This website is currently in beta. If you wish to go back to the current site please click here. To provide feedback or find out more about this site, please click here.

Pubs & Clubs
Events
Beers & Breweries
Pubs & Clubs
Events
Beers & Breweries
Join Us
Heritage Pub

Butt & Oyster, Pin Mill

Operator: Deben Inns
Pin Mill Rd, Pin Mill, IP9 1JW (View on Google Map)
Improve This Listing

A traditional pub in a tiny hamlet on the bank of River Orwell, with three separate rooms and a connecting corridor with flag-stoned floors (in part). This famous pub retains some high backed settles and a large open fire in main bar area making it very cosy on cold winter days. The pub has a toilet for disabled customers.

It was first recorded as public house in 1553, though it may be older. (The Listed Buildings Register says the building's 17th century so presumably there was an earlier building?)

Often very busy in Summer and at weekends, it has long been renowned for a traditional food menu with a number of fish dishes.

The pub has featured in films and once in TV's Lovejoy (as 'The Three Ducks'!)

Information for this venue is provided by the Ipswich & East Suffolk Branch of CAMRA
Previous Names
Local Authority
Babergh District
Last updated
09/03/2024
Last surveyed
09/03/2024
Pub ID
SUF/811
Asset of Community Value

Two star - A pub interior of very special national historic interest

Listed status: II

The pub occupies a 17th-century building which was enlarged both in the 19th century and again in 1932. The public bar, overlooking the water and with its red floor tiles and high-backed settles is especially attractive, containing some 17th-century fielded panelling and an early 20th-century brick fireplace. The counter was moved back some 18 inches in 1988: it is hard to date but may be of inter-war vintage, along with the shelves at the back. Also enjoying fine views across the river is the dining room, doubled in size in 1932 but with a section of raised floor from 1997, when the panelling and seating in this area were renewed. Across the quarry-tiled corridor, which runs through the building is a small smoke room: over the brick fireplace is a 17th-century carved panel with naively treated figures and contemporary ornamentation. Casks are stillaged within the servery.

General information about historic pub interiors

Beautifully situated beside the Orwell estuary, the pub occupies a seventeenth-century building, extended in the nineteenth century plus two flat-roof extensions - the front one now part of the dining room was added in 1932; the rear one with the toilets is post-war. Featured in films and TV's Lovejoy (as 'The Three Ducks'!) this is a popular pub - at busy times use the pay & display car park half way up the hill. Its little-altered interior is as a result of being run by the Watts family from 1933 to 1988.

The red-tiled public bar with its two high-backed settles is especially attractive and has great views of the river from its bay window. It contains some seventeenth-century fielded panelling and an early twentieth-century brick and tile fireplace; some panelling looks as though it may date from the 1930s. The bar counter is hard to date; the stillage is still in use for cask beers (but nowadays for show with the actual casks in the cellar and beer dispensed via pipes through the tap), and the lower bar back shelves are also of some vintage. The only changes in the last 70-odd years have been the moving back of the bar counter some 18 inches in 1988 - careful inspection of the dado panelling and wear on the quarry tiled floor confirm this; and replacement of some of the upper shelving.

Also overlooking the river is the dining room, originally the second small pub room, which is double its original size due to the 1932 extension. It has another early twentieth-century fireplace and old fixed seating around the bay window in the front section but in 1997 a raised wood floor was added in the extension end and dado panelling and seating around the bay window is much more modern that in the first half of the room. Across a quarry-tiled corridor running through the pub is a small smoke room with a door and the figure '3' on it, bare wood floor, and over the brick fireplace is what the listing description describes as "C17 carved panel with naively treated figures to sides and varied ornamentation".

General information about historic pub interiors
Seen some incorrect or missing details? let us know.
Opening
Food
Monday
11:00am - 10:00pm
10:00am - 9:00pm
Tuesday
Noon - 9:00pm
10:00am - 9:00pm
Wednesday
10:00am - 10:00pm
10:00am - 9:00pm
Thursday
9:00am - 10:00pm
10:00am - 9:00pm
Friday
11:00am - 11:00pm
10:00am - 9:00pm
Saturday
11:00am - 11:00pm
9:00am - 9:00pm
Sunday
9:00am - 10:30pm
9:00am - 9:00pm
Spotted an error with the opening times? Let us know

Current beers

Regular and recently seen

Butt & Oyster, Pin Mill

Add it to our list and share what's currently being served!.
Are you a CAMRA member? Contribute by submitting a beer score
Spot a Beer
Submit beer score
Do you know what Regular beers or changing beers this Pub serves? Let us know
Your scores
Join CAMRA to access beer scoring and view scores for other pubs.
Become a member.
Retrieving scores
You have no beer scores submitted.

Facilities
Lunchtime Meals Lunchtime Meals
Evening Meals Evening Meals
Garden Garden
Family Friendly Family Friendly
Disabled Access Disabled Access
Parking Parking
Dog Friendly Dog Friendly
Games Games
Real Fire Real Fire
Restaurant Restaurant
Separate Bar Separate Bar
Wi Fi Wi Fi
Free access
Features
Real Ale Real Ale
Real Heritage Pub Real Heritage Pub
Quiet Quiet
Transport
Close to bus routes
97 (from main road), 202 (from main road)
Are these pub facilities or features correct? Let us know

Nearby

View All
(External). Published on 16-04-2015
Red Lion
Pub
0.5 miles - Main Rd [B1456], Chelmondiston, IP9 1DX
(External, Garden). Published on 29-04-2015
Monimar
Real Ale Available
Other Drinking Establishment
1.1 miles - Cat House Lane, Woolverstone, IP9 1AS
(Pub). Published on 26-06-2016
Ship
Real Ale Available
Pub
1.9 miles - Church Ln, Levington, IP10 0LQ
Holiday Inn Ipswich Orwell
Hotel
2.1 miles - The Havens, Ransomes Europark, Ipswich, IP3 9SJ
Swallow
Real Ale Available
Pub
2.1 miles - 3 Augusta Close, Ipswich, IP3 9SS
(Pub, External, Key). Published on 23-03-2019
Boot
Real Ale Available | Real Cider Available
Pub
2.2 miles - Freston Hill (B1456), Freston, IP9 1AB
Miller & Carter Steakhouse
Real Ale Available
Restaurant
2.3 miles - Felixstowe Rd, Foxhall, IP10 0DF
Raven
Real Ale Available
Pub
2.4 miles - 24 Hening Av, Ipswich, IP3 9QJ
Thrasher
Real Ale Available
Pub
2.4 miles - Nacton Rd, Ipswich, IP3 9RZ
Swan, Holbrook. (Pub). Published on 24-08-2014
Swan
Real Ale Available
Pub
2.5 miles - The St (off main Rd), Holbrook, IP9 2PZ
Home
© Campaign for Real Ale 2023 - 2024