The Three Cups Inn

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The Three Cups Inn A proper pub for 600 years, family-run for almost 50. Free House. Creating a intimate atmosphere. Visit our customer comment page.
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Great homemade British pub food, 12 beautiful individually styled bedrooms and a south-facing garden alongside the River Test, right in the heart of Stockbridge. Within is housed, wooden beamed ceilings, stone-wood flooring, handcrafted oak tables and chairs, fresh flowers, open fires places and candle light. The present owner has been established at The Three Cups since 1978 and has enjoyed seeing customers coming back year after year. The Three Cups is conveniently located in the one of Hampshires most beautiful and ancient towns, Stockbridge. In the heart of the Test Valley. We positively encourage a home from home atmosphere, making us popular for business people, weekend breaks and locals alike. Stockbridge is famous for its stunning scenery, chalk stream trout fishing and wildlife, the River Test meanders right through the town including the 3 Cups garden.

'The in place for those in the know'.

FIRES ARE LIT AT THE CUPS ♥️♥️♥️It’s that time of year again. The fires are back on and the pub is looking lovely.Not a ...
17/10/2026

FIRES ARE LIT AT THE CUPS ♥️♥️♥️

It’s that time of year again. The fires are back on and the pub is looking lovely.

Not a bad place to spend a Saturday afternoon. ♥️

06/10/2026

♥️♥️♥️ A LITTLE NOTICE FOR TOMORROW ♥️♥️♥️

We are holding a wake at The Cups tomorrow and will be coning off the area directly outside the pub for the family and their guests.

If you could please avoid parking there tomorrow, we’d really appreciate it.

Thank you so much for understanding. ♥️♥️♥️

The Storyteller ♥️♥️♥️I thought I became a storyteller when I started writing.I don’t think I did.I’ve always listened.I...
05/10/2026

The Storyteller ♥️♥️♥️

I thought I became a storyteller when I started writing.

I don’t think I did.

I’ve always listened.

I listened to my mum and dad. I listened to the old boys at the end of the bar. I listened to people telling me about their lives, where they’d been and how things used to be.

I didn’t know I was collecting stories.

I thought I was just listening.

My dad has always told me stories. Some I’ve heard more than once, probably more than ten times.

But I still listened.

And I’m very glad I did.

Because now I find myself telling some of them.

Most of the stories I write aren’t about anything extraordinary.

They’re about people.

Something somebody said.
A thing that happened in the pub. Something we did years ago that we’d completely forgotten about.

Because ordinary lives matter.

And I hope sometimes my stories take people back to their own past.

To their families. Their childhoods. The people they grew up with. The things they did and the things they thought they’d forgotten.

Maybe even a story of their own.

The Three Cups has been part of my life for nearly fifty years, so I suppose I’ve had a very good place to sit and listen.

I thought I became a storyteller when I started writing.

Turns out I’d been doing the important bit for years.

I was listening. ♥️♥️♥️

HALLOWEEN AT THE CUPS 🎃♥️♥️♥️We’re having a Halloween Circus Party!Saturday 31st October with COVE playing live from 8pm...
04/10/2026

HALLOWEEN AT THE CUPS 🎃♥️♥️♥️

We’re having a Halloween Circus Party!

Saturday 31st October with COVE playing live from 8pm

Fancy dress is optional, but there’ll be a prize for the best dressed

Come for a drink, stay for the music and enjoy Halloween at The Cups. ♥️♥️♥️

WE’RE IN IT! ♥️♥️♥️Look what arrived today.The Three Cups is in The Good B**r Guide 2027.For a pub that’s been here for ...
28/09/2026

WE’RE IN IT! ♥️♥️♥️

Look what arrived today.

The Three Cups is in The Good B**r Guide 2027.

For a pub that’s been here for 600 hundred years, and for our family who have been behind the bar for nearly 50 of them, this one feels really special.

Still a pub , still pulling pints.

And apparently, still doing something right. ♥️♥️♥️

Look who’s in♥️♥️♥️
27/09/2026

Look who’s in♥️♥️♥️

Hospitality Happens Everywhere ♥️♥️♥️I’ve been thinking about hospitality.Obviously, I work in it. I’ve pretty much alwa...
22/09/2026

Hospitality Happens Everywhere ♥️♥️♥️

I’ve been thinking about hospitality.

Obviously, I work in it. I’ve pretty much always worked in it.

But actually, hospitality happens everywhere.

It’s seeing friends you haven’t seen for a while and genuinely being pleased to see them.

Moving up so somebody can sit down.

Moving your handbag probably counts too.

It’s buying someone a drink.

Even better, knowing what they drink without having to ask.

It’s saying, “I haven’t seen you since last Thursday.”

“ Six days.”

There’s always one.

Seeing someone standing on their own and bringing them into the conversation.

None of these things cost very much. Most cost nothing at all.

But they all say the same thing.

I noticed you.
I remembered you.
I’m pleased you’re here.

We tend to think hospitality happens in pubs, restaurants and hotels.

It doesn’t.

Hospitality is making room for people.

Sometimes literally.

And perhaps those of us who work in hospitality have just been lucky enough to make a living out of something people have been doing for each other forever.

♥️♥️♥️

The Woman At The Sink ♥️♥️♥️I was coming out of the ladies at The Cups when I noticed a woman standing at the sink.She’d...
14/09/2026

The Woman At The Sink ♥️♥️♥️

I was coming out of the ladies at The Cups when I noticed a woman standing at the sink.

She’d washed her hands, but instead of just walking away, she took some paper towel and wiped around the sink.

I must have looked at her a bit puzzled.

She looked at me and said something I’ve never forgotten.

“If we all leave something better than we find it, what a beautiful world we would live in.”

And then she left.

Such a tiny action.

Such a big thought.

She probably has absolutely no idea that I still remember it.

But I do.

And all these years later, she’s still leaving something a little better than she found it. ♥️♥️♥️

Friday Night At The Cups ♥️♥️♥️Friday night at The Cups.Not quite the Friday night I had in mind.The High Street is clos...
04/09/2026

Friday Night At The Cups ♥️♥️♥️

Friday night at The Cups.

Not quite the Friday night I had in mind.

The High Street is closed again for resurfacing, and these enormous machines keep going past the windows.

I know it has to be done, although I’m still not sure why the last couple of good weeks of the summer holidays were chosen. Not exactly great timing for the traders.

But honestly, it all feels very alien.

Like we’ve been invaded.

Apparently by Monday it will all be over.

I’m assuming the aliens have to be finished by then too.

And take the 400 cones with them. ♥️♥️♥️

The Omelette Situation ♥️♥️♥️Back in the 80s, when my dad was the chef at The Cups, we had omelettes on the menu.Four of...
02/09/2026

The Omelette Situation ♥️♥️♥️

Back in the 80s, when my dad was the chef at The Cups, we had omelettes on the menu.

Four of them.

Cheese.
Ham.
Prawns.
Tomato.

Not a long list or confusing.

Now my dad was a proper old-school chef. Brilliant at what he did. But he was also a bit of an old-school shouty chef and, if I’m honest, could be slightly scary when you had to go into his kitchen and ask for something he didn’t agree with.

And once something was on the menu, that was it.

Set in stone.

If you wanted a cheese omelette, perfect.
Ham, no problem.
Prawns, absolutely.
Tomato, of course.

But if you asked for a combination…

That’s where things took a turn.

Customers, quite reasonably, didn’t see the problem.

“Could I have ham and cheese?”

Of course you could.

We had ham.

We had cheese.

We had eggs.

But I knew exactly what would happen if I walked into that kitchen and asked my dad to put the ham and the cheese in the same omelette.

It wouldn’t be an omelette anymore.

It would be a dangerous situation.

So I came up with my own solution.

I’d smile sweetly and say,

“I’m so sorry, we don’t have those ingredients today.”

Which was, of course nonsense.

We had all of them.

I just wasn’t brave enough to ask my dad to put two of them together.

The customer would nod, slightly disappointed, choose something else and I’d avoid a full-scale domestic over eggs.

Looking back now, it makes me laugh.

These days it’s all “no problem, we can do anything”.

Back then, at The Cups, you could have whatever you liked…

As long as it was exactly what was written on the menu. ♥️♥️♥️

Address

High Street
Stockbridge
SO206HB

Opening Hours

Monday 12am - 11pm
Tuesday 12am - 11pm
Wednesday 12am - 11pm
Thursday 12am - 11pm
Friday 12am - 11pm
Saturday 12am - 11pm
Sunday 12pm - 10pm

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