St Kew Inn, St Kew

The sizeable Delabole slate floored bar with its large open range fireplace, has old settles, hooks in the ceiling which used to hold cuts of meat in muslin cloths to cure, and wooden barrels behind the bar is an idyllic expectation of a unspoilt Cornish pub, but they are almost non-existent. Even this splendid bar has not always been exactly like this. The counter is not that old (possibly 30 years old?), most of the bar back shelves are modern and up to 1980s the stillage behind the bar was on the right hand side and covering what is now a new entrance to the servery. The old door which would have led to the outside toilets is now covered up by a settle.

The lounge on the left was formed in 1971 from a former store and has an old stone fireplace, Delabole slate floor (now covered by carpet) and the counter was replaced in 2007. The rooms on the far left was brought into use in recent years as a dining room. The one on the far right with a slate floor was a dining room in the past when the pub had paying guests and latterly a pool room. St Kew Inn is the last pub in Cornwall to sell 'beer from the wood' with two of the St Austell beers served direct from casks behind the bar.

In 1992 the inn and the church were used in the BBC film 'Death at the Bar' when its name was changed to 'Plume of Feathers'. (Some info from 'The Parish of St. Kew, North Cornwall by James Godden 2000 ISBN 0-9530425-1-0).