New Inn, Idle: 'It's fab to be nominated for T&A Best Pub'

The T&A recently launched its Best Pub 2024 competition.

Readers were asked to share their favourite drinking establishments and a fantastic 6,389 nominations flooded in.

These were then narrowed down to the final 10 and we are now in the process of profiling them.

Today we are highlighting the New Inn, on High Street, Idle.

Karen and Peter (Image: UGC)

“It’s fab for us to be nominated and we think we’re a fabulous pub,” said landlady Karen McKeating who runs the pub alongside her husband Peter.

“But we’re quite shocked by it because there are so many pubs out there."

Karen and Peter have been running the New Inn for eight years.

Karen and Peter McKeating in the refurbished sports bar area at the New Inn at Idle (Image: UGC)

“Idle village is such a good place with quite a few pubs that are all within walking distance.

“We have a lot of good characters in our pub that are regulars.”

Karen spoke of all of the things the pub has on offer, which keep customers coming back for more.

The New Inn at Idle has been nominated for the T&A Best Pub award (Google Street View)

“We’ve got loads of TV screens throughout the pub, four downstairs and two upstairs in our refurbished sports bar area," she said.

“It was really busy during the Euros and Peter was enjoying it because he’s a big football fan himself.”

Karen said the refurbished sports bar upstairs has “gone down really well” with the punters as it has a pool table and dart board.

“It’s nice and cosy, and we have two pool teams - both men’s and ladies - that run on a Monday and Tuesday night starting in September.

“It’s great because it brings customers in during the week.

Karen said that she and Peter refurbished the upstairs sports bar during Covid.

“That was our task in lockdown that kept us busy,” she said.

“We took our time with it, but we had all the time in the world. During that time, we got quite a few jobs done.”

Karen said that weekends are busy at the New Inn.

“We’ve have some massively good weekends as there is a DJ and karaoke on Fridays and Saturdays," she said.

“On Sundays, we do nice homemade roast dinners, which are quite popular, and we do things like speed quizzing and games on a Sunday night. I really enjoy Sundays.

“It can be up and down sometimes as the weather has not been brilliant this year, but sunshine does help.”