The Pub That Time Forgot

Most of the pubs that I've visited this past fortnight on the North York Moors have offered good food.

For some it is just bar meals; but others also have seperate restaurants offering finer-dining.

Many pubs also have rooms to offer accommodation on a B+B basis.

A few even have attached holiday cottages in modernized barns or old stables.

One or two Inns even have camping sites attached to the pub.

And the really amazing ones now have their own micro-brewery's; creating real Ales for their own use; and to on-sell or export.

How amazing is that!

So it looks like the creation of multiple income-streams is the key to success for pubs these days.

And that fact makes my review today all the more amazing - since the Cleveland Inn in Commondale has none of these things going for it!

It is just a bar - selling beer - and crisps and pickled eggs.

The Cleveland Inn, Commondale

I don't really know where to start with regard to this amazing pub?

It seems that it is the pub that time forgot.  And that is a good thing!

Visiting the Cleveland Inn is Like Stepping Back 30-years in Time.

Located in Commondale - which itself is a seldom-visited village - the pub sits on a road that doesn't really go anywhere.

So it's at the disadvantage of not having a lot of passing traffic.

It doesn't offer food; it doesn't have accommodation; there is no wi-fi; there isn't even any real Ale.

But I like the Cleveland Inn - affectionately known to locals in these parts as "Hackey Toms" or the "Mucky Duck" because it is a real pub.

It's just a village pub; with a bar selling beer, crisps and pickled eggs.

Oh yes - you can also get a ham and cheese toasted sandwich.

If you want to show your children what pubs were like when you were growing up - take them to Hackey Toms.

Entering the pub makes it feel like Margaret Thatcher, Yuppies, and health and safety legislation never existed.

In fact, the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Sex Pistols, theme pubs, the Cold War, gastropubs, Glasnost, dreadful reality TV, and destination-restaurants might never have existed once you're sitting by the roaring fire in the Cleveland Inn.

And I like that. 

I think you'll like it too!

So drop in and say "hello" to Pat behind the bar.

Spend some money; and keep this worthy institution on the North York Moors running a few more years yet.

Then you'll still be able to take your Grand Kids to a "real pub" in twenty-years time and show them what pubs were like when you were growing up.

And that's got to be worth the price of a couple of pints today.

Getting to Commondale

The Cleveland Inn is located at the crossroads in the centre of Commondale - across from the War Memorial.

You can access the village on the Esk Valley Train Line from all stations from Middlesbrough to Whitby.

If coming by car, you'll take the A170 from Guisbrough to Whitby and turn off at Lockwood Beck for Castleton.

The Commndale turn-off is on top of the moor with a bus shelter next to it.  You can't miss it!