OADBY.

Attached to the farm, this pub usually has plenty of day visitors but is quite quiet at night. Housed in a converted barn with toilets resembling a milking shed it is a long thin pub. The floor is uneven in places and slopes and still has the original barn stone flagged floor. The decor is very bric-a-brac with old breweriana on the walls including mirrors and posters and signage. There are many rooms to explore and each has its own items of interest. In the inside back room there are old tills and what can only be termed fruit machines. All not working of course, but still adding to the atmosphere. The other rooms have pictures of old Leicestershire pubs hanging on them, along side objects you would find on a working farm - a real treasure trove. The seating in all rooms is at long or round wooden tables with a mixture of chairs and benches. All the tables look as if they have been used for farm purposes before finding their way into the pub. High ceilings in places helps. There are two bars, a small bar serves the largest long room and here only a few hand pumps adorn the bar. The real bar is in the back room. A traditional flat wooden bar with no overhang and resembling a shop counter, serves all the real ales, two from the Steaming Billy Range and a number of guest ales. All are served well with or without the sparkler and taste good. They also serve fruit wines and have the full range. Food is not served here, unless you consider crisps to be so. Access for the disabled is possible and there is a no smoking room. The opening hours seem short, but are regularly extended, so phone to check first before making a journey. The web site says "Steamin' Billy was originally the name of the house beer brewed for the Cow and Plough, Oadby, Leicester, named after the owners Jack Russell dog. Steamin' Billy beers are brewed on licence by Grainstore Brewery, Oakham, with the Mild specially brewed at Belvoir Old Dalby. The Cow and Plough is one of the UK's few farm pubs, created 10 years ago at Farmworld, a working farm situated in the pleasant green surroundings of Oadby, Leicestershire." The Cow has now built a kitchen and serves food. Also the opening hours have been extended to accommodate it. They won the 2005 "Best Regional Freehouse" award.