It's the home-cooked carvery and cask ales that make a canalside pub in Derbyshire so popular with Nottinghamshire Live readers. The Great Northern is only just over the border in Langley Mill and the licensees Kath and Ian Magill said because of the NG postcode, a lot of customers assume they're in Notts.
The pub, which was built in 1875 and will celebrate its 150th anniversary in two years' time, prides itself on being a traditional watering hole with classic decor, a beamed ceiling and a pool table. Sitting just off the junction from the busy A610 between Ripley from Nottingham, it attracts a wide range of customers.
Dog walkers, boaters, people out for a stroll along the canal and locals pop in for a pint or a bite to eat - either the carvery on Wednesday evenings and Sundays or the main menu of steak, burgers, chicken tikka masala, fish and chips, baguettes and jacket potatoes.
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Kath, who is in the kitchen, while Ian serves behind the bar, said: "Let's not blow our own trumpet but the food is good and it's really good value for money. Our prices haven't gone up once. It's booking only on a Sunday, it just gets so busy.
"It's always been a nice pub and the carvery has always been known. We have always liked it. It's a proper little hotspot out there in the summer. It's nice sitting there and watching the world go by, having a meal and a drink."
The pub takes its name from the Great Northern Basin, where three canals meet: the Erewash, Cromford and Nottingham. The beer garden overlooks an array of colourful narrow boats moored nearby. It's likely that the boaters are in the pub as it becomes their second home.
It's two years since the couple, married for nearly 42 years, took over the Great Northern, but they have more than a decade's experience of the industry, having been licensees previously at the Malt Shovel in Beeston, the Hayloft in Giltbrook and the Old Wine Vaults in Eastwood.
Ian is a dab hand at pulling pints - currently Castle Rock's Elsie Mo, Blue Monkey's BG Sips and Primate bitter and Dancing Duck's Dark Drake. The former British Airways worker, who quit after 21 years and moved into the pub industry, said: "We like to use local breweries rather than the big nationals because everybody knows their beers. We're trying to get the local ones out there as well."
Its quiet and convenient sitting on the border as the pub has the best of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire to choose from when it comes to choosing LocAles, in support of CAMRA's initiative to reduce the number of beer miles from brewery to pub cellar.
Food isn't served Monday and Tuesday but kicks off Wednesday evening with the carvery, with a choice of meat, roast spuds, mash and vegetables. Thursday is steak night with a special deal of £26.99 for two rump steaks and a bottle of house wine.
"We might be doing fish Friday and a burger deal on Saturdays," said Kath, who added it's the people that makes the Great Northern what is is. "We've got some nice people coming in," she said.
Ian said: "There's plenty on as well. There's a general knowledge quiz on Wednesdays which is well attended. Thursday is pool night, plus we have a motorcycle club that meets here and the Nowmads, an am dram club, who come in for a couple of drinks after their rehearsal so on a Thursday night this place is quite packed. On Fridays we have karaoke so we put stuff on to attract people."
Pictures of narrow boats on the pub walls celebrate its proximity to the canals, while others chart the history of the Pentrich Revolution in 1817, when hundreds of disillusioned miners, farmers, framework knitters and ironworkers set out from South Wingfield to march to Nottingham, armed with pikes, scythes and guns.
Their demands included wiping out the National Debt but unfortunately, a government spy amongst them quashed the uprising soon after it began. Three men were hanged and beheaded and 14 were transported to Australia.
Members of the Pentrich and South Wingfield Revolution Group, dedicated to commemorating the rising, meet in pubs in the area, including the Great Northern every year. The names of the persecuted workers are listed on the wall, amongst them ing Jeremiah Brandreth, Isaac Ludlam and John and Thomas Bacon.
Ian said: "You get people come in and say they're related to them, it's their great great grandfather, and they come in specifically because of the revolution."
The couple are thrilled that they've come out a favourite with Nottinghamshire Live readers despite so much tough competition from pubs actually in the county. Jake Green, business development manager of owners, the Pub People Company, said: "At the end of the day we're really happy that the customers have chosen the pub and support the pub. It shows it is a well-thought-of pub in the area."
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