The Whitmore Arms is a 300 year old coaching house with an interesting history.

The upstairs was, at one time, used to hold meetings of the Parish Council. It has also served as the village post office. Small Parish Court hearings were held in the building from time to time. Infact, Orsett was the original seat of local government for the area and the site of a palace of the Bishop of London in medieval times. The village lock-up, which was last used as a prison in 1848 and the animal pound still exist today.

The pub used to be called The George. It was won in a bet by the Whitmore Family in the 1780s, and hence the change of name. The Whitmore Family owned the whole of the Whitmore estate, which was very extensive and included Orsett Hall.

The Whitmore Arms is a Greene King pub, who have operated pubs and brewed for over 200 years. Combining successful traditional ale brands with modern forward thinking, Greene King has grown steadily from its base in Bury St Edmunds to become a leading pub retailer and brewery. In line with this, the Whitmore Arms has grown a solid and enviable reputation as a pub of quality, in terms of both its drinks and food as well as its service.

Following our previous successes, over the past couple of years we have been awarded by The Publican Newspaper the title ‘Best Tenanted/Leased Pub of the Year 2010’.

Our local business awards are just as important and we won the category ‘Best Business in the Community’ at the Thurrock Business Awards 2010 as well as being the winner for ‘Excellent Customer Service’ at the Essex Countywide Awards 2010.

Also, Victoria has been awarded the title of ‘Thurrock Business Woman of the Year 2010’. In 2011 Victoria was highly commended by The Publican Newspaper for the national award 'Publican of the Year'. This year she is one of six finalists for the BII 'Licensee of the Year 2012' award.

Victoria has worked part time in her parents public houses since the age of 18. After a successful career at The Bank of England, Victoria joined the team of the Whitmore Arms full time in 2006. Since then Victoria has worked alongside her brother Jamie taking over the full time running of the business, making many changes and evolving the Whitmore into what it is today! During this time, the pub has been awarded 6 national awards and 3 local awards. In 2010 Victoria was Thurrock’s award winner for ‘Businesswoman of the Year’ and in 2011 was awarded ‘Highly Commended’ in the category of ‘Publican of the Year’ at the National Publican Awards!

Together Jamie and Victoria ensure that the sixth generation of the Orman family is commited to the retail trade. Both say the pub is successful because it works hard to establish and maintain high standards of quality and consistency.

Margaret & Jim Orman are both locally born & bred, and have over 40 years experience in the retail trade.

Five generations of Jim's family have worked in the retail trade, selling everything from newspapers to confectionery and then running the post office in West Tilbury. Margaret and Jim entered the licensing trade in 1987. After a very successful period in their first pub, they took over the Whitmore Arms in 1994.

Their success at the Whitmore Arms is clearly evident. The pub has grown considerably, winning many local and national awards, culminating in Margaret being awarded the prestige tile of ‘BII Licensee Trainer of the Year ‘ for 2007!