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Cock,
North Crawley, Buckinghamshire.
Early in a trip to England, stumbling across a pub as
real and genuine as this one, almost brings a tear to
the eye. Pool table, all locals, log fire burning, landlord
chatting, good beer. For Pub Explorers, does it get
any better than this? I had a Charles
Wells Eagle, which fitted the bill rather nicely.
The Charles Wells story is a good one - in these days
of multi-national corporations muscling in on the pub
business, Charles Wells Brewery has been going since
1876 and in the nation's largest independently-owned,
family-run brewery, with three members of the Wells
family actively involved in the day-to-day running of
the place.
Knightly
Arms, Yelvertoft, Northamptonshire.
This pub did not look like much from the outside, did
not look like much from the inside, but the landlord
did seem to take considerable pride in his beer (he
actually sniffed it), and that goes a long way to covering
up a multitude of sins. I am not a big fan of pub extensions
that feel like those prefabricated village halls, though
this had the saving grace of a magnificent Yelvertoft
Football Club trophy sitting in the corner.
Chequers,
Swinford, Leicestershire.
I asked the landlord, "Am I in Northamptonshire
or Warwickshire?" Apparently, I was in Leicestershire.
This pub has been a pub since the early 1800's and was
probably stables before that. Until recently, there
were three pubs in Swinford: Cross Keys across the street,
now a house; and The Cave Arms at the top of the village,
named after the Cave
family. I decided to have lunch here because the
landlord told me that 20% of his turnover was food,
while it it not uncommon to find pubs where 80% of their
turnover is food. What did I have? A Red
Leicestershire Cheese Ploughman's, of course!
More Pictures: 1
Cherry
Tree, Catthorpe, Leicestershire.
Frankton Bagby Toastmaster 5.0... I even turned down
a Hook Norton to taste this one, and I am glad I did.
I was in the Cherry Tree at lunchtime in midweek, and
there was about a dozen people in, drinking, talking.
One guy stepped away from the bar, cell phone in one
hand, pint of beer in the other, explaining to a client
on the other end of the phone that he could not possibly
get to that job this afternoon, he was just way too
busy. For all these guests, and all their beer &
food demands, the lone landlady seemed to be coping
very well.
Halfway
House, Kilsby, Warwickshire.
This review, as honest and as forthright as I considered
it to be, has been removed at the request parties involved
in running the Halfway House. If you wish to find out
if my review was a good one or a bad one, I encourage
you to visit this establishment for yourself, and make
up your own mind.
Royal
Hotel, Bath, Somerset.
A lovely old traditional building, built on the trade
from Bath Spa railway station across the street. But
for all its opulent trimmings, plush
bar and old-world feel, the outstanding memory will
be that the Old Speckled Hen beer was £2.90 a
pint, almost 50% than I would expect to pay elsewhere.
As a one-off I am willing to pay, if only to experience
the pub, the beer, the clientele, the atmosphere, but
I could not afford to come here on a regular basis,
and even if I could afford it, I would still not pay
£2.90 a pint.
Carrington
Arms, Moulsoe, Buckinghamshire.
An experience on several levels. I had never had a pint
of beer thrown at me by the barmaid before today (although
I may have deserved it from time to time); and I had
never ordered my meal in a pub component-by-component,
until today. I moved onto a half of the Tanner's Jack,
and the meal tasted much better! The name Moulsoe derives
from old english, being a persons name + hoh, and means
'Mul's spur of land'.
John
Cabot, Bristol, Somerset.
John Cabot was a merchant seafaring adventurer capitalist
from Italy, who moved to Bristol in 1493 because he
could get the financial backing he needed to go on his
maritime voyages. It is said that he landed on Newfoundland
in 1797 and did a whole lot of other landing stuff up
and down the Atlantic coast. His 'discovery' of Newfoundland
in 1797 with just one ship (the 'Matthew') rather than
the standard compliment of three to five, should not
be underestimated. It caused a sensation in England,
which had been falling behind the Spanish and the Italians
on the world stage. Historians argue that this discovery
launched England in the successful race to be a world
power. The pub is okay too. 1
(why we were in Bristol) and 2
(John Cabot)
Hop
Pole, Bath, Somerset.
Butcombe Bitter Gold; Bath Ales Spa; Bath Ales Barnstormer;
Bath Ales Festivity... Need I say more? A shop front
for Bath
Ales, the Hope Pole has a great feel about it for
being refurbished.
Paneled walls, spartan decoration, with the focus on
beer, and quietly on food (for which it has quite a
good reputation without being showy about it). This
is definitely on the short list for a revisit!
Park
Tavern, Bath, Somerset.
We were initially disappointed when we walked through
the door, as the only real beer on offer was Courage
Best, hardly adventurous fare. But once you sit down
in a pub with some good friends and start chatting and
have a couple of pints of pretty good beer, and maybe
pull a few trivia books off the shelves, well, things
develop, and continue developing until closing time.
This pub may be intrinsically moderate, but it will
forever hold fond memories for me.
