What happened
Slaidburn is a village of grey sandstone in the Forest of Bowland, and the Hark to Bounty stood at its Townend with a flight of external steps up the front wall to a first-floor door. That door is the interesting one. The room behind it was a courtroom, used for the manorial and forest courts of Bowland, and it survived as a function room that the pub would show you on request. Historic England lists the building Grade II and dates the oldest part, to the right, to the early seventeenth century: sandstone under slate, three doorways with Tudor arched heads, a mounting block beside the steps, an eighteenth-century portion to the left and former stables beyond that, since taken into the pub. The name is younger than any of it and comes from a hound: Bounty is said to have been the loudest in the squire’s pack. The inn traded to the end as a family-run house with nine bedrooms, real fires either side of the bar and food from Thursday to Sunday. CAMRA recorded it closed long term on 30 November 2024.
What is there now
Empty and on the market. CAMRA has carried it as closed long term since 30 November 2024 with the property being marketed for sale, and lists neither a leaseholder nor a freeholder. The listing protects the building and the courtroom above it; nothing has been announced about a new licensee.
Sources
- CAMRAcamra.org.uk
- Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- Historic Englandhistoricengland.org.uk
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