In Pursuit of Hoppiness on the Jurassic Coast

A short trip into the bottom left hand corner of Dorset, calling in to three pubs that feature in the 2020 Good Beer Guide.

Something unusual happened here, in that one of my trips to the British seaside coincided with soaring temperatures and great weather 🌞.
This was a cue to head along to Charmouth for an extremely rare dip in the sea.

Baywatch.

With all the exertion of clambering along the pebbles to find a relatively quiet bit of beach, and a short stint of swimming, a lunchtime beer was thoroughly deserved.

Royal Oak (The Street, Charmouth, DT6 6PE - web)
Around a 10-minute walk from the fossil-hunting hoards on the beach is the Royal Oak, situated on the main road that leads through the village.

It's a basic, traditional pub, seemingly popular with the tourists but not altered and spoiled in order to attract them.  Today there were just a handful of locals sitting outside, reading the papers and watching the world go by.
The pub had made the decision not to serve food at the moment, with the interior consisting of just a couple of small rooms.  We didn't really get too much of a look at it, as we doused ourselves in the stickiest hand sanitizer yet encountered, and ordered drinks through a plastic sheet protecting the bar.

A Palmer's Brewery pub, the beer range consisted of their Dorset Gold, IPA and Copper.
I grabbed a 'Dorset Gold' and we settled in the corner of the shaded front terrace.

Eight miles to the east is Bridport, Dorset's eighth most populated place.  It's also the birthplace of PJ Harvey, but, try as I may, I couldn't come up with a clever blog post title referencing this. 
That's why 90% of my titles are called 'xxxxx pub explorations'. 
This is lower league pub blogging.

Twinned with French seaside town.
But no need to self-isolate after a visit to Bridport
(at time of writing)

Straight to the first pub...

The Ropemakers (36 West Street, Bridport, DT6 3QP)

It looks as though the Ropemakers has a split personality, with WhatPub describing it's clientele as being almost exclusively in the 18-25 age group.

Not so on a Saturday lunchtime, when it was full of families and older visitors (just like me) enjoying the food and relaxed ambiance.

There are lots of interesting ceiling displays of ropes - the making of which was once the town's main industry.  It's a pleasantly cluttered place, with old pub signs, historical pictures on the wall, and gig posters reflecting the pubs commitment to live music.
It's another Palmer's pub, with the same beer range as we'd seen in the Royal Oak, so this time I went for the 'Copper' - a tasty, crisp bitter, which I think I preferred to the golden ale earlier. 

More Palmers.

Having had a couple of Palmer's beers, I decided it'd be a good idea to trek through the town and have a look at where it was brewed.
Don't ask me why - the same mentality that sees me hiking out to look at closed football grounds, I guess. 
At least their shop was open, so we could grab a few take-away's for later.

Back in the centre of town, there was time to call in to the second of the current Good Beer Guide entries...

Pursuit of Hoppiness (15 West Street, Bridport, DT6 3QJ - web)

A micro pub, albeit a pretty smart and professional one, rather than the ramshackle one-man-show variety.

Unfortunately all the tables inside were taken on this afternoon, so the only way to stay here for a drink was by grabbing an outside table.  The downfall of this - apart from not really 'experiencing' the pub - was the hefty traffic passing by and the lack of shade to escape the scorching sunshine.

Pavement drinking in pursuit of hoppiness.

They did have a decent beer range - six ales from solid, respected brewers such as Thornbridge, Fyne Ales and Bristol Beer Factory, alongside four keg lines and local ciders.

It's been many years since I last visited Bridport, and I was quite taken by the place.  It was looking lovely in the sunshine, with interesting shops, market stalls, some nice architecture and a bit of a buzz to it.  (Locals would possibly tell me I'm completely wrong about all of that!)

Bridport Town Hall, with Wetherspoons just beyond it.
A remarkable visit to a town without calling to 'Spoons.