The White Horse public house in Churton, some 20 minutes south of Chester and a few minutes north of Farndon and Holt has been closed since the pandemic, but has been the source of some heavy-duty activity over the last few months, thanks to the efforts of its new owner Gary Usher and his crowd-funding business model.

Mike Royden, whose massive and seriously impressive website about Farndon and its environs, Royden History, is one of the best of the region’s history resources, has added a history of the White Horse to his site, with terrific images and explanatory text, tracing not just the history of the building but its various incumbents too.  Buildings are far easier to trace than the people associated with them, and this really is a great piece of work using primary sources.  Marvellous detective work and a very good read.  Whether you are interested in Churton’s history or just the White Horse itself, Mike’s history of the White Horse can be found at the following page:

http://www.roydenhistory.co.uk/farndon/buildings/pubs/whitehorse_churton/whitehorse_churton.htm

It was a real eye-opener to see the 1895 photo of the pub’s thatched predecessor, as well as the completely bizarre photograph of the Red Lion, a former Churton pub, in one of its previous incarnations.  Thank you Mike!

I took the pics below in February 2022, when the future of the White Horse was very much up in the air.  It is great to see it all looking so trim and tidy.

The latest chapter in the pub’s history begins when it opens on 3rd March 2023, and I am very much looking forward to taking it for a test drive.  Here’s a copy of their sample menu (also snaffled, with sincere thanks, from Mike’s page above).

Now where’s the wine list? 🙂

For more details about the White Horse and the plans for its future, the website is at https://thewhitehorsechurton.co.uk/ and their Twitter account is at https://twitter.com/TheWhiteHorsePu (not a typo – there is no “b” at the end of Pu).