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A beer only pub no food.
Situated on the Cresswell River this 250 year old, ivy-covered hostelry seems like a throwback to the Victorian age. The homely farm kitchen interior, where a roaring fire burns in the hearth, is a haven for locals and visitors alike. Accessible by boat from the Milford Haven estuary at high tide, the pub also lies on a series of interesting walking routes. This is a beer-only pub (no food served), but the landlord sometimes arranges riverside barbecues on Summer weekends. Pembrokeshire CAMRA Pub of the Year 2015 and 2024, and now the Cresselly Arms has been voted CAMRA Pub of the Year for the whole of Wales! Please check opening times before visiting in winter
Historic Interest
Pembrokeshire heritage pub. Grade II Listed. Cadw reference 15930.
Two star - A pub interior of very special national historic interest
Listed status: II
A fine, delightfully simple riverside pub which was in the same family hands from 1896 to 1981, hence the lack of change. The only significant one has been the cutting of an opening in the dividing wall to the former kitchen and pantry in about 1981 to expand the public bar and slightly extend the bar counter. The old part of the public bar is a delight with its quarry-tiled floor. open cast-iron fireplace, Victorian counter, and bar-back shelves held up by slender columns. Seating includes basic benches attached to a half-height panelled dado. To the rear right is a further room, which has been brought into public use in recent years.
Only the most minor of changes have been made to the unspoilt public bar of this out-of-the way pub. This fine creeper covered 18th-century house beside a tidal creek was remodelled and opened as a pub in the 1880s. Alice Davies ran it from 1961 until 1981 when she was in her 90s and the oldest licensee in the county. Maurice & Janet Cole took over in 1981 and looked after Alice Davies until she died aged 105. The Victorian public bar looks little different to when it was opened in 1880 with red and black quarry-tiled floor, open cast-iron fireplace, Victorian counter and bar back shelves held up by slender columns. Seating includes basic benches attached to a half-height panelled dado. The only change made by the Coles’ has been to cut a narrow opening in the dividing wall to the former kitchen and pantry in c.1981 to expand the public area and slightly extend the bar counter. The rear area also has a red and black quarry-tiled floor - a wood stove has recently replaced the old Aga cooker with tiled surround. Note the door with a number ‘3’ on it, which suggests it was a room used for storing alcohol (the numbering was a requirement of Customs and Excise for rooms for serving or storing alcohol). To the rear right is a further room, which has been brought into public use in recent years. It has an early 20th-century tiled and cast-iron fireplace and glass-fronted display cabinet. Gents’ accessed via passageway - the original outside gents' are still there!
This Pub serves 1 changing beer and 3 regular beers.
Cresselly Arms, Cresswell Quay
A Celebration Of Welsh Pub Heritage Real Heritage Pubs of Wales is a guide to a remarkable and varied collection of pubs with the best and most interesting interiors in the whole of Wales. It is CAMRA’s pioneering initiative to...