It has been a little while since i've last been on the forums. I'm still out there exploring but now it's simply been a case of waiting until said location is no longer explorable before it's posted publicly. That way I can share it's full history & could keep things interesting.
So here we have an old closed down pub. The Greyhound of Flempton, Suffolk. My first outing after the first lockdown, I decided to cycle through some old familiar territory in West Suffolk & check on a few spots I remembered finding. I was pleased but also a little sad to find this place now open for documenting, after keeping an eye on it in it's derelict state for a few years.
This is a pub I actually visited with my dad back in the summer of 2015 when it was still open as we were visiting a few byways in the woods nearby, and I wanted to photograph a few derelict spots there, this was back in the early days. The pub sadly closed almost a year afterwards. In my original visit it was quite well used, had 6 - 8 customers in the pub at the time of visit, all older people, it had a lovely atmosphere even if it was quite 1960s inside. It's a shame that this also ends up being a place to document before it's gone forever a couple of years later.
History: Most of the recent information + landlords is on Suffolk Camra: Flempton Greyhound || The Suffolk Pubs Guide
As I share each photo, I will try and explain what everything was and where it is including some fittings. Being an old Greene King house, it certainly has a few historic vibes left inside.
Former restaurant / Lounge bar.
1960s Bar in Lounge.
The rest of the original Lounge / Restaurant. Although bare & not greatly interesting, it's impressively intact from the 1960s / 80s.
Enterence: Dates in an extension from around 1960 - 1963. Here you can see the lovely early morning sun.
Gents WC: "Amor" New Duranite high level cistern made in-between 1960 - 1963. Typically branded as "Shires", but branded as "Amor" if sold by Frank Love Ltd of London.
The WC pan is modern, but still has the original bakelite seat left over.
Small Johnson Bros "Trent Ware" basin still survives as well in the Gents. However this is the only other sanitary fitting original to this extension.
Public bar: Typical decor used for refurbishments done by Greene King back in the late 1950s / early 1960s. Including the floor tile colour scheme.
A few examples can still be found in certain Greene King houses today.
Possibly? Vintage 1960 hand-pumps for real ale?
Fairly primitive kitchen.
Nice old 1960s Cellar sign on the door.
Side enterence, from the other side of the cellar, then into the games room. I remember playing pool in that room with my dad. Typical green & yellow colour scheme in Greene King pubs.
How it was on the explore: No pool table now, but in the early morning, the atmosphere feels very still, and it had a very distinctive musty scent all throughout.
Dart board.
View of the other side of the cellar. Hiding down the bottom right is another old cellar within this one.
Here is the cellar, no idea when it was last used, or how old this chair is. A very strange atmosphere as well in this pitch black room.
For some reason, this part of the corridor stunk of pipe smoke, nowhere else in the building smelt like that. Although I could have just been imagining it, specially with the image in my head of the pub 100 years ago at the time.
Upstairs bedrooms are not particularly interesting, typical empty rooms with little decay inside.
Small hidden roof-space at the top of the pub. One of the bar stools still survives up there. I certainly remember them in the bar on my visit.
Side photo of the pub. 1960 extension to the left, original part to the right.
Now for the most interesting part of this place, the unaltered outbuildings + abandoned cottage on the site. This is in a large outbuilding used solely by the pub. Perhaps the original kitchen?
Inside the main room of the cottage. I assume based on the upstairs layout & large number of bedrooms that this used to provide accommodation in the very early days, whilst the landlord would have lived in his own part of the building privately. Inside, it is very primitive, aka, beautifully unaltered.
Fireplace, used to heat the downstairs room & for cooking. Still retains the soot.
Stairs going up...
One of the upstairs bedrooms. Much smaller fireplace on the side, but probably would have been quite nice once it was lit in the winter nights.
Enterence to the cottage, plus on the right is an outside WC. Likely private?
1940s - 1950s W & J Lawley "Perfect" cast iron cistern. The Polythene pipe is 1960s, but on the right is an old capped off galvanized cast iron pipe fitting. Likely once fed by a CWS tank inside the outbuilding behind or the pub?
As these days I work on & document antique cisterns in my workshop. (Naturally ones in derps stay where they are) I had a look in the cistern to find also a 1960s replacement H.P part 1 float valve.
These had M.O.H Pattern Portsmouth float valves when new, and a change in water supply to CWS fed to mains fed would involve a change of float valve. M.O.H pattern valves were built to only handle the required water pressure.
The Perfect was discontinued in the mid 1950s and was replaced with a bakelite version similar to this called "Perfecta".
A back photo showing outside WC on the left, outbuildings / barn in the centre, and the main pub on the right, where the pool / games room once was.
As of early 2023, this pub is now being sadly fully redeveloped into becoming a house... Work is now well underway and this old inn housed full of history is now sadly no more.
Thanks for looking.
So here we have an old closed down pub. The Greyhound of Flempton, Suffolk. My first outing after the first lockdown, I decided to cycle through some old familiar territory in West Suffolk & check on a few spots I remembered finding. I was pleased but also a little sad to find this place now open for documenting, after keeping an eye on it in it's derelict state for a few years.
This is a pub I actually visited with my dad back in the summer of 2015 when it was still open as we were visiting a few byways in the woods nearby, and I wanted to photograph a few derelict spots there, this was back in the early days. The pub sadly closed almost a year afterwards. In my original visit it was quite well used, had 6 - 8 customers in the pub at the time of visit, all older people, it had a lovely atmosphere even if it was quite 1960s inside. It's a shame that this also ends up being a place to document before it's gone forever a couple of years later.
History: Most of the recent information + landlords is on Suffolk Camra: Flempton Greyhound || The Suffolk Pubs Guide
As I share each photo, I will try and explain what everything was and where it is including some fittings. Being an old Greene King house, it certainly has a few historic vibes left inside.
Former restaurant / Lounge bar.
1960s Bar in Lounge.
The rest of the original Lounge / Restaurant. Although bare & not greatly interesting, it's impressively intact from the 1960s / 80s.
Enterence: Dates in an extension from around 1960 - 1963. Here you can see the lovely early morning sun.
Gents WC: "Amor" New Duranite high level cistern made in-between 1960 - 1963. Typically branded as "Shires", but branded as "Amor" if sold by Frank Love Ltd of London.
The WC pan is modern, but still has the original bakelite seat left over.
Small Johnson Bros "Trent Ware" basin still survives as well in the Gents. However this is the only other sanitary fitting original to this extension.
Public bar: Typical decor used for refurbishments done by Greene King back in the late 1950s / early 1960s. Including the floor tile colour scheme.
A few examples can still be found in certain Greene King houses today.
Possibly? Vintage 1960 hand-pumps for real ale?
Fairly primitive kitchen.
Nice old 1960s Cellar sign on the door.
Side enterence, from the other side of the cellar, then into the games room. I remember playing pool in that room with my dad. Typical green & yellow colour scheme in Greene King pubs.
How it was on the explore: No pool table now, but in the early morning, the atmosphere feels very still, and it had a very distinctive musty scent all throughout.
Dart board.
View of the other side of the cellar. Hiding down the bottom right is another old cellar within this one.
Here is the cellar, no idea when it was last used, or how old this chair is. A very strange atmosphere as well in this pitch black room.
For some reason, this part of the corridor stunk of pipe smoke, nowhere else in the building smelt like that. Although I could have just been imagining it, specially with the image in my head of the pub 100 years ago at the time.
Upstairs bedrooms are not particularly interesting, typical empty rooms with little decay inside.
Small hidden roof-space at the top of the pub. One of the bar stools still survives up there. I certainly remember them in the bar on my visit.
Side photo of the pub. 1960 extension to the left, original part to the right.
Now for the most interesting part of this place, the unaltered outbuildings + abandoned cottage on the site. This is in a large outbuilding used solely by the pub. Perhaps the original kitchen?
Inside the main room of the cottage. I assume based on the upstairs layout & large number of bedrooms that this used to provide accommodation in the very early days, whilst the landlord would have lived in his own part of the building privately. Inside, it is very primitive, aka, beautifully unaltered.
Fireplace, used to heat the downstairs room & for cooking. Still retains the soot.
Stairs going up...
One of the upstairs bedrooms. Much smaller fireplace on the side, but probably would have been quite nice once it was lit in the winter nights.
Enterence to the cottage, plus on the right is an outside WC. Likely private?
1940s - 1950s W & J Lawley "Perfect" cast iron cistern. The Polythene pipe is 1960s, but on the right is an old capped off galvanized cast iron pipe fitting. Likely once fed by a CWS tank inside the outbuilding behind or the pub?
As these days I work on & document antique cisterns in my workshop. (Naturally ones in derps stay where they are) I had a look in the cistern to find also a 1960s replacement H.P part 1 float valve.
These had M.O.H Pattern Portsmouth float valves when new, and a change in water supply to CWS fed to mains fed would involve a change of float valve. M.O.H pattern valves were built to only handle the required water pressure.
The Perfect was discontinued in the mid 1950s and was replaced with a bakelite version similar to this called "Perfecta".
A back photo showing outside WC on the left, outbuildings / barn in the centre, and the main pub on the right, where the pool / games room once was.
As of early 2023, this pub is now being sadly fully redeveloped into becoming a house... Work is now well underway and this old inn housed full of history is now sadly no more.
Thanks for looking.
