"Not a gastropub by any means": More details released for The Swan Inn

As reported earlier this year,​​ the Grade II-listed Fittleworth pub is in the midst of an extension and complete refurbishment and will reopen in October. 

The Swan Inn will have a 45-cover dining room, a 30-cover bar area, a 30-cover alfresco courtyard, a 25-cover barn that will be used for private events and 12 letting bedrooms. 

The menu will showcase country cooking at its best – seasonal and unfussy classics, executed with ‘a focus on flavour and substance’.

Menu items include lighter bites of local girolles on toast, Whitstable oysters, stuffed sardines and tongue and remoulade sandwich with fries.

Larger dishes include Sutton Hoo chicken, calves’ liver with polenta, and monkfish with ratatouille. There will also be sharing plates such as a whole shoulder of South Downs lamb, Longhorn rib of beef and locally caught fish of the day. 

Puddings are classic – a steamed Sussex Pond pudding with Jersey cream for two to share, figs with fresh goat curds drizzled with local honey, treacle tarts and towers of profiteroles. 

Local beers from Burning Sky Brewery and Harvey’s will be on tap, and the house pour will be English sparkling wine from very-nearby producers Ambriel and Kinsbrook.

The wine cellar has been filled with over 150 bottles of wine priced to be drunk, and there will be a selection of eaux de vie, including Capreolus Distillery. 

The result of a restoration project that’s taken over two years, interiors are billed as charming. 

Design details include natural British fabrics, antique furniture and Frette linens and Verden toiletries. 

The 36-year-old says that venue - which is in between Pulborough and Petworth - will be run with ‘an old-fashioned belief in what pub should be; flowing drinks and great food, served by people who care’.

"We’re so looking forward to opening the doors of The Swan Inn once again. The restoration has been an incredible project for us, and we can’t wait to fill the pub once more with locals, residents and guests from further afield," Davies says. "We wanted to bring back the feeling of this pub being a proper hub for the village; reliable, familiar and unfussy."

"We are not a gastropub by any means; our intentions are to offer consistently good food, great drinks and well-appointed rooms, in hopefully, a very well-loved setting.’