The Fox Farnborough - 01276 34735

The Fox has 2 bars, a large garden with a children’s playground area &a large car park at the rear. Live music, disco & karaoke nights are held weekly.

No frills, no fuss, The Fox Inn is dedicated to remaining a place for the community.

The pub, in Chapel Lane, Cove, serves a large range of drinks and has a garden and play area for families to enjoy.

Brewer Greene King tried to introduce food at the pub in 2012 to change it into a ‘meet and eat’ venue, but this was opposed by The Fox’s regulars and was followed by a successful month-long campaign to keep it purely as a drinkers’ pub.

Landlady Maureen Bin-stead has a special affection for the establishment, having grown up in Chapel Lane, and her grandad also used to drink there.

She said: “It’s a basic pub but we wanted to keep it as a pub, not a restaurant.

“It’s drink-only but we do have live music nights and a lot of charity days.

“When I first took the pub over it wasn’t doing very well, but I’ve brought it up and it’s doing well now.

“I had never run a pub but my relations drunk here for years, as well as myself, so I decided to take it on to see if I could bring it back to life.”

Ms Binstead has run The Fox for four years – her five-year anniversary will be in March – after initially taking over on a temporary basis.

Many of the pub’s regulars have also been drinking there for decades and, in some cases, for more than half a century.

Ms Binstead added: “It’s a local community pub, that’s what it always has been and always will be.

"We do get some visitors who come from further afield but it’s mainly locals.

"It has been the heart of this village for many, many years.”

The Fox has two bars, a large garden with a children’s playground area and a large car park at the rear.

Live music, disco and karaoke nights are held weekly, every Saturday, and live sport is shown on television.

A fun day in aid of Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice was held on August 30 with a bouncy castle, barbecue, face painting and a disco.

The building dates back to the 19th century and it is believed to have been a pub since around 1886.

Originally two cottages, the structure is known to have existed in 1850 when it was known as Fox Cottages.

The two homes were owned by local farmer and landowner James Calloway, who lived in Combe Farm, also known as Calloways. On May 12 1865, Fox Cottages were acquired by Henry Hewett & Co, a brewery in Waltham St Lawrence, Berkshire.

It is likely that beer had already been sold from the cottages prior to the sale, but the acquisition heralded the true birth of the Fox Beer House.

Voting slips for Pub of the Year are available every week in the News and Mail.

Tags: Pub