Historic pub with a riverside view, excellent beer and a warm Shropshire welcome to all

There are a lot of modern pubs which have history and have struggled to keep that historical feeling due to customer or brewery demands or just because of a simple need to modernise.

However, there are pubs which have been able to do a few necessary changes to fit in with the 21st century, but also keep the historic aesthetic that made them such a popular place to go to previously.

Set deep in the west Shropshire countryside just south of the village of Edgerley, the Royal Hill Inn is a pub with history, having been opened in 1887 as a pub, but having stood on the site, overlooking the River Severn, since 1777.

Originally a single room inn, the Royal Hill Inn, which is owned by the Bewley Family, has been gradually developed and expanded to offer drinks and dining.

It started out with an unspoilt servery, snug and an old fashioned parlour and while the servery and snug remain, it has been extended into the adjoining outbuildings and an extension added. 

A passage from the front door leads to the two oldest rooms, a small tap room created by two high-backed settles with a gap between them on the passage side and the tiny rear servery with a Victorian counter. 

The lounge on the left and room on the right are post-war converts from private accommodation, while the former has lost its 'front room' style with the introduction of modern furniture. 

Another change, in the bar, has seen a short passage created to access the right-hand room and two further rooms to the left of the lounge were sculpted out of a former stables. 

It is currently managed by Kelly Jones, who became landlady five years ago and has had a long association with the pub, having grown up about a mile down the road.

She said: "I started working there as a washer upper when I was 13-years-old and I've worked my way up the ranks over the last 18 years to where I am now.

"It's a great pub with great character and as I'm very local, it feels like my home away from home as even when I went away to do a chef course, I could come back and find it had the same character.

"The heart of the pub is the pub itself and it's not just my story, it's the character of the pub, its fireplaces and beams and how we are on the banks of the Severn and we have a nice little river terrace that you can sit on and look at the river from."

Ms Jones said the pub was a freehold, which meant they had a lot more freedom in terms of what they could serve, particularly for the real ale crowd.

She said: "Real ale is our speciality and we like to keep it local because I think they're a lot better, so we always have Wye Valley, Salopian and Three Tuns from Bishops Castle on tap.

"The regulars love Three Tuns as it sells fantastically well and we just have a great relationship with the brewery, so everyone loves that one and being born in this area, I think I just got used to the local ales.

"We also put on Inch's and Thatchers cider and, because of being in farming country, all the farmers love a Guinness, as well as single malt Scotch whiskies."

The Royal Hill Inn is also well known for its food, with a popular carvery each Sunday and Ms Jones said they could have up to 150 covers every weekend for the carvery.

Ms Jones said the pub was a place she had grown up at and gained a lot of life lessons from.

She said: "It's where I've grown up and it means a lot to me because I've seen a lot of the local characters who have come through this pub and I've learned a lot of life experiences.

"It feels like home and it's been my school, college and home all in one and it's just been a place where I've learned so much in my life."