Closed for 4 years between 2012 and 2016 after the...

Closed for 4 years between 2012 and 2016 after the previous landlady passed away, this pub was a sad loss for the local community. Since moving to Horsham in 1995, it had been a regular stop-off for me after a round-robin bike ride from Horsham, up to Rusper and back via Wilmand Lane (with the exciting final steep descent to the pub being the highlight). But refurbished, reinvigorated and reopened by the new owners in 2016, the Frog and Nightgown retains much of the 'front-room' charm of the original pub, while providing comfortable surroundings, gardens, good beer choices and an unambitious, but functional food menu. The first time I went into the pub in 1995 I apologised to the landlady seated on her sofa, as I thought I had inadvertantly entered her front room, rather than the bar. A couple of uncomfortable metal chairs and tables out front was the beer garden. More often than not on my visits I would be the only customer there. Not so any more. I think the absence of the pub for 4 years has made everyone who visited before realise what a treasured asset they had lost and they are determined not to lose it again. Regular special events have drawn a wider clientele. The Tea Rooms have widened the appeal even more. Now on a sunny warm summer evening, it can get quite busy here, so much so that I have once or twice cycled right past the pub by on my ride rather than face the struggle to get to the bar for a drink and find a free table in the garden. For those looking for a gourmet menu (currently it is ploughmans, toasties, pork pie or scotch egg), or an oak beams and thatch country pub, or pub-chain style decor and layout, then pass on by. What you get here is a much more idiosyncratic offer, nothing like as eccentric as it was before, but still unique. Make the most of it while you can though, because Liberty Property Trust now have planning permission to build 2,750 new homes in the land very near by, which will likely alter the country setting of the pub beyond repair.