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...