Home > Devon > Torquay > Castle Inn Castle Inn

Picture source: Clive Schneidau

At the same time as the houses were built, Joseph Reed opened the Castle Inn in Binney’s Orchard. This remained a successful and popular free house until 1974 when it was sold to Heavitree Brewery. At the time it was described as ‘the most valuable public house in south Devon’ with annual sales of 1436 barrels of draft beer and 223 barrels of bottled beer. The inn contained a public bar, off licence, the ground floor Castle Lounge, a basement lounge bar – a popular disco – and three staff flats. Ready to cater for new tastes in the market, in 1981 the Castle opened Plonkingtons’ Wine Bar. A particular success was the Sunday Special where double spirits sold for 60p. By 1992 the Castle was being described as ‘a drug troubled pub’ and was relaunched under the name Chaplins Cafe Bar. In December 2008, after 171 years, the pub was closed by its owners, Peninsula Inns Ltd, and remains empty.

Source: Kevin Dixon

We re-opened Chaplins Bar on November 27th 2010 and it is going from strength to strength and has now been renamed The Castle.

Lesley Butchers (September 2011)

Do you have any anecdotes, historical information, updates or photos of this pub? Become a contributor by submitting them here. Like this site? Follow us on Make email contact with other ex-customers and landlords of this pub by adding your details to this page.