With the buffet a complete sell-out as it has been in previous years, the evening was always likely to raise a large sum of money, but the ever popular Gary Brumwell managed to raise some excellent bids on the Art and Curious auction. Some of the brilliant items donated to The Countryman Inn for auction included a Victorian long handled back scratcher and a unique mulled wine maker. Amongst the biggest sellers were a fantastic wicker picnic basket and an original oil painting of the Crawley and Horsham Foxhounds, raising £50 and £100 respectively.

As per usual, the last prize to go in the raffle was a recurring entry; a bottle of Czechoslovakian sweet raisin wine which has made an appearance in the raffles for at least the last 8 years and will more than likely be back next year!

Thanks to everyone that helped make the evening a massive success, your generosity is greatly appreciated.

In association with Garlic Wood Farm, Knepp Castle is now finally able to produce ‘Old English Organic Beef’. This has been a long time coming but is great news for The Countryman Inn and it’s customers. The project started with just a dozen cows and takes at least three years to mature, which is why it has taken so long.

The Knepp Castle, former commercial farmland is now organic and grazed by herds of cattle, pigs, deer and ponies which spend all of their lives in their family groups and in massive, outside enclosures. (The smallest enclosure is 700 acres!)

Although slow food production, this provides peace of mind for the ethical consumer and incredibly, the beef produced actually has health benefits over commercial beef. The evidence is that Grass Fed beef contains fewer calories and less saturated fats than those of animals fed grain-based rations.

This fantastic Beef will be served on the Countryman Menu alongside other organic and free range Pork, Lamb & Chicken. If you want to try out our new healthier and organic meats, come and visit us by booking a table here, or calling us on 01403 741 383.

Full BBQ tickets are just £10, so call us on 01403 741383 to book your place now. In addition to the Morris dancing, Skittles and Giant Connect 4 will be available in the garden all afternoon to add to the fun!

Sompting Village Morris

Our normal, full restaurant and bar menu will also be available all evening so if you’re not a BBQ fan, you can still order your favourite meals including Vegetarian, Pub Grub and Desserts.

To book a table for the evening, visit our online booking page or call us on 01403 741383 now, we look forward to seeing you at The Countryman Shipley, near Horsham, on Wednesday 10th August.

Gates open at 3pm and the concert starts at 5pm – tickets can be brought at IDRIVEU or by phoning 01403 865412.

Why not pop into The Countryman Inn, Shipley for a pre-concert lunch? With amazing value meals such as “Braised Shoulder of Shipley Lamb” and “Battered Cod and Chips” you would be foolish to turn down the opportunity to start your weekend in our relaxing country pub atmosphere. Book a table by phoning us on 01403 741383.

The Amber Foundation supports homeless and unemployed young adults, giving them stability and motivation to kick-start their lives. They provide them with training to gain the skills they need to gain employment and a safe environment for those that have misused drugs and alcohol to sort out problems, build confidence and start a fresh.

The Amber Foundation- the charity for homeless & unemployed young adults

The Countryman In celebrates the Royal Wedding

It seems like decades ago that we were celebrating the Royal Wedding in true British patriotic style, yet it was only a few weeks ago.

It was a fantastic day here at our country pub and restaurant, with more than double the expected turnout. Two large screens were installed to view the ceremony accompanied by a champagne breakfast with smoked salmon and scrambled egg, mini egg & sausage muffins, homemade oatcakes and muesli bars, strawberry & melon honey coated kebab, French toast with crispy bacon and more.

Lunchtime saw us open up the Pie ‘n’ Mash Shop and Jellied eel stall, the band played all lunchtime with classic London sing-along tunes, and then we had a classic English afternoon tea of scones and jam with finger sandwiches and fairy cakes.  The evening saw us go into a traditional fish and chip supper menu, with nearly 100 people joining us for that one. All in all, a fantastic day with people coming-and-going and joining in with the fun and even dressing up for the occasion. It was a wonderful community atmosphere.

If you would like to hold a themed event at our fine country pub and restaurant based near Horsham in West Sussex, take a look at our menus by clicking here. We can create you special themed menu for your event. We cater for all kinds of diets so give us a call on 01403 741383 to discuss your needs. We look forward to welcoming you very soon.

Making Local Food Work helps people to take ownership of their food and where it comes from by providing advice and support to community food enterprises across England. If you are involved in a community food enterprise or interested in starting one in your community, MLFW may be able to help you.

Here at the Countryman Inn, Shipley we are helping the local food network by being totally involved in creating a database of supplier information giving full traceability on all of our produce – much of it home grown – and sharing detailed information of all our suppliers and origins of all food used here at both our country pub and shop.

We periodically run visits to local country farms to see where some of our meat comes from, and we also have a barter/swap scheme whereby local amateur gardeners can exchange their produce for something else or even exchange for points that can be used for restaurant meals, bar snacks, or tickets to any of our events.

Making Local Food Work is achievable and is working well here at the Countryman Inn in Shipley.

The lambing shed is where we get all of our lamb from and it is why our Braised Shoulder of Lamb and Slow Roasted Minted Lamb Shoulder taste so nice – there’s nothing like getting your meat from locally farmed animals. We thought it would be a great day out to visit where our food comes from and have arranged a full day’s activities as part of the visit.

Minted Lamb

We will be meeting at 10.45 am at The Countryman Pub, Shipley for Coffee and Biscuits before heading on via a tractor ride to the Lambing shed. You will get a tour of the farm before heading back to the Countryman Inn for a Ploughman’s lunch. If you are interested in this day, we advise you book in advance. Tickets are £10 per person and you can book by phoning us on 01403 741383.

Countryman Inn Poachers Bar New Year's Eve Fancy Dress

Happy New Year to all our customers! We hope you enjoyed the festive season.

We had fantastic fun here at your favourite country pub and restaurant, The Countryman Inn.

On New Year’s eve,  we held a fantastic bumper event where both sittings were completely booked out. We boogied to 70’s and 80’s  music provided by the excellent band, Freedom. In the Poachers Bar, we held a separate New Year fancy dress party (photo above) celebrating country pursuits throughout the ages and enjoyed a wonderful buffet. If you missed out this year, don’t worry, there is always next year, but hurry, you need to get in quick  – even though there are 355 days left, tickets are already selling like hot cakes!

We have more fun, just around the corner. Of course, it’s our famous Burns Night celebration on 25th January 2011. Enjoy a full Scottish menu, Highland Piper and music by the Falloons … OK, we know Papa Falloon is Irish, but he is brilliant and the floors will be shaking with foot tapping and dancing. For tickets, call 01403 741383. Or you can reserve a table by booking online.

We look forward to welcoming you very soon. Click here to take a look at our menus which we guarantee will tickle your taste buds!

The Countryman Pub and Restaurant, Shipley, West Sussex

Work has nearly finished on our new restaurant extension. Situated on the west side next to the car park, this will incorporate a large bay window with panoramic views out to the garden and beyond. The restaurant is still open while the extension is being built – we thank our customers for their patience and understanding.

Our restaurant extension means that we’ve got more space to accommodate Christmas parties – you can download our Christmas and New Year’s menu from our home page. Call us on 01403 741383 to reserve a table.

Foraging for wild food at The Countryman

Foraging is the latest craze. And we at The Countryman – country pub and restaurant in West Sussex – are up there on the culinary catwalk, ensuring you dine on the best food around. Our new forager, Deborah Woods,  brings our edible landscape to you, our customers – this nutient packed food is now yours!

Is interest in foraging growing?

Yes! A quick blog search on ‘foraging food’ came up with 165 hits over the past week, as compared to 83 hits over the same week last year. The Countryman in Shipley now has a dedicated forager who has a wealth of experience in foraging for wild foods that we are able to feature on our menu all year. Deborah Woods has been an avid forager for many, many years and grew her passion for wild foods from her early days of blackberrying with her mum in the Sussex countryside. Deborah now keeps us supplied with freshly picked wild mushrooms, including porcini, yellow chanterelles and girolles to name just a few. Other wild foods include all types of berry, many varieties of herb such as wild garlic and Wild Thyme and various seaweeds including samphire and sea kale.

These foods are great for your internal organs such as your liver and kidney, so as well as looking and tasting great, they are great to prepare your body ahead of the festive season! Talking of which, do take a look at our Christmas menu and New Years Eve menu which are now on the website.

So call us on 01403 741383 if you would like to be a trend-setter in fashionable cuisine! We look forward to welcoming you soon!