The Ale Pole in Daventry kept its Best Town Pub crown and seven village pubs won the rest. The full list of 2026 Daventry constituency pub award winners.

The Ale Pole in Daventry has been named the constituency’s best town pub for the second year running. Seven village pubs took the other prizes in the 2026 Daventry Constituency Best Pub Awards.

The winners were announced at The Arc Cinema in Daventry. Stuart Andrew, the MP for Daventry, runs the awards and published the results on his website on 22 October. Residents nominated pubs and then voted, and voting closed on 21 September.

The 2026 winners

Award Pub Village or town
Best Daventry Town Pub The Ale Pole Daventry
Best Rural Pub The Plume of Feathers Weedon
Best Community Pub The Chequers Ravensthorpe
Best Pub Grub The Countryman Staverton
Best Pub Garden The Admiral Nelson Braunston
Most Dog-Friendly Pub Althorp Coaching Inn Great Brington
Best Micropub and Independent Beer Venue The Goat Long Buckby
People’s Praise Award The Wheelwright Arms Watford

The People’s Praise Award is chosen from the comments voters leave about why their pub deserves to win, rather than from a category vote.

Three repeat winners

This is the second year of the awards. Three of the 2026 winners were also winners in 2025, according to the MP’s November 2025 newsletter to parish councils:

  • The Ale Pole, Daventry won Best Town Pub in both years.
  • The Countryman, Staverton was Best Rural Pub in 2025 and Best Pub Grub in 2026.
  • The Wheelwright’s Arms, Watford was Best Community Pub in 2025 and won the People’s Praise Award in 2026.

The 2025 newsletter says more than 4,500 votes were cast in the first year. The MP’s office has not published a vote count for 2026.

Only pubs that registered could be voted for, and not every pub entered every category. In the Best Daventry Town Pub category, seven pubs were on the voting form: The Ale Pole, Early Doors, Middlemore Farm, The George Inn, The Peppermill, The Dun Cow and the Daventry Plume of Feathers, a different pub from the Weedon winner.

Where the winners are

The Daventry constituency stretches well beyond the town. All seven village winners are within about eight miles of Daventry, measured in a straight line:

  • Staverton, about two miles west
  • Braunston, about three miles north, where The Admiral Nelson stands by a lock on the Grand Union Canal
  • Weedon, about four miles south-east
  • Watford, about four miles north-east, near Watford Gap
  • Long Buckby, about five miles north-east
  • Great Brington, about six miles east, next to the Althorp estate
  • Ravensthorpe, about eight miles north-east, towards Northampton

What it means for you

  • Visiting a winner? Opening hours and food times vary, especially in villages. Check the pub’s own page before you set off; the MP’s results page links to each one.
  • Your local missed out? Only registered pubs were on the form. The MP’s office says pubs named in voters’ comments are invited to take part the following year, so tell them which pub you would have voted for.
  • Looking for somewhere new? Our Daventry business directory lists pubs and food places across the town.

Sources