The Stone Jug in the aptly named Back Street, Clophill, has been a popular local for many years, earning 33 entries in CAMRA’s best-selling, annual Good Beer Guide since 1981. Although former owner and licensee Arthur Stevens is sadly no longer with us, his wife Joyce and daughter Vicky have fortunately continued the business, creating a widely admired community pub.

The pub is an attractive and historic building created from three 16th-century terraced stone cottages. It has an L-shaped bar and a small private room at the rear used for meetings and family accommodation. Benches outside the front door and in the rear patio garden provide a summer alternative. The bar offers B&T Shefford Bitter and several changing guest beers that often come from new local microbreweries. Real Westons cider is served direct from the cask. Home-cooked lunches are available from Tuesday to Saturday, but it is predominantly a real local pub with a warm welcome for visitors. 

Although the car park is small and the street narrow, buses stop a few minutes walk away, with connections to Bedford and Luton running well into the evening. Call 01525 860526 for further information on what is going on at the pub.

We have awarded a Town Pub of the Year 2014 title to the Burnaby Arms in Stanley Street, in that area of Bedford north of the town centre known by estate agents as “Prime Ministers”, but to most of us as “Black Tom”. For long a neglected corner local with no reputation for good beer, the Burnaby was finally refurbished by Charles Wells and began to thrive again under new landlords Lucie and Stephen Fuller.

The Burnaby received our Most Improved Pub award in 2013, but local CAMRA members decided it deserved something more. Four handpumps provide a choice of Wells & Young’s and guest beers and the quality is excellent, regularly attracting new customers from elsewhere in town. Although it does not offer main meals, hot, home-made pies are available throughout the day. For further information call 01234 330056 or visit:-