Hungerford in a Heatwave

My afternoon in Hungerford began with a 3-mile walk north from the station to the hamlet of Hungerford Newtown where a new Good Beer Guide 2026 entry awaited.
There was a pleasant footpath to take me most of the way, starting with braving the inquisitive horses in the Wild West.

One day we will see green grass again.
And complain that it's been raining too much.

Yep, this was summer 2026 heatwave number 4.  Fortunately, much of the path was in the shade of trees, enabling me to arrive at the pub in a fairly respectable state. 

The Tally Ho (Newtown RG17 0PP)
For most of the 19th century this site was home to an inn called the Oxford Arms.  That was destroyed by a fire in 1885 and subsequently rebuilt as the Tally Ho.  Wadworth sold the pub in 2012 and it looked set to be turned into residential use, something that was scuppered by locals whose campaigning won out and turned this into a community-run free house.

There were four handpumps along the bar with two in use serving 'Farmers Best' or 'Gold' from Wiltshire brewery Ramsbury. 
Whilst some pubs' decorative display of pump clips cover the whole ceiling, the Tally Ho's numbered just seven on a beam above the bar - including Otter, Spitfire, the long-gone (and much missed) Wild Weather Brewery.  It suggests that the Tally Ho isn't a cask hotspot with ever-changing beers, but I guess they know what they like and what sells.

The 'Farmers Best' was on very good form and went down a treat - seeming much more deserved after my walk to get here.

The couple of tables in front of the bar were a comfortable enough spot, but seemingly the only ones not intended for lunchtime diners.
And it was mighty strange having an off-duty staff member ferrying milk and orange juice from the bar through a door marked private, then settling at the next table with a bowl of breakfast cereal.
The advert-accompanied music on a local radio station (Chilli Peppers, Temptations, Queen...) also seemed a little out of place for the rural pub.
But I do rate the foxes on the mantlepiece...

After making the reverse walk back to Hungerford, I decided I'd revisit to the one pub I have been in previously, the John O'Gaunt.

John O'Gaunt (21 Bridge St, Hungerford RG17 0EG)
I was surprised that this dropped out the 2026 Good Beer Guide after making the previous six editions, but I see that the lease changed hands in 2025 which I expect is the reason why.  

They had a superb selection of beers on cask: Skinners 'Betty Stoggs', Vale 'Black Beauty', Tiny Rebel 'Rave Nation', Left Handed Giant 'Titan' and Bass.  That's before you even delve into the keg range which included Double Barrelled and Oxford's own BMan Brewery.

Predictably, a Bass🔺for me, on decent, if not exceptional, form.  Priced a little steeply a £5.70.
I settled on the high tables by the bar.  The other room is more comfortable with various nooks and crannies, but I didn't want to get in the way of a steady stream of folks coming in to eat.  It was also quieter than the bar, where the music came from a portable stereo on the end of the counter, the pop soundtrack definitely picked by the young staff.  Cardi B and Bad Bunny scared off one chap who sat down, scowled at the speaker, then scurried away with his pint.
PropUptheBar is youthful, was drinking 2026's trendiest beer, and can cope with modern pop for 25-minutes.  Just about.

Next up: the Hungerford Club, which slipped out of Beer Guide favour for a couple of years but is now back, also crowned the West Berks CAMRA Club of the Year.

The Hungerford Club (3 The Croft, Hungerford, RG17 0HY)
The club was founded in 1901 with a library and billiards table in a room at the Church House.  As the local vicar opposed a bar, the club members purchased the current building for the sum of £400 in 1925.
Step inside and there is a snug single table to the left of the door, then a long narrow lounge with cushioned  bench seating hugging the wall.

The bar counter is set back midway along this room with two hand pumps offering Jennings 'Castle Bitter' or Ramsbury 'Farmers Best' on this occasion.
It's been a while since I had a Jennings beer - the 'Castle' being a 3.4% trad English bitter, priced very reasonable £4.10 and served in tip-top condition.

There is always some trepidation strolling into a Beer Guide Club and if I need to explain my presence I invariably stumble over my words and come across as a complete dolt when announcing myself as CAMRA member or Beer Guide owner.
No such qualms here - no 'ring buzzer for entry', no scowls or suspicious "Can I help you?"  A marvellous welcome from a friendly member of staff who had me sign in the visitors book then got chatting about other pubs in the area.

There are a couple of snooker tables in a room to the rear, briefly glimpsed through a serving hatch to the side of the bar.  Other than some snooker players in the distance, I had the place to myself.

With time to visit one more venue, I had a choice between the Borough Arms or the Three Swans Hotel, both highly rated for cask by CAMRA beer scorers.
The hotel won out, being as it was closer and I didn't fancy Wadworth's at the Borough.

The Three Swans Hotel (117 High St, Hungerford, RG17 0LZ)
Since the 17th century the Three Swans has been a coaching inn serving travellers on the road to Bath.  
Their website uses words like 'Elegant', 'genteel' and 'heartfelt hospitality'. 
I'm not gonna like it, am I?
Sure enough it was very bright and modern and smart, with three distinct areas.  It was busy though, with a range of coffee drinkers, families with suitcases, folks on laptops, and gentlefolk passing the afternoon away in somewhere providing respite from the sun.
Not a lot of custom for the two cask ales, though; Ramsbury 'Gold' and 'Farmers Best' offering me the same choice I had at my first pub.

A 'Gold' this time - on good form.
For around 5,500 residents, Hungerford has 7 pubs and 2 clubs, 3 of which score the top three-pint-pot rating on the CAMRA website.  There's either some great cask in town or some generous scoring going on.

Leaving the Three Swans, I arrived at the station platform on time, which was more than could be said for the South-Western train which was running 18-minutes late.
18-minutes loitering on the platform....or in the Railway Inn?

The Railway Tavern (Station Road, Hungerford, RG17 0DY)
This pub was built in 1847 to coincide with the arrival of the Great Western railway at Hungerford.  It's an L-shaped design with two areas at the front and a barn-like room at the back with tall ceiling, pool table and stage.
Here's the cask range - decisions, decisions...

The one on the left please - by far the better pump clip.
 
I was entertained by '99 reasons '90s rocked' on a TV music channel - with a tracks by Def Leppard, The Prodigy and Green Day.
Even though the 'Pride' was on pretty dull form, there are worse ways to spend 18-minutes.

Did I end up finding the level crossing gates down and jogging across the car park to the footbridge?  Yes, of course I did.
Next stop: Newbury.

Chesterfield Pub Explorations

We found ourselves in Chesterfield in summer 2026's third or fourth heatwave - I'm losing count  Peak temperatures of 33℃ aren't ideal conditions for rambling around a selection of the town's Beer Guide pubs.  But we tried.

We started our day with a bus ride to Whittington Moor, hopping off at the football stadium.

The Proact Technique SMH Group Stadium is built on the site of the old Dema glassworks, the first games played here in 2010 after the move from Saltergate.  It's a ground I've never visited, although I suspect I wouldn't be able to get through the door of the pub across the road on a match day.

The Glassworks (388 Sheffield Road, Whittington Moor, Chesterfield, S41 8LF)
This became Brampton Brewery's third pub in 2019 when they took over the old Rose & Crown, spruced it up and renamed it after the aforementioned glassworks. Most of the decorations were made of up old black & white pictures of the factory and retro adverts for their products.
First impressions were that this was a bit less welcoming and cosy than the other two Brampton pubs - the amount of standing space in front of the bar ready-made for the footy crowds.

In a L-shaped layout, the front section is the comfortable bit, the beige leather benches underneath wood panelling our seating of choice.

There were five cask ales on offer, two of their own, plus brews from Two By Two, Ossett, and  Red Willow.
Keen to work my way through the Brampton beers, I picked the 'Terminus' - a golden brew hopped with Comet, Chinook and Cascade.  Which just happened to be the  £3 beer of the week. 💰👍

First beer of the day finished and glasses returned to the bar, we headed a couple of doors down the road to the Batch House, which promised lunch and craft ales.

Aquarius (The Glass Yard, Sheffield Road, Whittington Moor, Chesterfield, S41 8LF)
Didn't take long to divert from trad pubs on this occasion, did it?
This was a Mrs PropUptheBar find, being as she anticipated that I wouldn't have thought about a lunch stop.
The complex was built on the site of an old fire station, the metal-beamed structure with it's exposed ducts and corrugated ceiling looking like it could just as easily house a DIY store as a food hall. 
The Aquarius Bar beer selection was made up of big brand craft, though there was one handpump offering a cask ale badged as 'Batch House Pale'.  Brewed for them by Welbeck Abbey and priced at a fiver.

The beer was on reasonable form being as it was the first poured of the day, diligently pulled through and checked by my friendly server.
This washed down a wonderful Paneer Makhani from the Ruby and Chaat street food stall, a dish I've been trying to recreate at home with varying degrees of success since.

Leaving the Batch House, we skirted around the football stadium, then navigated a way through the dual carriageways and roundabouts (with some difficulty) to reach the Chesterfield Canal.  The walk down this was mostly shaded from an unmerciful sun, until we needed to branch off and struggle up a couple of residential streets to our next pub.

Neptune Beer Emporium (46 St Helen's Street, Chesterfield, S41 7QD)
This first opened in the 1860s as The New Inn, converting an existing building which had served as a residential property, post office and undertakers.  Perhaps it was one of the supposed former uses as a merchant navy captains home that prompted a name change to the Neptune, or Neppy to the locals.
From 2015 onwards it's been a beer-orientated free house with the 'Emporium' bit added.

Lots of  choice - someone's picked something murky...

My beer was the Little Brewing Co 'Aurora', a soft tropical pale ale.
We sat down in one of the two rooms that led off from the central bar, AC/DC and Fleetwood Mac on the stereo.  Music which switched disappointingly to Rhianna and Little Mix in a short space of time.

To be honest, my beer was more 'Acceptable' than 'Good' - perhaps I picked wrong on the cask lottery.
But this is a nice little backstreet pub that I'd definitely come back to, especially as they have a stage and bands with names such as Skatoons, Rogue Duo, and Derventio playing on a busy gig guide.

It wasn't too far through the side-streets for us to reach the current local CAMRA pub of the year.

The Chesterfield Arms (40 Newbold Road, Chesterfield, S41 7PH)
This is somewhere which has transformed into a real ale destination in recent years, with a brewery added in 2022 to concoct Resting Devil beers.
There were three of those home-brewed ales on offer plus plenty of other options from Arbor, Pentrich, Wild Childe, North Riding and Tim Taylors.

I am so predictable...

Stepping out the back door of the pub there was a covered seating area connecting to the barn-like brewery space.  Nobody had twigged that this was by far the coolest spot to sit, although it didn't take long for us to be joined by a number of folks.
We had a reasonable soundtrack of ELO, Eagles, Steve Miller Band - each one exactly the song you'd expect it to be.
And that Bass was on top form. 

Comfortable at our table in a lovely pub, the dog napping and satisfied after a canine ice cream, we decided there was no need to rush anywhere too soon.  Providing me with a chance to try a couple of the house-brewed ales:  'Twisted Pale' (good) and the 'Wendigo' (very good).

Mid-post gosling interlude...

The two proud parents in Queen's Park weren't overly thrilled by their youngsters bold waddle to say hello to us.

Now on the eastern edge of the town centre, he headed past the impressive town hall and along West Bars to the micropub.
It doesn't make it into the gallery of my best pub pictures...

Chesterfield Alehouse (37 West Bars, Chesterfield, S40 1AG)
With the sun glaring straight at the building, the big red blind provided the front room with much-needed shade, although I was still feeling mighty sweaty in here and even the keg beer was a degree or two warmer than I'd have liked.
Opened in 2013, this is a real bare boards micropub.  There are a handful of tables in the front room, the bar counter up a couple of steps to the rear, and another first floor room that we never saw.

Four cask ales available: Two by Two 'Metropolis Pale V.3', Titanic 'Iceberg Grand Crew', Big Trip 'Fozzie', and Full Circle 'West Coast Pale'.
The Two By Two from Byker for me - a super murky hop monster.

Mrs PropUptheBar was impressed by my sensible ordering of just a half.

Less impressed when I snuck away and returned with an 8.2% Tartarus 'Piasa' from a wonderful keg beer list.  What a stunning malty imperial stout that was - packed full of coffee beans and vanilla.

We were a little spoilt for good venues in Chesterfield.
The next was another corker - a proper beer drinkers pub in the shadow of St Marys and the crooked spire.

The Rutland Arms (23 Stephenson Place, Chesterfield, S40 1XL)

It's a pub of two halves - from the outside at least.  The front part was once the home of Samuel Dutton, a mayor of Chesterfield for many years during the first half of the 19th century.  It became the Rutland Hotel in 1860 then, one hundred years later, the neighbouring verger's house was purchased so that the pub could be expanded.
The outdoor seats in the shade of the trees were the busiest when we arrived, but there were enough people scattered throughout to ensure I never did get a decent interior picture.

There was a choice of 6 cask ales available from which I picked the Peak Ales 'Dalesman' best bitter. Trad beer on excellent form.
We cleared off in ample time for Adam's Birthday Crew...

...heading just a couple of minutes walk around the corner for a spot of tea in th Pig & Pump.

Pig & Pump (16 St Mary's Gate, Chesterfield, S41 7TJ)
This chunky red brick building was the White Swan pub for many years, given the nickname the Mucky Duck and serving as a live music venue for local rock and alternative bands in the '80s and early '90s.  The pub closed suddenly in 2018 before being brought back to life as the Pig & Pump.  "Chesterfield's newest, coolest pub" said the Derbyshire Times when it first opened.  Trust me to be eight years late for 'new' and 'cool'.

The entrance is superb - the swan of the original name in the glasswork and a mosaic floor in the vestibule.

That's your heritage bit out of the way - once inside everything is thoroughly modern with shades of blue and green paint, botanical wallpaper, a couple of chandeliers, and shiny wooden floors.
It was doing a great trade - I think we nabbed the last table that wasn't occupied or reserved, enabling us to settle in and pick from a big menu of trad pub grub.
Plenty of beer choice too with a run of 12 hand pumps for 9 ales and 3 ciders.

A Magpie 'Cherry Raven' for me - a slightly smoky, slightly sweet and fruity variation of the brewery's signature stout.  The beer was in good condition and the food came in enormous portions ensuring we had way too much on the table. 

One final pub to report on...
This appealed to me on two fronts: It's reputedly the town's oldest pub and had a three-pint-pot score of approval on the CAMRA website.
Plus, pubs in ancient alleyways near market places have a tendency to be good, if not always easy to photograph...

The Royal Oak (1 The Shambles, Chesterfield, S40 1PX)
The Royal Oak has a Trip to Jerusalem-style plaque claiming it was founded in the 12th century and had connections to the Crusades.  Anything Nottingham can do, we can do too...
It's more likely that this first served as inn and ale house from the early 16th century.
The current independent owners reopened the pub in 2025 after four years of it being out of action.

Great beer list.
World Cup bunting produced before Poland got knocked out in the qualification play-off, I guess.

I opted for the Abbeydale 'In the Elements' a Baltic porter brewed in collaboration with Colbier of Merseyside.  A super beer.

The bar straddles two rooms in two different buildings, with separate entrances to each.  We sat in the lovely down-to-earth back room with stone floor, pump clips on the ceiling and hops over the bar.  My ideal kind of pub room.

I couldn't resist wandering outside and back in through the other door to explore the older side of the pub - a mini banqueting hall with tall ceiling and suit of armour on display in the corner.

The Royal Oak was a great pub that I'd certainty recommend, although I'd struggle to pick a out-and-out favourite from those in this post.
Yep, Chesterfield had provided a great selection of pubs for us, good quality cask surviving the heat in pretty much all of them.