MY PUB: White Cross Inn, Groeswen, Caerphilly

The pub, which dates back to 1750, is situated in the tiny village of Groeswen on a hill with sweeping views over the town of Caerphilly.

Here, publican Mair Arthur tells The Morning Advertiser about the pub.

The pub

The White Cross Inn is an old stone pub from circa 1750, which has survived nine kings (that doesn’t include Elvis), two queens and countless wars and crises.

My ex-husband and I bought the freehold in 1999 and ran it for a couple of years.

My husband made a decision to lease the pub as he was not enjoying being the landlord.

But after we were divorced, I made a decision to come back to revitalise the pub in February 2011. I have run it alone since.

The publican

I was brought up in a home where the methodist chapel played a big part.

My parents met in chapel and my father was a member of the Independent Order of the Rechabites (a benefit society of teetotallers founded in 1835).

Telling my father I was giving up a good job as a team leader in customer service to buy a pub was a tough call but he soon realised a pub is much more than a place where people go to drink and can be a positive hub at the centre of its community that helps bring people together.

Our first pub was the Mason’s Arms in Blackwood, Gwent.

We took the shutters off the windows and went into the unknown. It was sink or swim. We did well and it was soon the busiest pub around, morphing from a pub and restaurant into a pub and music venue.

We sold the successful business in 1999 and bought the White Cross Inn in Groeswen which was a totally different pub in terms of style and customer base.

Six months after taking on the pub, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and, while my project was in its infancy, I had to take a step back to have surgery, chemo and radiotherapy.

I couldn’t stay away completely because I could not afford to pay staff so I juggled my chemo around the Six Nations Rugby and we also raised lots of money for cancer charities with a Wig & Wine night and a Pretty In Pink night. I, thankfully, recovered well and have continued to run the pub.

The first few years were very tough financially with only enough money to buy a keg as I needed it but I battled on and the picture is much prettier today.

While Covid was a terrible time, the small grants the pub qualified for helped me enormously and got the pub back into a stable financial position.

The trade

The pub is rural and 100% wet-led. There are only 28 houses in the village but customers come from as far as Cardiff (which is eight miles away) and we even have regulars who live 25 miles away.

There is a housing development a mile away and lots of customers walk up the lane to the pub, even though there is a pub much nearer. We are also a good stop off for walkers, cyclists and horse riders.

Our youngest customer is a babe in arms while Pete in the Sunday Cheese Club is 90.

We have also had some filming take place at the pub and we were in the most recent series of Dr Who. It was great fun and we have visits from ‘Whovians’ from all over UK.

We have increased trade at the pub by using all our available space.

We have a bar and a back room, which was a bit like the old parlour in a terraced house that was used only for the three Cs – courting, couples and corpses. No one ever went in there. Now the back room is in use nearly every night.

The team

I organise and plan everything but I have lots of part-time staff who help out.

We never need more than two staff behind the bar and there is no room for more. Customers are always happy to help with glasses or even changing barrels when we are busy.

We don’t serve food and have no accommodation unless you count when one of the regulars fell fast asleep in the chair one cold January night and we just left a light on, put a blanket on him and left him there.

The drink

When I came back to the pub it sell 1 x 9-gallon a week and I would end up throwing some away.

I have an interest in cask ales. I introduced a cask loyalty card where 20 stamps gets a free pint. This caused many family disputes especially when the cards disintegrated in the laundry with only one more stamp for a pint.

I also started our monthly Beerbellies Club in March 2011 where we have events such as Meet the Brewer evenings, talks on beer, history, tastings and whatever I can think of to fill the last Wednesday of the month.

Trade continues to improve. We now sell between 10 and 14 x 9s a week. We have four cask beer engines, always have a light hoppy low ABV beer, a regular bitter, a stout or porter and a high-hopped ABV beer on the bar. All the beers are sourced from local breweries and change weekly.

We have also recently added two pumps for kegged ale after pressure from the young beer drinkers. The mainstream lagers and ciders are from Heineken, including Amstel, Birra Moretti, Neck Oil and Inch’s Cider. We also stock locally made cider from Caerphilly-based Williams Brothers.

We have been featured in The Good Beer Guide annually since 2012 and been highly commended several times.

The food

We don’t serve food. There are lots of places in and around Caerphilly where people can go for hot food but very few where the emphasis is people. This is where we focus the business.

A three-course meal in the White Cross Inn is a pickled egg, roll and crisps and a bar of chocolate for dessert.

That is why I say you can bring your own food to the White and I’ll provide you with plates and cutlery and wash up but I am not cooking.

The events

Trade has grown over the years because there is always something going on and the beer is good. This pub is a place for people to meet and form friendships. It is a very special place.

We recently received a Communities Services Fund grant from Pub is The Hub that provided a new PA and music system, enabling us to run more events supporting the local community and raising more money for charity. It has been great at bringing people together as that social interaction is so important in tackling loneliness.

We are also the meeting place for all the local groups to get together. We have two darts teams, a cricket team, a quiz every Tuesday regardless whether there are two teams or 10. We have Knit & Natter, the Wacky Wanderers’ walking group, Sunday Cheese Club and the monthly Beerbellies meeting.

There are also jamming sessions, live music, Welsh music nights, beer festivals, cider festivals, as well as Poems & Pints.

We also have spooky walks, a huge bonfire on bonfire night, children’s parties, cowboy nights, brass bands, Welsh dancing, Scwelsh night (St Burns and St Dwynwen’s together), mystery trips away, brewery trips, private parties, carol singing and a huge pass the parcel game on Christmas Eve.

Our Beaujolais event is very popular – we have a glass of Beaujolais and a cheese and pâté platter, a little talk on Beaujolais and then an evening of games such as French charades or a quiz. It is just fun and nonsense.

I open Christmas morning for the bonhomie and in the night for those with no family to spend Christmas with. Giant jenga has become the regular Christmas night game.

We have charity events throughout the year and have raised thousands and thousands of pounds over the years.

None of these things would happen without customers. They would argue they would not happen without me but team work makes the dream work.

The future

I am now 65 and while I have experience and knowledge, I am too old to move on.

I live in the pub but I also live the pub. They will be taking me out of the White in a box with my job done in turning the pub from the worst to the best.