Nestled in the beautiful village of Slingsby, close to Castle Howard, is the popular and family run pub, The Grapes Inn.

Landlords Leigh and Catherine Spooner said their ethos has always been to establish The Grapes Inn as a quintessential country pub that serves food as they explain here.

“In the words of one of our guests ‘It’s a smart pub but ‘definitely’ a pub and doesn’t try to be a restaurant.

“Our focus isn’t on being the same as most chintzy bars, ye olde brass pubs or chain owned blandness. What we offer is different and we hope better than most. We suppose you either get us or you don’t!”

According to the pub’s deeds there has been a ‘brew house’ there since 1759. Luckily the pub was never owned by the local estate, Castle Howard, otherwise it would have been closed due to the Temperance Movement early last century.

The first Sunday of every month local musicians gather to play which is always a wonderful evening. It also hosts live music events throughout the year thanks to the amazing outside space. This includes the ‘Organ Bar’, marquee and beer garden all of which have evolved and been improved over the past couple of years.

A few years ago The Grapes opened its wood fired pizzeria serving traditional style Neapolitan pizzas which have proved to be popular alongside the bar menu at the weekend.

Over the years the Inn has raised thousands of pounds for local charities such as Ryedale Special Families and Yorkshire Air Ambulance. Most recently, it has been supporting the Ukrainian Appeal by sponsoring a family who escaped the war-torn country to move to York.

Leigh and Catherine added: “Obviously pubs are now in a difficult position as prices rise and customers fall, due to many factors out of our control, but hopefully we’ll remain solvent as we adapt to the ever-changing circumstances.

“The sadness we see is that Britain will not have many rural pubs soon as the true costs of running them become unviable. We suppose it’s the old adage ‘use it or lose it’.

“Hospitality is in our blood and nothing makes us happier than providing an environment for our customers, many who are like family now, to enjoy themselves. Just occasionally things go wrong and any negative feedback/comments break our hearts and temporarily make us lose the will to carry on!

“But we love, live and breathe this pub.”