#231 Fox & Hounds, Great Haywood, Staffordshire : 1991 to 2016 (RIP)

Great Haywood is a very good place for a canal stopover (both lunchtimes and evenings). The village is a short walk from the canal and the Clifford Arms (#069) is a proper pub that does very good pub food. There used to be two other pubs in the village, both sadly no longer with us.

Our first visit to the Fox & Hounds was on the evening of Saturday 27th July 1991 after having eaten at the Clifford Arms.

I have no recollection as to what it was like inside, but my feeling is that it was a typical village pub with a bar and a lounge.

It was quite a while before we returned, this time on the evening of Sunday 24th August 2003 when in fact we'd moored at Little Haywood, but ended up walking to Great Haywood in search of food!

The pub had undergone a complete makeover in the intervening 12 years.

It wasn't long before we returned, another evening stopover on Tuesday 6th June 2006.

Another complete transformation.

We returned again on the evening of Tuesday 1st June 2010 and another redecoration! And the beer garden had been fenced off from the road.

It is interesting to note that in the same period, the Clifford Arms has barely changed at all.

Our final visit was on the evening of Friday 5th August 2016 and this is what we found.

Obviously it had been closed for some time and converted into two (i think) houses. It's a shame, but in these modern days, not too surprising that the Fox & Hounds bit the dust. Hopefully, now that the village has consolidated down to one pub, there will be no more pub closures in Great Haywood!

Interestingly, WhatPub shows the Fox & Hounds from the days it was still a boarded up pub.

#069 Clifford Arms, Great Haywood, Staffs : 1991 to 2011

Our first visit to the Clifford Arms in Great Haywood was on our 1991 canal trip taking our boat Emma Jane 'down south' after she'd spent a few years moored near to Wigan.

This was taken on Saturday 27th July 1991. At the time it was a welcome find, a nice pub that did good food. We probably did a bit of a pub crawl around the village once we'd eaten!

Our next visit wasn't until Sunday 24th August 2003 during a trip that had taken us to Leicester. Looking at our boating log tells me that we actually stopped at Little Haywood, but I have a feeling that there was no food available there on a Sunday so we took the short stroll to Great Haywood.

Surprisingly, the Clifford Arms was almost completely unchanged in the intervening 12 years.

Next visit was on the evening of Tuesday 6th June 2006 on one of our frequent trips taking in the Midlands north of Birmingham.

This time, the 'Bass' sign has gone, but apart from that it was unchanged.

The next time we were passing Great Haywood was on Tuesday 1st June 2010 on a repeat of the 2006 trip.

From this angle you can see that, in addition to the removal of the 'Bass' sign, the 'Clifford Arms' sign has been replaced with a smaller version.

Our most recent visit was last year on Monday 29th August 2011 on our way up to the Caldon Canal.

This was our first ever lunchtime visit to the Clifford Arms and, although it was a Bank Holiday, the service and food quality was as good as ever. No apparent changes in the year since our last visit. The Clifford Arms now has its own website.