Flintknappers, Brandon

Update.

Re-opened in 2012 after a year's closure, the pub has been significantly refurbished and the small rear left snug and off sales have been lost; the front two small rooms remain but modernised so while the counters may remain they have been painted. Only two original fireplaces, panelling in the front right room and maybe some fixed seating remain. Only worth a local inventory rating now. .

The Flintknappers was built/re-built in 1933 by Bullards of Norwich and retains a lot of the original three small rooms and off sales. The small rear left 'Snug Bar' retains its windows and a 1930s brick fireplace. The off sales exterior door is blocked-up but the counter remains and arches have been cut out of the walls either side so you are now able to walk all around the pub.

The public bar on the left corner has a door with 'Bar Entrance' colourful stained and leaded windows and another 1930s brick fireplace. The bar back down the left side is mostly the original with some modern additions but has lost part of a till drawer. The smoke room on the front right is also linked via an arch and has fielded panelling to picture frame height, a 1930s brick fireplace and fixed seating from the 1930s. It has a fine four-bay moulded beamed ceiling.

A brass plaque on the panelling above the fireplace in the Smoke Room states "The ceiling in this room was installed in a house at St. Michael At Coslany, Norwich about the year 1540. This house was then a merchants mansion and was afterwards converted to a public house and when the public house was closed and demolished in the year 1933 the ceiling was preserved and erected in this room by Bullard & Sons Limited Brewers of Norwich. Norwich loss is Brandon's Gain."

The present main bar on the rear right has a counter that looks identical to the others but take a closer look and you will see it has a lighter stain and is a copy; the bar back is also modern. A photo of the Smoke Room on the wall shows a window and piano in front of it where the door to the present main bar is now. Most of the customers use the new lounge bar nowadays. Recently a WII air raid shelter was discovered under the car park when a hole appeared!