The Clifton Arms, Caversham

In which I journey into Reading, Caversham, and Tilehurst 😨 in search of the first new ticks in my 2025 edition of the Good Beer Guide.
The September forecast was for showers which I naively thought we could dodge.  Hopping off the train at Reading station, we crossed the Thames into Christchurch Meadows, where the heavens opened and I got chastised for not bringing anything waterproof.
Our intended destination was The Clifton Arms...but the Fox & Hounds came first...

The Fox and Hounds (51 Gosbrook Road, Caversham, RG4 8BN)
This is a cracking, well-known, Berkshire pub, with a well-deserved reputation for cask ales and craft beer.
Five cask options to pick from, featuring Arbor, Brass Castle, Wylam, Fyne, and the local Elusive Brewery.  I stuck local myself, with a fine 'Arc' pale ale from Elusive.  Served by a friendly young man who got into a discussion with us about how many people dived into pint measures of sour beers (more than we'd imagine).

This was probably the quietest I've seen the Fox & Hounds, although the clock had only just ticked past noon.  But I didn't need a crowd of folk to be content this lunchtime, sheltered from the rain, pint of pale ale in a handled mug, Fontaines DC in the background never sounding so good.

I know it was only supposed to be a quick stop for a bit of shelter, but I couldn't resist picking something else from the craft selection.  That'd be a Verdant 10 years celebration 8% double-IPA collaboration with US brewery Fidens.  Mmmmm.

Here's a bit of blue plaque history on the outside of the Fox & Hounds...

The rain had stopped.
And we were thirty seconds brisk walk down the road from the new Beer Guide entry, The Clifton Arms.
So, to be honest, we didn't really need to stop to shelter in the Fox & Hounds, which just shows it was a sham excuse to start the day on double-IPAs. 

The Clifton Arms (12 Gosbrook Road, Caversham, RG4 8BS)
I must have walked past this a fair few times, having (I think) visited all the other nearby Caversham pubs.  It's a proper traditional boozer that has been in the hands of the same landlady since 1995.
With a needy dog that gets the best bit of cushioned bench seating in the house and multiple signs telling us she doesn't need buggers like us waking her up to be stroked.

  

The 2025 Beer Guide is looking good, even though I much prefer 2024's Iron Maiden cover to fictional pubs from soap operas.  The counties are back in alphabetical order, which is a very welcome improvement, meaning it doesn't take me five minutes trying to find the region I live in.
I have four new Oxfordshire pubs to visit, and seven to keep up with the completion of neighbouring Berkshire.  We'd reduce that by two on this trip.

But just remember that the Good Beer Guide doesn't always lead you to the places with the widest or most exotic real ale choices...

So, we had a beer I wasn't especially excited by and a dog I couldn't stroke.
But, on the plus side, Mrs PropUptheBar could watch Chelsea winning on the TV (she'd skipped the Brakspear, "the original taste of Oxfordshire" (according to the pump clip), and was drinking J2O).
There were a decent number of punters in for the early hour, someone feeding the jukebox and lining up hard rock classics to compete with the football commentary.

There was no 8% craft beer to tempt me into a second in the Clifton Arms, so we moved on, getting an 'enjoy your day' and 'cheerio' from the locals, which is always a good sign. 
We crossed the river again and walked back into the busy centre of Reading, aiming for somewhere I'd not been for many a year.

Zero Degrees Microbrewery and Restaurant (9 Bridge Street, Reading, RG1 2LR)
Part of a small chain, this brewpub opened in Reading in 2007.  It stretches from a frontage of a traditional red-brick building on Gun Street (the restaurant bit), to the modern steel frame construction at the back on Bridge Street (the bar and brewery bit).
I've always found it a bit of a 'cold' place with a sparse choice of seating around the bar - none of it comfy.

But I've had a fair few good beers here over the years, including getting caught out by a 6% Märzen that didn't mix well with rum cask cider in the Ale House.

On this occasion I was drawn to the Black Lager, the other option being their signature mango pale ale.
Exmoor pull off calling a beer 'The Beast' quite well. 
This 4.6% lager didn't really live up to the name.

Zero Degrees provide the latest shiny brewing equipment pictures for the blog...

Thank you very much to Mrs PropUptheBar for the pizza and beer in Zero Degrees.  Although she wasn't feeling quite so generous to treat me to the Meter-Long...

Doesn't say how wide it is though, does it?!

We drank up swiftly after checking bus times, and jumped straight aboard a waiting Purple 17 to Tilehurst.
Where the sun always shines.
The blue skies over our next Beer Guide listed pub were a dramatic change from the lunchtime rain.

The Victoria (1 Norcot Road, Tilehurst, RG30 6BP)
Of all the new places to visit in Berkshire in the new beer guide, I hadn't expected to be making a trek into Tilehurst again.  Perhaps I should have just started at the sizzling grill Tylers Rest and crawled around the lot, pre-empting Reading CAMRA sticking the next one in the guide!

At the Victoria we found a trio of real ales available: Pride, alongside seasonal offerings from Butcombe or St Austell.
I ordered a pint of the St Austell 'Thunder Struck', 'cos...y'know...AC/DC.

In a previous life this pub was called The White House, under the stewardship of the long-gone Blatch's Brewery of Theale.
It has undergone a big refurbishment in 2014 turning it into everything you'd expect from a suburban all-rounder.

It was doing a roaring Saturday afternoon trade, with sandwiches laid out for some sort of function in one area, and folks being drawn to the garden by the revitalised weather.
We grabbed one of the last remaining tables where we could keep track of the latest football scores on a TV screen.
You'll spot the young lad in his replica Forest kit in the picture above.  I got chatting football with his Derby-county supporting granddad.  Only for the youngster - in his glorious Forest kit - to pipe up "I'm Spurs, me".

Crucially, that St Austell beer was on good form. 
Two new Berkshire pubs from the Good Beer Guide, both serving good beer.  Who would have thought it?

Green Tiny Rebel in the Nags Head

The arrival of Tiny Rebel's 11th birthday beers at the Nags Head provided Mrs PropUptheBar with an excuse to make a rare midweek excursion to drink 11% triple IPA's.
And an excuse for me to set out early and visit a couple of Beer Guide pubs either side of Reading beforehand.

First up:The Wheelwright's Arms, located around 5-miles from Reading, within walking distance from Winnersh station which was, on this occasion, being served by rail replacement buses.   Somebody had managed to search out the most decrepit double-deckers in the Thames Valley to ferry the handful of passengers through the suburbs...Gaffer tape covered the rips in the seats and possibly held the rest of the bus together too.

Once I'd made it to Winnersh it was a walk up Robin Hood Lane, across the motorway, then a left turn into a quiet lane which took me to the pub.

The Wheelwight's Arms (Davis Way, St Nicholas Hurst, RG10 0TR - web)
Being a Wadworth house, the real ale options on the bar were 'Horizon', Henry's IPA', 'Swordfish', or '6X', with two hand pumps for each making it look like there was more choice than there really was. 

It's a fair trek from Reading for a pint of 6X.
Yet I was quite content sitting next to the unlit fireplace, reading the paper and sipping my beer.  The old 18th century building was once a wheelwright's shop - hence the name.  It has been extended to the rear to provide more dining space, but the front section has wooden beams and chunky stone walls, retaining a little bit of a country pub feel to it.  

I doubt they'd pick the cricket-themed wallpaper for the gents again.  Looks like some wag decided every cricketer needed additional detail adding in the crotch region, before somebody else has followed them around with an eraser, trying to restore some decency...

With the pub tick done in St Nicholas Hurst, I headed back into Reading and hopped aboard the Purple 17 bus to take me out through the wild west of town.
This deposited me in Tilehurst and within a housing estates walk of 2023 Beer Guide re-entry, the Royal Oak.

The Royal Oak (69 Westwood Glen, Tilehurst, RG31 5NW)
Now completely surrounded by the expansion of Tilehurst, in times gone by it would have been a walk across the fields to get to this old pub.  A Greene King sign marks the bottom of the steep driveway leading up to the inn.
The two main rooms, each with their own bar counter, are quite different: cosy upstairs, more spartan downstairs.

It's a wet-led pub serving two real ales from anonymous pumps with no clips attached.  Further investigation revealed a blackboard advertising Windsor & Eton 'Guardsman' and Greene King's seasonal six nations brew 'Scrum Down'.

Picking the rugby-themed beer again!
GK 'Scrum Down' served in a Wild Weather glass.

I was under strict instructions from Mrs PropUptheBar to get to the Nags Head early and make sure that nobody drank all the Coffee and Popcorn Stout before she arrived.
But I gambled that the Tiny Rebel craft wouldn't be selling quite that fast on a midweek afternoon and that I could make one more random pub visit in Tilehurst.
The Plough - that'll do...

The Plough (78 School Road, Tilehurst, RG31 5AW)
This was very much a locals pub, an open plan room stretching around a long bar counter.  All quite recently smartened up, but long enough ago for the tub chairs to acquire all manner of dubious stains.
Pints of Carling looked to be the norm for the locals sat at the bar, although the lone cask hand pump was serving a Loddon 'Hocus Pocus' which was a nice surprise.  And not a half bad pint of dark ale either.

I sat in the window alcove on the far left of the pub, with the bus stop just a few meters away, wondering if it was possible to neck my pint when I saw a bus coming down the road and get out in time to catch it. 
No.  It's not.  You can just about make it in time to see the back of it disappearing towards Reading, but luckily they're pretty frequent.

After waiting a short while in the cold, the bus took me down along the chaos of Oxford Road where I hopped off and made the familiar trek to the Nags Head.

Nags Head (5 Russell Street, Reading RG1 7XD - web)
It's tough to find a happy medium in the Nags - head down on a sporty Saturday and it can be uncomfortably busy - Thursday late afternoon was perhaps a little too quiet.  But at least it meant I got to settle in my favourite seat next to the framed game of Risk on the wall, which must mean something to someone.

The keg lines had been dedicated to Tiny Rebel who'd concocted 8 new beers in various styles to celebrate their 11th birthday.
All with colourful pump clips depicting traditional beer ingredients such as doughnuts, ice cream, pineapple and shortbread fingers.

The letters page in the Metro covered the major issue that W.H from South Gloucestershire can't get a decent bag of crisps in the pub.
I was quite happy with my Jalapeno Real hand cooked crisps, accompanying the Tiny Rebel beers that I'd brought two at a time and gotten mixed up as to which was which.

 

It turned into quite a long day.
We got hooked on the Europa league footy on the TV and accidentally tried all eight of the Tiny Rebel birthday beers before we remembered we had a train home to catch.

Reading Ale Trail 2019

We'd begun the challenge of the 2019 Reading Ale Trail a week ago and clocked up 10 of the 24 pubs so far.  This weekend our plan saw us setting out early on a Saturday morning, catching the train to Reading, then grabbing a day-pass for the buses.  The aim was to tick off a couple of pubs on the western and southern fringes of the map.
Jet Black 1 (not quite as cool a bus as the name suggests) took us to the village of Woolhampton and our first stop of the day...

PUB 11: The Rowbarge (Station Road, Woolhampton, RG7 5SH - website)

The 18th century Rowbarge pub at Woolhampton

Smart interiors - the Rowbarge

I've not knowingly visited a Brunning and Price pub previously and various pub blogging reports of them hadn't made me excited to break that duck.  B&P's own website claims "each pub has it's own style and flavour", although plenty of folk contest this and accuse them of being very formulaic.
Cut flowers on the table, lots of black & white framed pictures on the walls, scatter cushions, Baylis and Harding soap in the bathrooms...
But their pubs have a strong presence in the Good Beer Guide due to commendable dedication to cask ale. The Rowbarge holds the crown of West Berkshire CAMRA regional pub of the year, and justifying this there was a good range of beers on with several local breweries represented. We settled down in the front room with an Indiginous 'Nosey Parker', a great 5% mild in good condition.
The Rowbarge has a wonderful location, next to the canal with a large outdoor area which would be a winner in the warmer months.  Arriving just after 11am there were only a couple of other customers and we'd left before an inevitable bottle-neck on the single-track canal bridge as family 4x4's arrive for gastro-pub dining experiences.  The phone at the bar had been ringing constantly for table reservations whilst we'd been there.

Heading back to the main road we hopped back on the Jet Black 1 in the direction we'd come and alighted at Theale.
South of the village, past the railway station, our second destination was a short walk away... 

PUB 12: Fox & Hounds (Station Road, Sheffield Bottom, Theale, RG7 4BE - website)

This pub is around 200 years old, previously a farmers inn called the Drum and Monkey.

Fox & Hounds, Sheffield Bottom, Theale

Not a recognised pub snack.

I was initially sceptical as the beer guide entry stated that "the emphasis is on food" and sure enough, on entering, the staff hit us with a "will you be dining with us?". 
On this occasion we decided it would be a good option for lunch, but visiting for just a drink would have been fine.

The Fox and Hounds advertise themselves as "Britain's dog-friendliest pub" and have won a string of accolades for this.  Almost every customer who walked in seemed to have brought their dog for a lunchtime pub experience.
But today the show is well and truly stolen by Bear, an enormous St Bernard and apparently a bit of a pub regular.  Something of a celebrity, he's stroked and photographed and his owners answer a string of questions whilst diligently mopping up the copious amount of saliva that Bear deposits behind him.

St Bernard, Bear, blocks the route to the bar

The pub is a Wadworth house and, whilst okay, I never really get overly excited by their beers. But lunch was excellent and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend visiting here.  The sticky toffee pudding for dessert fueled us with the energy required to tackle Tilehurst.

There are no less than THREE Fox & Hounds on this year's Reading Ale Trail - we'd started the trail in the Caversham one, had thoroughly enjoyed swooning over big slobbery dogs in the second and were on our way to the third, to achieve Fox and Hound completion.
We'd decided to tackle the next leg of the journey on foot and had roughly a 3-mile walk ahead of us.  This involved following the Kennet & Avon canal, then branching off to the right into fields, across the railway line and finally into residential streets.  I'd made a detailed map of how to navigate these suburban crescents and cul-de-sacs. 
But I left it at home, so we inevitably got lost.
Walking through an alleyway I was still insisting I knew where I was and proclaimed that the pub would probably be right in front of us at the end of the alley.
And it was!

Fox & Hounds No.3

PUB 13: Fox and Hounds (116 City Road, Tilehurst, RG31 5SB - website)
We were the odd ones out here, being obviously the only non-locals.
At all previous pubs on the Ale Trail we needed to request the stickers for our booklet, but the girl behind the bar offered them to us here, without us asking.
Strange folk arriving and ordering half's of real ale...."how did you know we were collecting the ale trail stickers?"
"Sometimes you can just tell..." she replied.

A chap in the front room near us was talking about Frank Carter's circle-pit around the tent at Reading Festival last year.  Which is the sort of conversation I'd happily have joined, but this was a quick visit, plus whoever heard of doing crazy things like talking to strangers in pubs?!
A pretty ordinary half pint of Hogsback 'T.E.A' finished, we moved on quickly to catch a bus.
The number 33 took us on a touristic route through the housing estates of Tilehurst.
Bus fatigue was setting in as we caught another from the centre, southbound to the village of Shinfield.

PUB 14: Magpie & Parrot (Arborfield Road, Shinfield, RG2 9EA)

Strange things you find in pubs

The Ale Trail had promised to throw up somewhere a little different in its selection of pubs.  And the Magpie and Parrot was just that.
Located just off to the edge of the village, this is a roadside country house, with the bar housed in the extension to it's right. It is a fantastically quirky place  with two small rooms, filled to the rafters with a treasure trove of odd decorations.  On one side of the fireplace the pub dog is curled up in an armchair, to the other side the landlady is sitting reading her Stephen King paperback.
There's a framed long-service award stating that she's been doing this for 35-years - running the pub that is.

The Magpie and Parrot has limited opening hours, serves food at lunchtimes only (with the exception of a popular Friday evening fish supper) and just features the one hand-pull on the bar serving up Fullers 'London Pride'. But this was well kept and an enjoyable pint in a pub that I really liked. 

It's a dogs life...  The Magpie and Parrot, Shinfield

With ten pubs remaining on the Ale Trail, we called it a day and caught the train back to Oxford.  The Pint Shop on George Street was closing on this evening, so we made an effort to get back there for a last visit.
More Ale Trailing next week...