Nellies, Beverley: The historic Yorkshire pub which is Beverley's most beloved boozer

It wasn’t a conscious decision, I’d just not had reason to visit and fate had guided my feet elsewhere. For a citizen of East Yorkshire, though, not popping in Nellies once in a while is definite sacrilege.

Obviously, the pub itself doesn’t care.

The White Horse Inn (to use the correct moniker) has been there so long no-one is entirely sure how long it’s been there and it will be there long after all of us return to dust.

The reason I care, though, is that we all need touchstones against which to measure our own lives and, for anyone who cares about pubs, Nellies is the touchiest touchstone in the Riding.

So I returned to Nellies to find it, of course, exactly as it was the last time I was there.

Some of it hasn’t changed in centuries, some of it is like Trigger’s broom and has been replaced identically many times over and some – like the actual air in the rooms or the ‘owld’ men sat chuntering in the bar – must change, occasionally, but I’ll be jiggered if I can tell any difference.

And change it mustn’t. In the forty-odd years I’ve been visiting, all alterations have been for the bad.

There used to be live music, there used to be hot food, there was never – as there now is – signs informing people how to behave or interact.

These relatively recent diminutions are distinctly unwelcome.

​To impose on Nellies rules and strictures that reduce comfort, remove culture, limit sustenance and confine social engagement is antithetical to pubs and pub dwellers.

The ancient walls of Nellies will outstand the current custodians and hopefully one day music and food and free expression will return and the pub will remain exactly the same as it ever was, only better.

Welcome 5/5

Atmosphere 5/5

Drinks choice 3/5

Prices 5/5

Nellies, 22 Hengate, Beverley, HU17 8BN. www.nellies.co.uk