Living in a Box

The first of a few Wiltshire pubs on the blog.  Several weeks ago I paid a visit to the village of Box which sits on the A4 between Bath and Chippenham.

I may not have set foot here before, but I had whizzed under Box Hill on Brunel's 1.83 mile railway tunnel on numerous occasions traveling on Bristol-bound trains.

The Faresaver X31 bus from Bath dropped me in the village centre.   But beware: it's still some way up a steep hill to a neighbouring hamlet to get to the local Good Beer Guide pub.

I guess the fact that the Quarrymans Arms promotes great views gives a clue that it's gonna be uphill.
But I hadn't prepared for quiet how out-of-breath I was going to get trekking up the lanes and on footpaths through the woods to Box Hill.  I was fairly hot 'n' sweaty and unpresentable by the time I reached the pub.
Not for the first or last time.

Quarrymans Arms (Box Hill, Box, SN13 8HN - web)

This is a charming single-storey, vine covered pub, dating back some 250 years.  Relatively small within, the front section has some bench seating and rustic wooden tables, with pewter tankards and pump clips adorning the beams.  The rear room looked intended for diners, with the best seats in the house being those by the picture window where the views were indeed spectacular.

A Butcombe house, three of the beers were their own: 'Best', 'Gold' and 'Chinook', with a fourth from Liberation of Jersey being a fruity, chewy 'West Coast IPA'.
Priced at a countryside dining pub beer tariff rate. 
I took my pint to the outdoor tables at the top of the slopes overlooking the Bybrook Valley.  Which also meant I got to take my scruffy self well out of the way of the handful of immaculately dressed wedding guests who were emerging from the residential rooms.

Cooled down and refreshed with IPA, I made my way back downhill, under threatening grey clouds, into Box.  With a gap before the next bus, I decided it would only be right to call in to the central village pub.

Queens Head (High Street, Box, SN13 8NH - web)
This building dates back to the 1700's and became a coaching inn midway through that century when the new London to Bristol road was opened in 1761.

The front door took me into the Brunel Lounge, with a considerable cake display on the bar...

As I couldn't really imagine being served a pint over the cake stands, and as there wasn't a soul in sight, I walked though into the basic public bar to the side where I felt much more at home.
WhatPub had suggested I'd find Greene King and Wadworth beers here, but it turned there was a more interesting and appealing choice of Bath 'Gem', St Austell 'Cornish Best' and Ramsbury 'Jubilee' on offer.

The Ramsbury was a lovely pint which went down a treat.
Keith Moon picture on the wall, odd sport on TV (paddle racket?), Fosters drinking darts players, a chatty landlord and some inoffensive pop music in the background.  If I wasn't watching the bus times, I could easily have settled in the Queens Head for longer, feeling comfortable in this pleasant village pub.

And visiting Box brought to mind this 1987 number 5 hit, which has nothing to do with the Wiltshire village.  Although if you're looking for musical connections Peter Gabriel is a local resident and has his Real World Studios in Box.

Living in a Box join Talk Talk and Motorhead as bands that released self-titled singles.
Possibly (?) the band with the highest charting single named after themselves?

Enough 80's pop distractions - back to the pubs...and to Chippenham for the next post.