Mires Lane
Wardlow Mires
Derbyshire
SK17 8RW
Traditional Village Pub, 3* Heritage Pub
The Three Stags Heads is a delightfully unpretentious 300 year old country pub with a simple whitewashed exterior (photos 1 & 5). Inside there is a small stone-flagged bar with a cast iron range, and a room to the right with another fire and photos of lurchers on the walls (photos 2, 3 & 6). Historic England says it retains a little-altered domestic-scale interior, now a rare survival.
The first time I visited the pub, probably in the early 1980s, the preserved remains of a cat were on display in a glass case in the bar, The cat has since been replaced by a stuffed hare and there is another on the windowsill holding a shotgun (photo 4)! Outside there are more animal remains in the form of the pub sign with the skulls of the eponymous three stags heads (photo 7). The only other pub with the name is at Darley Bridge, also in the Peak District.
The Three Stags Heads had been owned for many years by Geoff and Pat Fuller and as well as running the pub they ran a pottery business on the premises. Geoff sadly died in 2022, followed by Pat in 2023 but there is still an annual food and pottery festival held each September in the village. Andy and Cath took over the running of the pub in 2019 and they still run it today.
The house beer is Black Lurcher, an 8% beer brewed by Abbeydale, and is named after one of Pat and Geoff’s dogs. If that’s a bit too strong, Abbeydale Deception pale ale is also a regular along with changing beers from local breweries. Despite what you might read online, the food is limited to pork pie and pickles.
The lurcher was the inspiration for Neil Gaiman’s short novel Black Dog, which is set in the pub. The mummified cat also gets a mention.
The road passing the Three Stags Heads is the busy A623 which runs between Chesterfield and Manchester. The moorland section past the pub was the haunt in the late 1600s of local highwayman Black Harry who was eventually hanged and gibbeted opposite the pub. Just over 100 years later Anthony Lingard from Tideswell was hanged in the same spot for the murder of the tollkeeper at Wardlow Mires turnpike.
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