WOTSIT ON WEST
The Warren House Inn
Postbridge, Devon
The Warren House Inn stands remote, high on Dartmoor, and is reputedly the third highest Inn in England. Originally built to service the local tin mining community, it enjoys extensive views over the National Park and is said to be haunted by a previous landlord, William Stephens, who shot himself behind the bar in 1929. However, today you will be assured of a very warm welcome, not least from the fire which has been burning continuously for over a century and a half. Years ago this Inn was called New House and stood on the other side of the road where the ruins, left after a fire in 1845, may still be seen. When the owner, a man named Hex, rebuilt it, living turfs were carried across to the new hearth on a shovel and the tradition lives on that the fire will never be allowed to die.
The name Warren relates back to the sign of three rabbits chasing each other, their ears joined, this being the sign of the Vitifer tin mines whose ruins may be found further down the moor. If you 
look carefully around the bar you will find a photograph of Harry Warne, a Vitifer miner who thoroughly enjoyed the Inn's hospitality and whose daughter still lives in the village. As a miners' alehouse the Inn enjoyed longer than normal licensing hours but today the current landlord, Peter Parsons, is delighted to welcome you all day during the summer months.
Peter takes great pleasure in being able to offer a fine range of well kept real ales including the famous 'Bishop's Tipple', Tanglefoot, Butcome Bitter and Flowers Original, also a selection of local fruit wine and farm scrumpy which is not for those of a weak disposition. For those who need to abstain through age or the need to drive or just through choice, apart from soft drinks there is always tea, hot chocolate or coffee, including decaffeinated if you prefer it, available all day.
Beware if you are calorie conscious for the kitchens burst open at midday for bar lunches and ride roughshod over diets through delicious cream teas and if you still have the stamina, so do they, as they prepare your evening meal. An extensive menu supplemented by the daily specials board caters for all, from the now famous 'Warreners Pie', a rabbit feast made to the Inn's own recipe, to a home-made Vegetable Mornay, to a real man's Steak and Ale pie made with Bishop's Tipple, to Deep Fried Potato Shells with fillings to kill for. The traditionalists can enjoy pasties, locally made jumbo sausages, excellent gammon or a variety of Ploughman's.
The wide selection of evening starters trip gently into a choice of prime steaks - T-bones, sirloins and fillets all grilled to your personal satisfaction. Or perhaps you would enjoy grilled Scottish Salmon Steak with Watercress Sauce or a creamy Vegetable Kiev or what about a choice cut local Lamb Steak - the menu goes on and on. Just when you thought you were safe the sweets arrive. Home made Apple Pies, Treacle Tarts, Banana Yoghurt Cheesecake, Luxury Ice-creams and Sorbets all served with generous lashings of............wait for it............Devonshire Clotted Cream.
Perhaps a salty ghost story to finish your evening off. 'Twas a snow laden stormy night when a weary traveller took refuge at the Inn. Prior to retiring for the night curiosity overcame him and he found the contents of a large chest, residing in the corner of his room, to be that of a dead man. The corpse slept quiet - he did not. Come morning the now very tired and weary traveller demanded reason from the landlord who mischievously said, ''Why, 'tis only feyther!' 'Twas too much snow to take 'un to the buryin', so mother salted 'un down!''
The truly relaxed atmosphere of a proper moorland inn made the Warren an obvious choice for our Pub of the Month - but that's not all folks!
The Warren House Inn, lies at the very centre of Dartmoor, halfway 'twixt Moretonhampstead and Princetown on the B3212.