Community and countryside
Kingstone
A small East Staffordshire village anchored by its community-owned pub, Victorian church and routes into the Blithe countryside.
- Best for
- A pub meal, village history and a countryside walk
- Give it
- A few hours, or longer with the reservoir route
- Don't miss
- The community-owned Shrewsbury Arms
The Fox verdict
A village whose pub tells the story
Kingstone rewards a deliberately paced visit built around community enterprise, local history and open countryside.
Start with the community-owned Shrewsbury Arms, then pair the village's Victorian church with parkland golf or the nine-mile Blithfield Reservoir route. Denstone Hall Farm Shop and Café supplies the independent food-shopping stop that Kingstone itself does not have.
Where to go
Places in Kingstone
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesThe Shrewsbury Arms
A community-owned free house rescued after a two-year closure, with a real fireplace, pub games, a beer garden, onsite cooking and local regular ales.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 90 minutes
- Locality
- Uttoxeter Road, Kingstone
- Access
- Dogs are allowed in the bar area; check the Official site before travel.
The Manor Golf Club
A family-run parkland course opened in 1991, extending 6,092 yards from the white tees across rolling East Staffordshire countryside.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 3 hours
- Locality
- Leese Hill, Kingstone
- Access
- Visitors are welcome; check the Official site before travel.
Denstone Hall Farm Shop & Café
A farm shop and café in neighbouring Denstone, identified as the nearest independent food-shopping stop to Kingstone.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 60 minutes
- Locality
- Denstone
Walks & outdoors
1 placeBlithfield Reservoir and River Blithe Walk
A nine-mile farmland and woodland route that crosses the River Blithe and follows it through villages and farms, with wildlife-rich wet meadows below the reservoir dam.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 3 hours
- Locality
- Blithfield Reservoir and the River Blithe countryside
- Access
- The route includes numerous stiles, some of them high.
History & heritage
1 placeChurch of St. John, Kingstone
A Grade II church built in 1860–61 in the Early Decorated style, designed by David Brandon with a later south aisle by G. E. Street and memorial links to Sir Simon Degge.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 45 minutes
- Locality
- Kingstone parish
No places match this filter. Choose All places to reset the list.
Three ways to explore Kingstone
Signature outings
Reservoir and River Blithe Walk
Take the nine-mile route across farmland and woodland, crossing the River Blithe and passing the wet meadows below the reservoir dam.
The Rebuilt Parish Church
Look over the 1860–61 Early Decorated church and its historical link with Staffordshire judge and antiquarian Sir Simon Degge.
The Village-Owned Pub
Settle beside the real fireplace for onsite-cooked food, local ale and pub games in a free house owned by hundreds of people.
The village story
Kingstone Village Guide
The story of a Victorian-founded village, a rescued pub and the routes that lead into the Blithe landscape.
The Pub the Village Bought
The Shrewsbury Arms is owned by several hundred people. Not a brewery, not a couple who fancied a change of pace, but shareholders in the Kingstone Community Society, who bought the pub at auction in April 2019 after it had stood closed for two years and reopened it that September. It's now a registered Asset of Community Value — the kind of status a village only bothers with once it's lost a pub.
Inside there's a real fireplace, a games corner for cribbage and dominoes, and a function room that seats sixty. Dogs are allowed in the bar, and there's a beer garden for when the weather cooperates. It's open Wednesday to Sunday, closed Monday and Tuesday, worth knowing before you turn up expecting a Monday dinner.
From the Kitchen to the Bar
Everything on the menu bar the bread and ice cream is made on site — bread from Buckley Bakehouse, ice cream from Needwoods. Fish pie and the pie of the day both run £16, beer-battered haddock is £15, and there's a fixed-price lunch menu Monday to Friday, noon till five. Regulars on the bar are Marston's Pedigree and Uttoxeter Brewing Company's Paddock Porter, alongside one changing guest ale, usually local.
Head Chef Adam Bonner runs the kitchen; Emma Smith, Kay Hughes and Tracy Punchard manage the floor, having already turned round the Red Lion at Newborough before taking this one on. "At the end of the meal, we had a lovely chat with Kay, who runs the pub," reads one Tripadvisor review. CAMRA gave it a Rising Star award in 2020 and runner-up for Pub of the Year in 2022.
From Farm Shop to Reservoir Paths
There's no independent shop, butcher or bakery in Kingstone itself — the nearest is Denstone Hall Farm Shop & Café, a short drive away in Denstone.
For walking, the Blithfield Reservoir route is the one to know: nine miles across farmland and woodland, following the River Blithe through the villages and farms on its way, with, by one account, "lots of stiles, some of them high." The wet meadows below the reservoir dam hold badgers, foxes, rabbits, herons, moorhens and kingfishers. Kingstone Wood is part of the old Bagots Forest.
Fairways, Play Fields and Victorian Stone
The Manor Golf Club on Leese Hill, family-run since 1991, is a 6,092-yard parkland course, green fees roughly £18 to £28, visitors welcome daily. Kingstone Recreation Ground has a playing field, a tennis court and a children's play area.
The church, St John the Baptist, was rebuilt in 1860–61 in the Early Decorated style, replacing a church recorded here since at least 1175 that had been judged "very much decayed" by 1851. Architect David Brandon designed it, with the south aisle added later by G. E. Street. Sir Simon Degge, a 17th-century Staffordshire judge who built himself a private chapel at the old church, was buried there, and his memorial inscriptions were carried across into the new building.
Earls, Roads and the Fireside Return
Kingstone as it now stands dates only to 1862, when the parish church went up; the 2011 census counted 629 people, close to what it's been since. The Shrewsbury Arms takes its name from the Earls of Shrewsbury, whose seat, Wanfield Hall, stands nearby since 1924, when Alton Towers was sold off after the 20th Earl's death.
Uttoxeter station is 3.2 miles away, the village sits just off the A518, and the 841 bus runs to Uttoxeter and Stafford Monday to Saturday. None of which matters much once you're at the fireside table with a hand of cribbage and a pint of Paddock Porter, in a pub that several hundred people quite literally own a piece of.
Stay around Alton Towers
Make a longer stay of it
Travel Fox holiday homes around Alton Towers, linked directly to their property pages.
Oakamoor
Christina's House
- Sleeps 4
- 2 bedrooms
Alton
Angel Cottage - 5 mins drive to Alton Towers!
- Sleeps 10
- 4 bedrooms
Alton
Smithy Bank Cottage - with free parking!
- Sleeps 8
- 3 bedrooms
Alton
The Old Post Office: Alton Towers
- Sleeps 8
- 3 bedrooms
Croxden
Zoe's Cottage - 7 mins drive to Alton + Alpacas!
- Sleeps 6
- 2 bedrooms
A guide with a point of view
Written from research. Edited for real journeys.
Use the Official site links for live practical details, then use this guide for context, ideas and room to explore.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- The Shrewsbury Arms — shrewsburyarmskingstone.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Church of St. John, Kingstone — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Blithfield Reservoir and River Blithe Walk — gps-routes.co.uk other published source
- The Manor Golf Club — manorgolfclub.net operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Denstone Hall Farm Shop & Café — denstonehall.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation