Mug House, Claines

A difficult to find three-roomed pub hidden away behind the village churchyard, this part-timber-framed building dates back to 15th- or 16th century. It originally had a plain brick frontage, as the photos in the bar show, and in the 1980s it was replaced with one of false timber-framing with new brick infill. Parts of the interior have not changed much since the late 1930s. A quarry-tiled passage with earlier waist-height panelling has a glazed screen with intact sliding hatch for service and is the highlight of the pub.

The smoke room or main bar on the left has a counter reputedly constructed by an apprentice for Rackstraws Furniture Works of Worcester in the 1940s (the pub being popular with the employees of the firm). There is some old panelling and a 1930s brick fireplace, but the two outer walls have lost their panelling and replaced with plasterboard when the windows were renewed in the 1980s. The small snug on the right has a red-brick floor, but otherwise is a 1980s Tudor theme. The lounge at the rear served by a hatch, retains a brick fireplace and a baffle from the 1930s, but the seating looks more 1970s or 80s. The pub has outside toilets in a modern brick extension.

The name 'Mug House' applies to a number of riverside inns in Worcestershire (& South Shropshire) - they flourished with river traffic carrying goods and people - the River Severn has many such pubs. Various explanations exist for the name - Worcestershire Historic Pubs says 'Crude earthenware beer mugs were much favoured by landlords along the river, probably for their low replacement cost if damaged or stolen by passing boatmen compared to expensive glass or pewter ones and the name stuck so a number of them adopted it as the pubs official name. In Britain the use of the word 'Pot' as in 'Pint Pot' harks back to the use of similar pottery mugs.'