How do I do justice to this wonderful old pub in the space allowed? I remember going into it in the mid-1960s (I was very young!) and ordering a pint of Greenalls best.

The landlord would then leave the small bar and go through a trapdoor in the floor to pull a pint from the barrel in the cellar.

It is in the tiny village of Bartington but the address is Little Leigh, and it was originally a working farm with a licence dating from the 1600s.

The pub was famously managed by the Cowap family from at least 1777 to 1990.

In the 1800s it was called the Bartington Bowling Green later becoming the Bowling Green until 1960 when it became The Holly Bush.

The bowling green itself was situated on the other side of the lane at the side of the pub.

From 1959 to 1990 the licensee was Albert Cowap Jnr having taken over from Albert Cowap Snr.

In 1990 Albert was due to retire and Greenalls, the owners since 1918, decided to close it as licensed premises. There was an uproar from far and wide.

This pub was unique in the country and was Cheshire’s last farmhouse pub!

The planning committee took note and refused Greenalls application since then the pub has gone from strength to strength under private ownership.

What was once a working farm with a small tap room is now a prestigious pub restaurant and exclusive hotel into which the ancient barns have been integrated.

It is a grade II listed building, and accordingly, all alterations have been sympathetic to its antiquity.

The original building is as it was centuries ago with its thatched roof.

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This originality is carried inside to the small tap room, and it is still the same as it was when I sat in it all those years ago and beyond, the old furniture and the precious patina of many years.

The little bar also boasts an open fire and domino tables; it is truly one of the last old-time tap-rooms to be found anywhere.

Beyond that is a modern restaurant.