1930s Yorkshire pub that was saved from decline by local brewery wins national conservation award

The Coach and Horses in Barnburgh, near Doncaster, is an unusual 1930s survivor despite its name harking back to the age of the stagecoach.

It has now been given the Historic England Conservation Award at CAMRA's Pub Design Awards.

The Historic England Conservation Award recognises projects which successfully combine the retention and conservation of the architectural features which give a pub its historic significance, with the careful introduction of changes which will ensure it survives to serve future generations of customers.

The Coach and Horses was built in 1937 for local brewers Whitworth, Son & Nephew. After years of decline it finally closed, apparently for good, before being purchased in 2020 by the current owners the Don Valley Brewery. They have carefully restored the historic features of the pub, including the set of sliding sash screens on the bar which have Whitworth’s ‘sheaf’ trademark in stained glass.  

CAMRA said: "Modern plywood fronts masking original bar counters and lino covering the original floors have been removed to reveal them. Alterations to update the pub’s facilities, such as the conversion of the redundant off-licence to a kitchenette, have been carried out with great care. The result is a pub which, again, has been given a new lease of life, and is back at the centre of village life."

Don Valley Brewery's Ben Jones added: “For 1930s planning to survive so completely in a pub of this type and size is exceptional indeed and makes it a true national rarity. As an 'improved' pub of its time, it was designed to look respectable and to offer varied facilities – a commodious 'best' smoke room with bellpushes, a ‘refreshment room’; an entirely separate public bar; and the notably northern feature of a stand-up lobby. It has been a real privilege to bring this unique part of our British heritage back to life for future generations to come.”