Gainsborough – Elm Cottage

I meandered to this pub near to the football ground as it’s listed in the Good Beer Guide, and is a former CAMRA branch pub of the year. Unfortunately, I suspect that this will be their last year in the Good Beer Guide as they’ve abandoned real ale entirely and the venue appears to be under new management. The last real ale checked in on Untappd was in November 2023, so it seems to have disappeared some time ago.

It might be cheaper to rent one….

The team member said that she wasn’t sure how to pour a Guinness, but it’s all theatre anyway in my rather irrelevant opinion. Priced at £5 which is reasonable, it tasted as expected.

The listed building record notes about this venue:

“The Elm Cottage public house is located at the junction of Chruch Street and Morton Terrace in Gainsborough. It has a long history as an inn. It originally had a thatched roof and whitewashed walls and probably started life as a mud and stud cottage in the eighteenth century. This was refronted with a mock Tudor half-timbered exterior covering in the 1930s. A granite horse water trough use to stand outside the pub, but this now sits in the grounds of Richmond House and it being used as a planter.”

The venue appears to be pivoting from real ale and traditional atmosphere into a vibrant events led pub which seems to focus on lager, which was by far the biggest seller when I was there. The service was friendly, the atmosphere relaxed, but it’s not really a pub that is aimed for me now.