Our Story

Martin and I have owned, managed and cooked in The Hurstwood Pub for 11 years…the day we signed the contract I found out I was pregnant with our first child, Adam, 9 months later I remember doing my early stage of labour while chopping onions for dinner in the Hurstwood. This cemented the Pub, the Village and the Community to our hearts and committed our lives to the furthering of The Marenka Magic: fun, happy and delicious occasions successfully orchestrated by us and our fantastic team!

Martin is the chef of our partnership but we manage the business together making decisions as a team….! The Hurstwood pub has grown from being a small local concern into a fully fledged gastronomic delight that focuses its ideals on ‘warmth and welcome’, good food, good wines and great company.

We provide this by serving carefully sourced wines, locally brewed beers, ciders and spirits, we have our own garden which we glean some of produce from and otherwise eek out all the do'ers from the area from butchers, growers and fishermen while also using wild flora and fauna to further enhance our menus.

We are passionate about the seasons and define our menus to reflect those shifts. We have our top secret best spots for gathering everything from porcini to sloes, nettles to blackberries

We are endeavouring to provide a local pub atmosphere that has a first hand voice. We wish the local community to feel that The Hurstwood is still their pub which is such a precious thing given how many pubs are closing. In so doing they have created a ‘hub' in High Hurstwood which often finds locals or visitors popping in to find out where someone lives, who brews the local cider, where the local classic car garage is, where can you find the local school…in that way that a village shop can be the heart of the village!