The Red Lion at Yarnton

I'm keeping it local here, with a short trip on a wintry Saturday to the recently reopened Red Lion in the village of Yarnton.
Throughout the day we found lots of dogs, an argumentative customer, Bass disappointment, and a raucous Saturday evening crowd in the latest incarnation of the Grapes.

Yarnton is just a 4-mile rush-hour traffic jam away from central Oxford and home to around 2,750 folk.  I can't find anything remarkable to report about Yarnton - typing it into Google brought up the local garden centre in 6 of the top 7 search results.

So, let's head straight to the pub, which very nearly disappeared.

The Red Lion (127 Cassington Road, Yarnton, OX5 1QD)
We did a minibus tour of half a dozen Oak Taverns pubs back in October, completing the day at the Crown in Marcham.  At the time, The Crown had just become the 15th Oak Taverns pub - since then,The Red Lion has become the 16th.

The stories of both are remarkably similar.  The Red Lion was closed by Admiral Taverns in the summer of 2022, the future of a village pub looking very uncertain.  An attempt by the local community to buy it failed; then Oak Taverns stepped in, gave it a lick of paint, and opened it with their drinks-led, community pub focus. 

The cask range wasn't quite as impressive as those we found on our October trip.  Butcombe from Somerset, St Austell from Cornwall, XT from Buckinghamshire providing the local option.
We started on the cider, being dispensed from a box at the back of the bar in the picture above, before I returned to the bar for the XT '3' - a sessionable IPA on good form.

What was nice to see was that the Red Lion was doing a good Saturday afternoon trade, including families, ladies talking needle craft, and LOTS of dog walkers.  There was an impressive collection of muddy wellington boots by the door by the time we left.

I figured we should really check out the other pub on the edge of the village whilst in the vicinity.

The Turnpike Inn (2 Woodstock Road, Yarnton, OX5 1PJ)
These buildings were originally a set of roadside cottages which were converted into an inn called the Bunch of Grapes.  It picked up its current name when the road on which it stands became a toll booth controlled turnpike in 1719.

Entry is via the back door from the car park, leading into a small area by the bar which offers up a couple of tables for the casual drinker.

Our arrival coincided with a lady having an extended argument, waving the menu at the manager.  What it was about I have no idea, but it was long-winded.  I felt sorry for the husband, sat well out the way, then given cup of coffee and told to drink it quickly as we're leaving.
The manager had remained professionally calm, but pulled the Purity hand-pump more aggressively than necessary when I was eventually served my 'Mad Goose'.

Not a bad pint, to be fair (Doom Bar being the alternative).
The rest of this large place consists of tables very much set up for dining within the refurbished old rooms.  No photo's to remind me what it looked like but, for reasons now forgotten, I felt it important to get a record of the botanic wallpaper in the gents...

We hopped aboard the next Oxford-bound bus, alighting partway down Banbury Road.
Our destination was North Parade, which is one of Oxford's great little streets and contains two pubs - the consistently good Rose & Crown and the Gardeners Arms.

The Gardeners Arms (8 North Parade Avenue, Oxford, OX2 6LX)
It used to be a bit like a time-warp stepping into this place, a former Morrell's pub, opened in 1872.  The same tenants ran the Gardeners for 30 years before retiring in 2022.
Reopened in October '23, it is now being operated by the Morgan Pub Co.

And they delighted me with the rare - nay, unheard of - sight of Bass in Oxford city centre.

A short-lived delight, as it was way past it's best, murky with aroma of egg.
Our beers were changed with no fuss for the other cask option, Brew York's 'Calmer Chameleon', a session strength tropical pale ale.  But no substitute for the Bass.

This a narrow pub with some classic leather-padded bench seating in the front section, bar in the middle and a handful of tables to the rear.
Nice to have the evening Premier League match on TV for us to keep an eye on, although this is one of those pubs where there really isn't a suitable place to stick a large screen.  Only the departure of the folks on the high stools enabled me to see it.

We ordered veggie hot dogs then felt rather guilty that the one chap behind the bar seemed to be jack of all trades, whizzing upstairs to prepare our food, then back to man the bar.

Fed and watered, we just had time to call into the Grapes on George Street, also in the hands of the same pub company as the Gardeners Arms.

The Grapes (7 George Street, Oxford, OX1 2AT)
This is somewhere that has gone through a number of identities in recent years and spent some time closed.  But it seems to be back to it's best in the latest incarnation.

Okay, the high tables aren't going to be to everyone's taste and I'll probably fall off one of those stools one day.  But it's tastefully decorated with a plethora of pictures filling the wall opposite the bar, vinyl lined up next to a record player, a stack of board games, and big TVs now installed to show sporting fixtures.

And the choice of beer is superb - six hand pumps offering Harvey's 'Sussex Best' (my pick this time, an easy NBSS4) alongside five constantly changing guests.
Taps line the length of the bar back and offer Mrs PropUptheBar the chance to pick something sour and complain that it's too sour.

This proved a rewarding local day out.  With three of the pubs we'd visited having recently spent time closed it was super to see them open and doing a good job (that Bass excepted!).