Voices of Hickling: Stories of the Greyhound Inn (page 1)
The Inn has changed many times over the years, a poster advertising the Inn being auctioned in 1853 boasted a good business with six letting rooms and a skittle alley. (Where did they manage to squeeze these in?) with a rent of £25 per year.
As far as we know it has never closed, except for building works.
Ian Baxter-Powell in the 70’s changed much of the interior, and installed the ropes on the ceiling which fascinate visitors to this day (pictured below right).
Pat and Keith Salston in the 80’s put in the darts area and toilet block and moved the beer cellar to the other side of the pub, where it is today(big mistake we feel).
We - Debi Key and Tony Woodman - arrived in 1994 to a welcoming group of locals, to help pass the furniture through the upstairs windows, as the stairs are too narrow and winding.
We again reconfigured the interior, making a single door entrance into the Bar, leading through to the dining room which doubled in capacity.
Tony developed the Bar and drinks offer and developed pub teams, including darts, pool, crib, golf society (with the help of Chris Dedman) and Sunday quiz.
Debi created the garden, covering the patio to shelter the grapevine they planted and diners wanting a sheltered alfresco experience
We hadn’t been at the Greyhound long and whilst waiting for the dray to deliver beer one morning, the entire armed Norfolk Police pulled up on the car park and an array of weapons came out of the car boots and bullet proof jackets and helmets put on.
