Unique country pub that fulfils many roles proved a cool refuge in a very hot week

It was with a little trepidation that my wife Pamela and I set out to meet friends for lunch this week – not because we didn’t want to see them but because it was just so hot that to have a hot dinner seemed like an uncomfortable prospect.

Happily, we need not have worried. We’d booked at the Coopers Arms at Weston on Trent, a longstanding favourite, and the main bar and restaurant sit below ground level in the former Weston Hall, a17th century manor house. It was suitably cool and comfortable down there in the restaurant, perhaps the coolest place we could have picked at the time.

The Coopers Arms is housed in Weston Hall, a 17th-century mansion.

The Coopers is in my top half-dozen favourite places to eat and drink, not least because the Draught Bass is always perfectly kept. As it happens, two of the others are not far away and also serve great Bass – the Malt at Aston and the Harrington at Thulston. Perhaps I am a creature of habit.

As a pub/restaurant, it is one of few for which the word “unique” is genuinely justified. How it came to be what it is today is a story that’s been told a few times – by me most recently in 2022 – but it’s a good one, so here it is again.

Partly, it involves a series of happy accidents but there is a fascinating history to a building begun, it is thought, in 1642 by Anthony Roper. Big and imposing as it is, it’s also unfinished. Roper envisaged more than he completed, interrupted by the Civil War and by running out of money.

Later, owned by Robert Holden of Shardlow, it was expensive to run not least because a hearth or chimney tax was imposed and Weston Hall had seven. Annoying taxes are nothing new!

Coming closer to modern times, an escaped German prisoner of war in the First World War is said to have hidden in one of the chimneys for a couple of days before completing his escape.

The Cooper family owned the house and land from 1942 and it was used for farming but the house fell into some disrepair, although they lived in it. And then came a stroke of luck or an inspired piece of business, see it as you wish.

Owner Tom Cooper, who also had a plant hire business, realised the land sat on a lot of gravel. He excavated it to create the fishing lake that is there today – and sold 250,000 tons of gravel to the company building the M42 not far away.

The money enabled him to renovate the hall and convert it in into a pub and restaurant – it opened as such in 1991. Tom did that because he felt there were not enough good pubs near him.

So, the Coopers Arms is actually named after the family, rather than a brewery cooper, as most pubs bearing the name would be. Tom died in 2002 and the Coopers has been run since by his children, James and Amy, both still very much hands-on in the business.

Amy and James Cooper pictured by the huge fireplace in the Coopers Arms bar. I took this one in 2022.

The personal touch shows in the detail. I love the fact that the Coopers comfortably covers a wide variety of roles.

You like a carvery meal, with help yourself veg? The Coopers carvery is one of the best in the area. For those seeking gluten-free options, all but the stuffing, Yorkshire puds and cheesy leeks fit the bill.

You prefer a wide-ranging al la carte menu? They have one. A bar snack? Pick from the sides on the menu.

A function? There’s a separate function room upstairs and the garden is great for wedding pictures. The first floor conservatory is an ideal space for a family gathering – although that area really would have been hot this week.

Best of all, for me, is that if you just want to drop in for a drink in your scruffs in the middle of a walk, then you’re catered for and no-one looks at you as if they think you should be having a meal as well. In that sense, the Coopers remains a proper country pub and is the only one Weston on Trent still has.

I think it’s an absolute gem and it was great to see when they won the “best out of town pub” category at last year’s Marketing Derby Food & Drink awards.

• As usual, thanks for reading. If you click the word BLOG at the top, you get a page showing you all the articles I’ve done since starting this with a visit to The Crispin at Great Longstone in February (www.colstoncrawford.com/post/test-here). I was back last week, it’s as good as ever As it happens, the two most “successful” articles in terms of readership have been about two Burton pubs 50 yards apart. Perhaps I should write more about Burton! I won’t be spending any money trying to build an audience, this is something that keeps my hand in after retiring, but for those of you who do read… I’m very grateful for your continued support. Cheers.