Welcome
A Brief History
The pub is a former 17th Century coaching house, specialising in real ales.
There is a beer garden and covered outside smoking area.
The pub is family friendly and a community local.
The Black Horse is the highest pub in St Helens on Moss Bank Road.
Moss Bank means " the ridge by mossland ".
The ridge rises to over 250 feet, with Reeds Moss to the west and Carr Mill to the east.
The pub is owned by Anne Biggs who moved into the pub with her husband Tony after leaving the Sutton Oak in St Helens.
Tony built up the reputation of the Sutton Oak as an award winning pub after a number of years of hard graft.
In 2005/6 the Sutton Oak was awarded the very prestigious CAMRA Liverpool & Districts
Pub of the Year (The first time outside Liverpool since the formation of the Branch some 20 years ago).
Prior to that the Sutton was voted, Best Outlying Pub 2004/5 and Pub of Merit 2003/4 thanks to the hard work of Tony and Anne.
They had an entry in the Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA) Good Beer Guide and were also one of the first Pubs in St Helens to be awarded a Cask Marque,
for the quality of their beers. Anne and Tony bring this wealth of experience to The Black Horse, and, will hopefully, be in the spotlight
for a few more awards.
The Sutton Oak is now being run by Tony's daughter, retaining it's character and maintaining the reputation for good beer built up by Tony.
Real Ale
Real or 'cask conditioned'' ale is a natural product brewed using traditional ingredients and left to mature in the cask from which it is served in the pub through a process called secondary fermentation. It is this process which makes real ale unique amongst beers and develops the wonderful tastes and aromas which processed (keg and smoothflow) beers can never provide.
Cask Marque
The Cask Marque is:
- Awarded for excellence in the service of cask ale
- Awarded to the licensee rather than to the pub
- Jointly funded by brewers and retailers
Inspections to Cask Marque pubs are made twice a year to ensure that the cask beers on sale are of the best quality.
Anne holds the Cask Marque award for the pub and ensures that every pint served is of perfect quality
Beer Festivals
Regular beer festivals are held. Mini-beer festivals are held in the pub and the larger festivals held in a marquee
to the rear of the pub.
Keep and eye on our What's On page for details of the festivals.