Three Kings, Hanley Castle

A pub of two halves which has been in the same family since 1911. The building dates back to the 16th century on the left and consists of a cruck-framed hall, now encased in brick. The front door is approached via a brick path and inside a quarry-tiled passage runs to the rear. On the right through a sliding door is a superb small bar with quarry-tiled floor, a huge stone fireplace taking up most of the one side of the room with a copper firehood added in the mid-1960s. A high-backed settle actually forms the partition wall between the bar and the passage, and there is wall bench and window seating. There is a serving hatch with a 1950s ribbed hardboard front, the handpumps being situated within the servery which has miscellaneous old shelving. In the past, some regular customers were allowed to sit in the servery. To the left of the passage is a little-used bare boarded smoke room with a sliding door. It has a brick fireplace possibly from the 1950s and wall bench seating attached to old dado panelling.

At the end of the passage is a small red brick floor area with an old 'Allen Brothers, Malvern' mirror and continuing to the right you enter Nell's lounge. This is situated in a separate and older timber framed building which was added to the pub in 1982 having been schoolmistress Nell Creese's house until 1979. The rear section was her kitchen and still contains a range fireplace. The front section was Nell's living room and contains a fine stone inglenook fireplace with bread oven and log fire, also a high-backed settle. The bar fittings were added in 1982 when part of the wall between the two bars was removed to link them. Note the ancient Gaskell & Chambers handpump in this area which was still in use until 2011, when it was retired until replacement parts can be found.

The inn-sign depicts the three biblical kings in all their finery but the idea of the name probably originates from a former family of pub-keepers. In 1710 a Richard Kings (sic) sold a property called the Three Kings (but at a different location) for £4 15s (about £520 today). The present building, with fabric going back to the 16th century and probably with earlier remains, is known to have been a pub in 1841.