Peyton Arms, Stoke Lyne

A gloriously simple country local within a pair of early-nineteenth-century stone-built properties and which once incorporated the village shop. Its heart is now the single bar in the centre.

Although this room looks untouched by time, it has seen modest changes. At some point after it was sold by the Peyton estate to Hook Norton in 1954, a counter was installed for the first time (the landlord says in 1962): it has tasteful vertical panelling. There also used to be a tiny snug partitioned off to the right of the entrance. Across the corridor is the former village shop which for a time was a public room with pool table but is now used for storage. At the front of the building is another former bar room (but once domestic accommodation) in use until about 2008 and now also storage space. Between this and the sole present-day bar is a corridor-like ground-floor cellar where beer is dispensed direct from the casks.