MAKE the pub the hub. So said well-known boozer Prince Charles this week. And don't doubt he's well informed on the subject. The Prince of Wales is such a staunch supporter of pubs that many are named after him.

No wonder he's a fan. Every hostelry he enters, he gets a free drink. It was a drop of Glenlivet whisky he enjoyed during a brief stop in the Blacksmith's Arms, Naburn, during last year's floods. On the house, natch. We can only marvel that the heir apparent doesn't spend all his time in the bar.

It's to the Prince's credit that he wants country boozers to survive. He told a rural business conference this week that pubs should become post offices and grocery stores too, so villages are not deprived of community facilities.

This idea has already been adopted in North Yorkshire. So what do the trail-blazing licensees think of the Prince's words?

"The only trouble with Prince Charles is he's too far behind the times. It's been going on for years," said Colin McCarthy, who runs The Greyhound at Saxton, near Tadcaster, with wife Judy.

Shortly after they took over the pub nine years ago, the village post office closed. The business was transferred to the pub.

Judy is the sub-postmistress, dispensing pensions, stamps and the like three mornings a week.

So do older citizens collect their pension at five to 11 then to spend it at the bar?

"Unfortunately not. We don't open the pub until 11.30."

The villagers are pleased with the service, Colin said. Without the pub's post office, they would have to travel to Sherburn, several miles away.

"I think it's strengthened the community. People use it; it keeps the community together."

The pub would survive without the post office, he added.

"We don't do food. We are an old fashioned drinking place - an alehouse."

The ale on offer is Sam Smith's, at a lip-smacking £1.16 a pint.

The Crown Inn, at Grewelthorpe, near Ripon, has taken over the village's post office more recently. Landlord Steve Kennedy, who runs the pub with partner Katherine Furmidge, says it was a move prompted by love not money.

"To be honest, we do it as a service. It's for pensions and stamps. It's three pounds-something an hour - we pay our washer-upper more than that."

The pub stepped in when the post office closed earlier this year. Without it, villagers would be forced to go to Ripon or Masham for a counter service. Steve and Katherine are still waiting delivery of a computer promised by the Post Office six months ago.

"The villagers appreciate it. The actual Post Office haven't done much to help at all. They have opened it and abandoned it."

The Crown, Steve said, has seen its lunchtime trade knocked by foot-and-mouth. But it is well supported by locals. This weekend the pub is staging a beer festival in a marquee, boasting 26 different real ales.

So why not drop in for a pint? And the next morning, you can post yourself home.

TALKING of beer festivals, and at Bar Talk we talk of little else, here's another one for your diary.

The Head Of Steam pub in St George's Square, Huddersfield, is hosting a Yorkshire Beer Festival, featuring a festival of Yorkshire beers, from Yorkshire Day (August 1, of course) until August 5.

Twenty-eight beers from 19 Yorkshire breweries, including Cropton, Malton, Hambleton, Rooster's and Brown Cow, will feature.

THE Phoenix, in George Street, York, gets pride of place in the August edition of the Campaign For Real Ale's newspaper What's Brewing.

As reported in Bar Talk last month, Barry and Barbara Stickney's pub won the CAMRA/English Heritage Conservation Award, after a "sensitive and careful refurbishment" by owners the Unique Pub Company.

What's Brewing praises the Phoenix's new look, apart from the "cheap-looking hardwood tables" which "contrast with the high standard of the interiors".

It also notes: "Sadly, however, the judges were once again unable to present a New Build award - a distressing reflection of the poor quality, cloned limpness of many of our brand-new pubs."

Joshua Titley