The village pub that's also been a shop, butchers and post office in its long history

The Apple Tree in Onibury near Craven Arms has had a mixed and varied past since it was built as the Raven in 1886.

It has existed as a pub, but also transitioned into a bakery, a village shop, a butchery and a post office at various stages over the last 138 years, only returned as the Apple Tree Pub in 1998.

Current landlord Andy Bevan has been at the pub with his team for around seven years and is very aware of the history of the pub.

He says: "It's been a pub, a bakery, a butchery and the village shop and has had quite the life since it was first built in the 1880s.

"I get some people who come in now and they used to come in here as teens to buy sweets from the big containers, but it's been a pub-come-cafe for about 25 years now.

"The name is down to the pipping apple, which is famous to the village and there might still be a tree in the village, although that might be an old wives tale and the tree might be gone now."

The pub itself has the appearance of a village shop from the outside, nestled on a lane just off the A49 towards Ludlow.

Once you realise what it is and go inside, you can see how much it carries the past with it, such as meat hooks hanging on the bar with hops on them.

The bar area has the hanging hops, as well as cottage-style furniture and a wood-burner, while the lounge is an old-fashioned parlour with period sofas and a third room at the back acts as a games room, with standard pub fare like darts.

The interior of the pub is also dominated by paintings on the wall and tiled and boarded flooring throughout, giving it the feeling of a traditional village pub.

Andy says the pub does offer food and had a standard menu, looked after by his wife, Jill, but explains it's more popular for drinks.

"It's a lot more wet-sale at the pub than it used to be, as I'm quite big on my real ales, and we got ourselves into the real ale guide, which is great, and I've had three Camra awards," he says.

"We have three regular ales on all the time, Ludlow Gold, Ludlow Stairway and Wye Valley HPA, and we do do some food, with Sunday lunches proving very popular."

Mr Bevan says the pub holds a beer festival every year, with about 12 beers on offer for people to try, as well as music and food, which always draws a good crowd. He describes the pub's location as a major selling point.

He adds: "Come Easter, we do get a lot more walkers and cyclists coming in and we're quite a big walking area, plus we see a lot of people who go to Airbnb's and holiday cottages and go pheasant shooting, so we have a lot of passing trade.

"We serve a lot of beers from Moor Valley Brewery, who are local and support us as much as we support them and we've got about 12 real ales in around 20 miles of here, so I can take one and change as much as I like.

"The pub is small, but very cosy and we have a lot on, with our own darts team and quiz nights and we make sure to give people a friendly welcome, and we've been here seven years, so we must be doing something right."