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Rougham Flying Fortress
Rougham Flying Fortress
North East, 52.24809,0.75891
Currently closed but expected to reopen.
Mount Road, IP31 2QU
grid reference TL 884 646
opened 1988
Substantial open-plan & modern styled free house set well back from road with tiled floors & decorated with photos & artefacts mainly related to the former WW2 airbase (Rougham) that was located nearby. Food is available all week (including a popular roast on Sundays) & two pleasant conservatories overlook the garden & provide excellent views of the surrounding area. The original building was much extended about 20 years ago. Although still enjoying a pleasant setting, in recent years the pub has enjoyed somewhat less of a rural location as new housing of the suburbs of Bury St Edmunds has encroached eastwards.
Although often described as being in Great Barton, and sometimes in Bury, the pub is actually within the parish of Rougham.
Currently closed and boarded up, having been purchased by Greene King. The building has been deteriorating for several years. In June 2023 news emerged that there are plans to reopen the pub in 2024.
Facilities
- Accessible to disabled customers
- Beer garden or other outside drinking area
- Beer served through handpumps
- Evening meals
- Family friendly
- Lunchtime meals (not just snacks)
- Parking
- Restaurant or separate dining area
- Traditional pub games available
Railway station about 2.4 miles away (see transport links for details)
Gallery
Nearest railway station
Historical interest
Owner/operator: free
[Listed in Great Barton]
Unusual freehouse decorated with photos and artefacts from the WWII planes and local air force base. Recently extended with new function suite and garden room A late license has also been applied for.
Beers: Adnams Bitter; Draught Bass; Bass Worthington BB Whitbread Flowers IPA; guest beers.CAMRA's 1997 Suffolk Real Ale Guide
Built as a farmhouse just before WW2 and then requisitioned and used as part of airfield facilities from 1943-45 (as technical stores). Again used as a private house after the war until being converted back into a pub in 1988.
(information supplied by pub)
Footnote
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress was a four-engine heavy bomber aircraft developed for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) in the 1930s. The B-17 was subsequently used by the US Army Air Forces (USAAF) in their daylight precision strategic bombing campaign of WWII against German industrial, civilian, and military targets from 1943-45 and many were based on Suffolk airfields. Of the 1.5 million tonnes of bombs dropped on Germany by U.S. aircraft, 640,000 were dropped from B-17s. About 4,750, or one third, of B-17s built were lost in combat.
(Most pub, location & historic details collated by Nigel, Tony or Keith - original sources are credited)