted scenes and
artifacts typical of Lincolnshire Rural Life. The place offered ‘Haute
Cuisine’ and was renowned all over the East of England.
After a successful period operating in this way Mr. Fenner shrewdly
realised that the future was in faster, more economical food, and so he
opened the Thatch Bar and Restaurant. This facility offered a limited
range of simpler food at affordable prices allowing people to dine out
on weekly basis and not just on special occasions. |
| Misfortune struck with Mr. Fenner passing
away leaving his wife Ann to run the place. She eventually married one
of their ex-Chefs Mr. Gavin Fleming who was disappointed that the Thatch
Restaurant was more successful than his A La Carte Restaurant. His
solution was to close the Thatch Restaurant down believing that the
customers would return to the more lavish (and more expensive) style of
dining. He was wrong and the inevitable result was that the business
closed down and did not re-open for nearly a year.
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"The Angel Inn trees" still stand today
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| Again, the place went through a
transformation with the new owner, Mr. John Slingsby, developing the
Tudor-style Bar and Restaurant present today. He also re-introduced the
type of cuisine offered in the Thatch Restaurant.
Finally, in 1987 the present owners, Jill and Paul Hodson, bought The
Finch Hatton Arms and in 1988 took the establishment full circle by
re-introducing accommodation but this time full en-suite Hotel Rooms.
The menu has also been developed to broaden the type of food from basic
bar meals to encompass the use of different potatoes, fresh vegetables
and sauced dishes.
The Function Room also underwent refurbishment in 1986 to introduce
small-medium conference and meeting room facilities thus giving The
Finch Hatton Arms the ability to compete with any other establishment in
the area. |
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