News & Reviews

Watch The Devonshire Arms at Beeley in Visit Peak District's new Get Here Video. Chef Patron, Alan Hill donated his time to do some filming with the tourist board, The Devonshire Arms at Beeley is briefly featured, as well as a shot of Alan's delicious food. With so much to see and do in the Peak District, make sure to Get Here as soon as you can!

Alan Hill, Chef Patron of The Devonshire Arms at Beeley on the Chatsworth Estate, pays more than lip service to using local produce.

His latest venture is a successful barter system in conjunction with some of his regulars. Customers that grow their own produce are encouraged to offer Alan their freshly harvested fruit and vegetables in return for which he gives them vouchers to spend on drink at the pub.

As one customer put it, I love gardening and have always grown my own vegetables but the downside is that everything comes to harvest at the same time. There's far too much for me to eat and you can only give away so much to friends and family. This is a great enterprise - we enjoy a 'free' pint or two and the pub gets freshly picked produce grown right on the doorstep which, in my case, is completely free of chemicals and sprays.

Alan Hill has always flown the flag for freshly cooking everything to order using the best local, seasonal produce. "This is just what I've always done since learning to cook at home; it's not just some fashionable marketing bandwagon to jump on. You can really taste the difference when something as down-to-earth as a carrot has been freshly dug out of the ground and simply cooked."

He continued, The barter system has evolved over the summer and it has proven to be really interesting to see what people are growing locally in their own gardens and allotments. And word has spread with customers offering me all sorts of exciting produce that has been lovingly nurtured right here on our doorstep. Two boards are strategically positioned outside the inn with my "wish list", which can include anything from greengages to marrows, and those local growers with a glut are enjoying seeing the fruits of their labour on my menus. Together with my own kitchen garden, which is geared towards growing vintage vegetables such as Swiss chard and leaf spinach, you really can't get much more local than this.

We are delighted to announce our Christmas and New Year plans. This will be our first Christmas and New Year in our newly refurbished pub so we're sure it will be one to remember. We are offering a two night Christmas break as well as a two night New Year's celebration.

We have already seen lots of interest in these packages, not least because We have already seen lots of interest in these packages, not least because the New Year celebration includes all your drinks for free!

All at the Devonshire Arms are excited already; we hope that you are too...

Click here for full details about Christmas and New Year celebrations.

Alan Hill, Chef Patron of The Devonshire Arms at Beeley, was named Chef of the Year at the prestigious Publican Food and Drink Awards held at the Intercontinental Hotel in London on 25th November. Known as the Oscars of the Pub Industry, the awards honour individuals and pubs that are right at the top of their game.

The Devonshire Arms, on the Chatsworth Estate, is a popular local whilst also attracting customers who are visiting the area. The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire who have been closely involved with the pub in recent years said, We are both absolutely delighted for Alan on his achievement. The award is recognition of his undoubted talent as well as his commitment to work with local suppliers to provide freshly prepared tasty food, and thoroughly deserved.

Caroline Nodder, Editor of the Publican speaking during the presentation ceremony said of all the finalists, They offer everything the modern consumer wants, from locally-sourced produce and crafted ales to premium drinks and homemade pies - and all in a relaxed environment with friendly staff and a warm welcome.

Alan's award comes hot on the heels of the pub being awarded Derbyshire Gastro Pub of the Year in the Derbyshire Food and Drink Awards, for the second year running, and it also holds 2 AA rosettes for food. 41 year old Alan from Chapel-en-le Frith, attended High Peak College, now the University of Derby Buxton. After passing his professional catering qualification his career went from strength to strength, including time at Michelin starred Juniper in Altrincham, Cheshire. Senior postings ensued at other celebrated restaurants such as The Box Tree in Ilkley and at the Michelin starred Holbeck Ghyll in Windermere, where he was worked before he was head hunted to set up the Old Tramshed in Shipley, West Yorkshire. Here he was Head Chef for three years before the opportunity arose for Alan to return to his roots in Derbyshire and help establish The Devonshire Arms as the region's foremost gastropub.

Alan said, Joining The Devonshire Arms gave me the opportunity to create my own kitchen team and style of food, borrowing from my Michelin star background and from cooking classic and traditional recipes. Above all I wanted to create a dining experience that would keep customers returning back time and again. I am also spending time back at the University where I trained, helping with the students there and giving work experience to the next generation of rising stars.

Publication: "The Star"
By Martin Dawes

YOU know that bit in restaurants where the waiter or waitress jots down your order? Well, you have to do it yourself at the Devonshire Arms at Pilsley.

This is not just any pub, it belongs to the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire and is their latest transformation of the hostelries on the estate.

Out has gone the beaten brass and red carpet and in has come blonde wood and mirrors, for this venerable old boozer is now a "boutique inn," with seven snazzy bedrooms. Downstairs the changes are more restrained than the Duchess's previous makeover of the Devonshire Arms at nearby Beeley and less upmarket but they have some well kept Thornbridge Jaipur on the bar and some rather good food on the menu.

That's the responsibility of executive chef Alan Hill (Craig Peters is head chef at Pilsley) who is dividing himself between the two pubs.

We find a table in the bar, one of four rooms of varying sizes and decor. We're all wood, stone and banquettes while the room towards the kitchen is decorated in maroon Highland bedroom wallpaper with stags-head motifs.

It's a simple, straight forward and cheaper menu than Beeley - soup, mushrooms on toast, fish pie, mixed grills, home smoked salmon, corned beef hash and so on with a few specials and another blackboard listing the prices of bacon, sausages, black pudding and so on from the Chatsworth Farm Shop handily nearby.

The idea is they use the products in the shop as much as they can.

As befits its below stairs status compared to its Beeley big brother, food is less fancy and comes in trencherman rather than ladylike portions.

The menu is on the table along with enamel buckets with cutlery and sauce but what we don't notice are the little pads with ducal blue crests and pencils on which to write in your order until the next bloke in the queue puts me right. And then, although it doesn't say and they don't always insist, you have to go to the end of the bar to hand it in.

Quite why there is this palaver escapes me.

The pub is busy and most people have come to eat although everyone seems to have come at once and we have a 40 minute wait for starters.

Eventually a waitress - the style here is smart girls in black tops and jeans - brings out our leek and potato soup and chicken kebab salad, from the specials boards.

Food here comes colour co-ordinated. The soup (up at the house they'd call it Vichyoisse) is in a bowl on a plate with a butter dish and two slices of bread, all of them beige, and the sparky, well-seasoned, vibrant soup tones in nicely. It is £3.50.

The chicken kebab, seven marinated pieces with a discreet hint of chilli, is good value for £4.50 but my wife is distressed that the salad is undressed.

As honorary president of the Campaign Against Naked Salad she calls for dressing, which turns out to be Andre's, as sold at the farm shop according to the blackboard.

"It's lovely - I reckon I've had 40p worth," she says shaking it up for a second helping. I sense a sales ruse here.

Our meal now speeds up. There seem to be an awful lot of Chatsworth Estate steak and kidney puddings (£8.50) going out and one of them is mine.

It is wonderful. A not too thick but still rib-sticking suet crust contains some really tasty steak and plenty of kidney in a thick, rich gravy.

It comes with pale better- than-chip-shop chips, a jug of more gravy and a dish of home made mushy peas. I'm able to indulge my passion of chips with gravy and vinegar to my heart's content.

Alan tells me later that he sells 800 puddings a month, far too many for the kitchen to make, so he contracts them out to his own recipe.

Fish pie (£8) comes in one of those little blue and white tins with a mashed potato and cheese topping above cod, haddock, salmon and prawns in a parsley sauce. There is plenty of fish and the predominant flavour is haddock.

It comes with four rustic looking carrots. They wouldn't win any vegetable glamour competition but the sweetness has been teased from them.

Now at this stage in our meal Alan Hill is steaming inevitably towards five stars but then we haven't had the desserts. I don't think they're his strongest card.

We have the tart (£3) and the gateau (£4) but both are on the heavy side although I enjoy my little jug of custard.

The bill is a very handsome £37.10 (including £2.75 for a large glass of house white and a half of Peak Ales Chatsworth Gold (£1.40) as well as the Jaipur (£1.45).

I reflect that this is just over half the price of a meal at Beeley last year and, if I may say so, Alan, a lot more enjoyable.

Smashing value.