Seven Stars pub, Falmouth 50 years in CAMRA good pub guide

This has only happened previously to five pubs in all of the UK.

Having missed out on a listing in the very first Good Beer Guide (there wasn’t even a Cornwall CAMRA branch at the time) it is now 50 in a row for The Seven Stars in Falmouth.

This is a truly remarkable achievement as only five pubs in Britain have made more appearances. In addition to this the pub is one of only 200 or so to be given a nationally important three-star rating for its exceptionally important and unspoilt historic interior.

The Seven Stars had the even more prestigious honour of being voted The Packet Pub of the Year earlier this year. (Image: Seven Stars)

The Seven Stars was granted its licence in 1660, a year before Falmouth was given its Royal Charter and the licensee at the time was one Henry Penial and his spouse Mary-Jane,

It has seen many changes around Falmouth and has also encountered many characters, from salty old sea dogs to royalty. Many of the characters worked on the water or for the water, on working boats or down in the shipyard. All of them had fascinating stories to tell.

Time has stood still in this much loved and respected establishment. It is a Grade II listed building its original layout out was a three storey building with a stable to the right-hand side you can still see the original stable doors as you go into the gent’s loos.

1912 saw the stable taken down and an extension was added. The frontage adorned a beautiful ornate decorative display attached to the still existing balcony, it had a circular display of seven stars and the word hotel. The balcony was kept but the decorative part was taken away and used for ammunition in the war.

The pub has seen seven generations of the same family as landlords and landladies, dating from 1853 (note – this may not have been the case as the pub was offered for sale to St.Austell Brewery in 1925. A stumbling block was the asking price of £15,000 – about £1.2 million today!).

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Hugh Dunstan Richards started up the oyster bar where he would shuck and serve on the marble bar; you can still see this beautiful piece of marble today. He also exported Falmouth oysters further up the line.

Anglican clergyman Barrington Bennetts one of only a handful of real people to ever feature in the comic Beano (Image: Beano)

For 50 years until his death in 2011 it was run by ordained Anglican clergyman Barrington Bennetts, one of only a handful of real people to ever feature in the comic Beano – the others being David Beckham and Jessica Ennis.

Anglican clergyman Barrington Bennetts in the Beano (Image: Courtesy of The Beano)

The licensee is now his granddaughter Amy who runs the pub with great respect to its history and traditions and indeed it is her wish to pass the pub on to her young son (well, once he is old enough to pull a pint anyway).

CAMRA wants everybody to join them Saturday, October 14 at 12 noon for 12:30pm, when Cornwall CAMRA chair Vince Curtis will be presenting Amy with a special award.