Propping Up the Bar in Cheltenham Spa

This was my first visit to Cheltenham since coming for the football in 2006.  I was surprised that absolutely nothing in the town centre looked familiar to me, which means my memory isn't what it used to be, or that I imagined my 00's ground-hopping and Forest being in the third division.

The day started - as all the best days do - in 'Spoons before midday.

The Moon Under Water (16-24 Bath Road, Cheltenham, GL50 7HA)
A bit of a photography fail on this, the second JDW branch in the town.  It's basically an old car showroom with a greenhouse on the front of it - unlikely to win any awards for most spectacular Spoons architecture.

Inside, it's spacious, stretching a fair way back, with the bar in the middle, and some nice decking overlooking a narrow bit of the River Chelt at the very back.  The Moon Under Water still bills itself as a Lloyds No1, with glitter balls, a dance floor, and adverts for DJ Rob suggesting this wouldn't be the ideal place to settle with a paperback for a quiet Saturday evening pint.

A limited menu due to some kitchen issues was probably the reason we found this place very quiet at midday (the more central Bank House Spoons had been packed when we passed it).

I was impressed by the line-up of cask ales - beers from Oakham, Wolf, Salopian, Kirkstall, and Glamorgan breweries on this visit.
I picked the Salopian 'Time Machine', starting the day at a sensible strength of 3.9%.  Let's see how long my beer choices remain 'sensible'.

Two great value pints later, we departed from Spoons and made a short walk from the Moon Under Water onto the High Street and out to the town's best known beer drinking pub.
A previous National Pub of the Year, winning the CAMRA award in 2015.

Sandford Park Ale House (20 High Street, Cheltenham, GL50 1DZ)
Entering through the front door, you can circumnavigate the whole pub.  There is a staircase to some upper rooms in the middle, a pleasant snug to one side, bar billiards in the next room, and the bar counter in the corner by the doors to a pleasant back garden.

The beer selection was pretty spectacular: 9 ales on cask making it tricky to pick one.  I decided it was cloudy and chilly enough for the dark stuff, ordering a Hop Shed 'Phoenix Porter'.

We had a bit of a pub food fail here, with the wrong items arriving at the table.  We got extra fries to compensate, but that was far more fries that I needed.   To top this off, I went back to the bar for an unwise half of the 8.4% Verdant 'What Are Dreams Made Of?'

We should really had have a good long walk to aid the digestion after the Ale House.
But instead we bowled into our next venue, The Strand, just a couple of hundred meters along the road.

The Strand (40-42 High Street, Cheltenham, GL50 1EE)
The beers in this bright, airy bar were listed on a giant mind-boggling wooden board to the side of the counter.  It looked like they had a Red Willow takeover, with all 4 cask beers and 7 of the keg picks coming from the Macclesfield brewery.
I ordered a Red Willow 'F200 Nelson Idaho 7', because I love a catchy name.

If I'm going to pick faults with The Strand, I'll grumble about the uncomfortable high stools.  But it serves a purpose as a modern craft bar; the beer was on decent form; and there was a good range of folk in the L-shaped room, tucking into plates of food and enjoying a wide range of drink options.

 

We moved on before Mrs PropUptheBar could spot the rum and caramel boozy shakes on the drinks menu.

Next up, we decided to venture a little further outside the town centre to visit the Kemble Brewery Tap, a 2024 Good Beer Guide entry, although it has dropped out in the new edition.
Our route took us past some impressive street art...

We found our route to the pub through some pleasant side streets (thanks Google, I'd have struggled in the days when I relied on a hand-scribbled inaccurate map of inconsistent scale). 

The Kemble Brewery (27 Fairview Street, Cheltenham, GL52 2JF)
Disappointingly, it's not a brewery at all.  What a fiddle.
In fact, it was originally built as a butchers shop in 1845, before becoming a pub in 1847.  At one point, a landlord produced cider in the back yard, which seems to be where it got the name from. 
It's a single narrow room, pretty traditional, with various instruments hung from the walls.

I ordered a half of Salopian 'Lemon Dream' - other options being Salopian 'Darwin', Wye Valley 'Butty Bach' and 'HPA', the latter two billed on a small balckboard as "Kemble Inn favourites".
A good quality beer, in a reasonably comfy pub, although I'm not sure we really needed to make the trek out of town to it.

Our next destination was the Bath Tavern.

The Bath Tavern (68 Bath Road, Cheltenham, GL53 7JT)
I do believe that this was once an unspoilt trad city pub, run by the same family for some 130 years.  Although I've arrived a bit too late, with it now under new management and having had a bit of a refurb and smartening-up.
That said it was still a pleasant place to sit and while away 30-minutes and sheltered us from a sudden rain shower.
The Wye Valley 'HPA' was the sole cask option, and was on reasonable form.

I'd promised Mrs PropUptheBar craft beer in Cheltenham.
So let's put the remaining GBG pubs on hold for a future visit and delve into some stupidly strong keg murk in Planet Caravan - not just a Black Sabbath album track.

Planet Caravan (25 Bath Street, Cheltenham, GL50 1YA)
Somewhat dangerously, this bar in a converted estate agent was hosting a Left Handed Giant tap takeover on our visit.
Just pick something easy-going and sensible.
Ooooh! 'Blender Celebration' - a 12% imperial stout blend.  Doh!

It was probably for the best that this small bar was uncomfortably busy whilst we were there, lest we decide to stay and work our way through more of the LHG beers.  Even the upstairs room was full - and upstairs rooms in micros never get full.  My dinky wooden stool was situated on the dog-leg of the route through the bar, necessitating acrobatic movements to avoid being clobbered by folk on their way to the WCs.

Right.  We'd switched from the cask to the craft, so we may as well continue the theme.
We headed into the bustling Brewery Quarter, where there is little left of the old West Country Brewery, closed in 1998 and demolished (with the exception of the main brew house) in 2004.
In this entertainment quarter you'll now find Brewhouse & Kitchen, the Botanist, Alchemist, Cosy Club, and all those sorts of things.
And Brewdog, who opened this branch in February 2022...

Brewdog Cheltenham (Unit 3, The Brewery Quarter, Henrietta Street, Cheltenham, GL50 4FA)
I know it has been a while since Brewdog were hip and trendy, and this was a serious distraction from ticking off the beer guide pubs.  But we've got a little collection of those Brewdog venue postcards and wanted a Cheltenham one.

The branch of the chain is situated in a former restaurant - one big square room with a high ceiling with some odd foliage hanging from it.  Plenty of people on the high tables closest to the bar, although the half set aside for eating was looking painfully quiet for a Saturday evening.

I do appreciate the choice of beers at Bewdog, displayed on the giant white illuminated beer board, especially their guest options.  A Fuerst Wiacek 'Feral' double IPA was the beer that threatened to send me to sleep on the train journey home.

And it was toward that train home that we headed.
With a quick stop at the Railway en-route.  

Thank you, Cheltenham, for a pleasant day out.
We will be back, as we forgot to do any sight-seeing, have another Wetherspoons to call in to, and several more pubs to visit.  And it's a much easier train trip from Oxford via Worcester than I'd previously thought.

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?

The Haunted Staircase of Oundle

After exploring Peterborough, we opted to call in to the east Northamptonshire town of Oundle for a brewery tap and a pub with a ghost story.

Oundle is an ancient market town that is home to around 6,250 gentlefolk - and I'm sure they are gentlefolk...you're not in the wilds of Wellingborough here.
The market square has been a filming location for The Crown, there's an annual pipe organ festival, and Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickenson attended the 468 year old, very smart-looking Oundle School.

But we were starting our visit right on the edge of town, at a small retail complex where you can pick up some cycling gear, freshly baked bread, and a get your kitchen redesigned in contemporary style.  Oundle Wharf - for this is where we were - is also home to Nene Valley Brewery.
They have a taproom next door, opened in 2014 in a renovated waterside warehouse...

Tap & Kitchen (Oundle Wharf, Station Road, Oundle, PE8 4DE)
The Tap has a handy 11:30am opening time, although I still felt wary walking in pre-noon when a staff member pounced on us and asked if she could help.  It's a single room divided into several seating areas.  The kitchen seems to be the main focus, rather than the tap, although we were left to our own devices to order at the bar and chose where to sit.

There were three cask ales on offer, all relatively low strength, plus another six beers on draft.  All listed on a slightly awkward to read blackboard, with no labels on the pumps.
Our choices of 'Blond Session Ale' and 'Simple Pleasures' were...hmm...okay.  Served in decent condition, but just a little bit plain - I should have gone for the 'Egyptian Cream' on keg.

There is lovely seating outside on both sides of an inlet of the River Nene.  Although it could probably do with a bit of a clean-up - I spotted a bit of algae on the water...

No swimming

We made our way into the heart of the town, admiring the numerous picturesque buildings and making a visit to the Chapel of St Anthony. 
This has the tallest spire in Northamptonshire, at 210-feet high.

I'm afraid that we weren't so taken by the interior, but we had been in Peterborough cathedral at 10am that morning, so St Anthony had some pretty stiff competition on the day.
We moved on to the investigate the posh hotel with a ghost story...

Talbot Hotel (New Street, Oundle, PE8 4EA)
The Talbot was rebuilt in 1626 using stone from the ruins of Fotheringhay Castle, although there is believed to have been an inn on the site for many years prior to that.

We strolled into the bar to the right of the entrance archway, then down a couple of steps to the bar counter, waiting patiently (me, patient?!) for anyone from the staff to turn up and serve us.  Top marks to the lady who did eventually arrive to pull the beers - she was super-friendly and helpful, giving us a bit of history of the hotel.

At glance at Whatpub had suggested we'd have to endure a Doom Bar in the Talbot, so the choice of two beers by Digfield Brewery, located a few miles to the south of Oundle, was a nice surprise.

  
Mary Queen of Scots was executed at Fotheringhay Castle in 1587, leading to inevitable claims that she haunts the pub.  The staircase in the bar is said to be the very one that she descended on the way to her execution.
Here's the (allegedly) haunted staircase... 

A well in the yard was reputed to produce drumming noises as a portent of imminent death and there is a story that a picture of Mary's execution has been known to tumble off the wall of its own accord.
I thought I may have found a pub for a 2024 Halloween post, except there really was nothing very spooky about the Talbot Hotel.  All very modernised, with some garishly coloured furnishings, adverts for wedding receptions (from just £3999), and customers tucking into coffee and cake.

We skipped the Rose and Crown - which I'll probably now discover was the best in town - and walked along West Street to the Beer Guide listed Ship...

The Ship Inn (18 West Street, Oundle, PE8 4EF)
This is a fine looking stone pub with coaching entrance to one side and a hallway leading to a restaurant and bar.  It has a pleasing olde worlde feel to it, with black-painted wooden beams, a proper pub carpet, big fireplace, and decorative copper kitchenware.  Being called the Ship, there is a ship's wheel and lots of maritime paintings - they're just missing a display of knots.

We arrived when the pub was quiet - the staff giving the pump clips their weekly polish.
There were two beers on the bar: St Austell 'Tribute' or Brewsters 'Hophead'.  The latter for me - another sub 4% pale ale from the Lincolnshire brewery.

We squeezed in one more Northamptonshire pub after travelling across the county during the afternoon.
We made it to the village of Stoke Bruerne which has a couple of pubs and an Indian restaurant on the side of the Grand Union Canal, by the locks and narrow road bridge.
The Boat Inn is on the left-side of my canal pic - lurking in the shadow to defy a better pub photo.

The Boat Inn (Bridge Road, Stoke Bruerne, NN12 7SB)
This is a grade II listed inn which has been run by the same family since 1877.  It is a much extended place with a modern wood panelled bar on the car park side, and several extensions with tables ready for the food trade.
But step in through the door by the canal and there are a couple of cracking basic pub rooms.

The beer selection from the Marston's stable was plentiful yet not especially exciting: New World, Old Empire, Wainwright, Razorback, Banks's Amber, and a St Austell 'Tribute'.

My 'New World Pale Ale' was a decent form, accompanying a filling plate of food.

I was chuffed to see the Northamptonshire skittles... 

But just had one quick go at knocking down the pins, paranoid at how much noise I was making.

And that was our last port of call.  A day when the locations and September blue skies had been better than the beers, to be honest.
But at least I've got a lovely pub sign picture to end the post on.