Ruddington

Six pubs and their stories

The Three Crowns takes its name from the three chimney pots on its roof, and locals call it the Top House because it sits at the top of a street that once had three pubs in a row. Ruddington still runs to six pubs.

The Ruddington Arms is the smart one, a gastropub since a £290,000 refurbishment turned the old Jolly Farmers into an open-plan space. Curried parsnip soup is £5.25, there's a halloumi mushroom burger and a 6oz rump steak, and most people spend £10-20 a head — it won Best Public House at the Nottinghamshire Food and Drink Awards. The Frame Breakers, formerly the Bricklayer's Arms and renamed in 2015 for the village's framework-knitting history, is run by Nottingham Brewery and pours six changing beers; dogs get a free "dog beer," and Thursday is burger night. The White Horse Inn does stone-baked pizzas and slow-roasted pork belly around a beer garden used for festivals and barbecues. The Victoria Tavern, cream-and-black brick on the village edge, is a local with "a more mature clientele." Heart at Ruddington reopened in 2024, after years empty as the Red Heart.

Independents shaped by knitting

Elms Farm Butchers on the High Street sells lamb and beef reared by the Brown family, who have farmed locally since the 1700s — order over £25 and they'll deliver. Debbie Bryan is a craft gallery and café running "Crafternoons" workshops, with a sister shop in Nottingham's Lace Market. The village centre has more than fifteen independent shops, among them Phoenix Flowers, Zing Interiors and David Richards Jewellers, on streets within the Ruddington Conservation Area.

That density of shops and pubs traces back to framework knitting, which by 1851 employed half of the village's households. The yard behind the Framework Knitters' Museum — an 1690s farmhouse with Victorian additions — is one of the few complete knitters' yards standing anywhere, saved from demolition by local campaigners in 1971. The frames still run for visitors, and you can try a vintage Griswold knitting machine. Parker's Yard Café, on the same site, is run by Ruddington residents Jennifer Walker and Mike Gaunt.

Steam lines and reclaimed land

The railway that once served the village closed to passengers in 1963, but an eight-mile stretch survives as the Great Central Railway, running trains from the Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre most Sundays between April and October — entry is free, ticket bought on the day. The heritage centre sits next to Rushcliffe Country Park, 210 acres built on the old wartime munitions depot, with five miles of paths, a lakeside café and a play area built around an eight-metre "medieval city."

A church, a shell and a Victoria Cross

St Peter's Church has a 14th-century core behind an 1887 rebuild, and became the parish church only after the original one, at Flawford, was pulled down in the 1770s. Francis Wheatley, born here to a framework knitter, won the Victoria Cross at Sebastopol in 1854 for picking up a live shell and throwing it back over the parapet; Queen Victoria pinned it on him in person, at the first investiture in Hyde Park.

Getting here, market days and the Wakes

Buses run into Nottingham along the A60, five miles north, and the nearest railway station is Nottingham itself. There's a monthly Village Market, popular enough that Tripadvisor reviewers call it "a lovely way to spend a Saturday morning," and an annual Wakes Funfair that has run since 1968.