Patten in the News - Claire sees potential in a Duffield pub

The Pattenmakers Arms at Duffield is a classic case of a pub at the heart of its community that could have disappeared.

Tucked away on Crown Street, invisible to potential passing trade, it was a turn-of-the-last-century pub which was in a sorry state a year ago. What it really needed was someone who could see its potential and was prepared to put in the hard work which might return it to former glories. Hopefully, it has found that person in Claire Muldoon, who took it over in November.

"It was a mess," says Claire, who has previously been at the Green Dragon, in Willington, and the Nag's Head, at Smalley. "It had been open and closed, not a light bulb in the place worked and you couldn't see out of the windows. "It had been let go but I saw something. I loved it. I saw a traditional, old-fashioned pub. "It needed an awful lot of work and it still needs a lot of work but we can't do everything at once."

I think what Claire, husband Scott and various friends have done so far is pretty good.

The Pattenmakers has an island bar with no separate rooms but with distinctly separate areas. There is mosaic flooring, some old parquette wooden flooring in what was the smoke room, where there are also plenty of pictures of old Duffield, and the whole place has a welcoming feel to it. Books line one side and the locals swap them as a sort of impromptu library. Upstairs are living quarters and a function room with a bar and a stage. Those are the parts of the project which still need plenty of work but the potential is huge and Claire, who couldn't possibly live on the premises as yet, intends to realise it.

The beer's good, too.

Bass comes from the cellar in a jug, Pedigree and Taylor's Landlord are staples but Claire has also signed up for the SIBA (Society of Independent Brewers) direct delivery scheme. That means there will usually be at least one independent beer available and I thoroughly enjoyed a pint of Newton's Drop, a hoppy 4.1% beer from Grantham brewery Oldershaw's.

"If this place closed, people would be up in arms about it," says Claire. "But we need those people to come in if we're going to make it work."

Hopefully, slowly but surely, they will come.