Hope for the future of the Royal Oak

The Royal Oak is at the heart of the village and its community in Ockbrook.

Retired though I am, I’ve recently penned a few words for the Derby Telegraph to use as they wish about one of my all-time favourite pubs, the Royal Oak at Ockbrook, as the longstanding owners still seek to sell it and take a well-earned retirement. First, here’s what I’ve sent the paper (and website). Then I’ll add a few personal thoughts…

The price of the historic Royal Oak pub at Ockbrook has been reduced as the longstanding owners continue to look to take retirement from the trade.

It was in September, 2024 when owners Sally Parrott and Steve and Jean Hornbuckle first confirmed that they were looking to end their family’s exceptional 70-plus years of ownership. Sally and Jean inherited the pub from their parents Lew and Olive Wilson.

A year later, with only a small amount of interest from potential buyers, the handling of the sale was passed to a local estate agent, Alistair Ruddle, of Borrowash-based Everington & Ruddle. Mr Ruddle is himself a regular customer and a member of a local drama group which rehearses and performs there.

Interest has since increased and has now increased a little more with the price for the property reduced to £950,000. The owners remain determined to sell only to someone who would want to ensure the Royal Oak remains a pub at the heart of its village community.

When the pub first went on the market, Sally said: “We don’t want people to think we will be leaving tomorrow, or next week. It’s taken us a long while to think this through and of course it will be a wrench for us. I was born here and running a pub is your life. It never stops.

“We love the pub and we’re sure it has a lot of potential still but perhaps it’s time for fresh eyes and ideas. We want to make sure we sell it to someone who will really care for it.”

Certainly, to people who appreciate pubs, the Royal Oak, which dates back to 1762, is extremely special. It has a multi-roomed set up, with an old-fashioned taproom, snug, dining room and function room, all accessed from a central bar.

The pub’s reputation for beer choice and quality spreads well beyond Derbyshire – it was one of only a handful of pubs that had been in the annual Good Beer Guide for more than 40 unbroken years and has been a regular winner of the Derby branch of Camra’s “out of town” pub of the year award. It was omitted from the Good Beer Guide last year only on the grounds that Derby Camra believed it would imminently change hands, which has of course yet to happen.

Alistair Ruddle feels the sale is personal for him: “Usually, if an estate agent is selling a pub, they wouldn’t mind who they sell it to and what its future would be, as long as they could sell it. But, for me, handling the sale is a privilege and I was keen to get it on our books,” he said.

“When it was first advertised, it was almost under wraps. It needs to be out there and, apart from getting it on Rightmove, I’ve been sharing it on social media. I think it’s important that we don’t just say ‘here’s a pub for sale’ but talk about the huge part it plays in the village and all the events that revolve around it.”

Meanwhile it remains business as usual at the pub, which hosts a wide range of visiting groups and societies in the function room, car club gatherings in the car park and musical events as well as serving food every day.

The estate agents’ details of the sale can be seen here: rightmove.co.uk/properties/167146760#/?channel=COM_BUY

And what it means to me…

Growing up in Borrowash, I spent many evenings strolling up to Ockbrook, usually to the Royal Oak. Old school pals went there but I would probably have settled on it as the best pub in the village anyway. We are talking 48 years ago. Sally and Jean were behind the bar then and they still are. That is very rare and rather special.

Of course they are ready to retire and of course they do not want the Oak to be anything other than a pub. There are very few like it, with rooms off a central bar, the snug serviced by a small hatch from said bar; the taproom, still with a dartboard, above which is a plaque commemorating the life of my late oldest school pal, Julian Hough.

The dining room is beyond the bar and the food is good, reliable pub fare, served cheerily and inexpensive. The function room, also off the bar, is a gem and can be turned to many uses. It has become well-known in local music circles for a stunning annual psychedelic music festival but is equally at home with a beer festival or the local am dram group.

Outside, the large car park can host steam rallies, classic cars, summer fairs etc and the garden is in two parts, a quiet area and one with children’s play facilities. Honestly, there is nothing quite like the Oak.

The Campaign for Real Ale, in my view, made a monumental error in deleting the pub from the current national Good Beer Guide, based – they say – on the assumption that it would change hands. Camra leave a pub out until new licensees are established. Fair enough. But I had never previously heard of them doing so based only on the presumption that a change would happen and that doing so broke a 40-years plus unbroken run in the Guide only twisted the knife.

But what’s done is done. I think we can all understand why selling the pub is proving tricky. It’s a tough climate for the hospitality industry and this time of the year is tough anyway. And then… how do you realistically value it? The building, which has living accommodation upstairs, is extensive and so is the plot it sits on, prominently, in a historic village. It’s not as if you can compare it to a similar nearby property. Then, how do you value the goodwill the owners will leave behind, the reputation for good beer?

Sally is right when she says the pub, historic as it is, still has plenty of potential for the right pairs of fresh eyes. The industry may be struggling but the best pubs – and best-run pubs – will come through. We have to believe that and we have to hope and believe that the Royal Oak will be among them.