Cold Be My Days in Shipston on Stour

We didn't need Robin Gibbs' whimsical early 70's song to forecast the chilly weather for us when we made a rare foray over the border into the southern reaches of Warwickshire.

Sitting halfway between Stratford-upon-Avon and Chipping Norton, Shipston is home to just under 6,000 folk who have six town centre pubs to choose from.
The first of these that we popped into was The Lazy Pug, which looked like it might a good bet for some pub grub. 

Lazy Pug (Church Street, Shipstone on Stour, CV36 4AS - web)
This was originally the White Horse, before becoming the Falcon in 2002 until Covid sealed it's fate.  Since then it has reopened as one of the small Warwickshire 'Pug' pubs - in a remarkably similar building to Leamington's Royal Pug, if memory serves me right.

It's U-shaped in design, with a ghastly corner of cushions, neon lights and fake foliage; high stools, barrels and blokes in braces by the bar; and some conventional tables elsewhere.

We had a couple of plates of decent food - then grumbled to ourselves about the added service charge which hiked the prices up and just seems wrong in a pub.
'Doom Bar' or Wychwood's rugby-themed 'Dirty Tackle' didn't make for the most exciting beer choice, so we were happy to be on our way, strolling to the first of the town's two Good Beer Guide entries.

Black Horse (Station Road, Shipstone on Stour, CV36 4BT - web)
This was our olde-worlde pub of the day: a nice thatch roof and a licence dating back to 1540.
Through the front door and passageway the Flagstone Bar is on the left-hand side, a pleasant traditional room with not a soul in it.
"You can stay in here if you want," said the landlord, poking his head round the side of the bar.  "But the fire's lit in the lounge and everyone else is in there."

The fire was more in the dying embers stage than lit, but the room was toasty, smelt of wood smoke, and was busy with a cheery bunch of locals.
We barely managed to squeeze in on arrival, but everyone started to leave soon afterwards.  Not connected to our arrival.  A little bit of investigation and I discovered they were all off to watch Shipstone RFC beat Swindon 41-34 just down the road.

Prescot 'Hill Climb' or Wye Valley 'Butty Bach' were the beers on offer - my pint of of Butty Bach in good condition, thoroughly enjoyed in this lovely old pub. 

Next up: the micro.
Thirst Edition (46 Church Street, Shipstone on Stour, CV36 4AS - web)

Where Prop Up the Bar's off-peak pub travels were in full swing...

I'll let you guess how comfy that seating was.
Or how exciting our pub visit was.

A 3pm opener, I guess it was quite inevitable that we wouldn't be squeezing past the crowds twenty minutes after they unbolted the door.  And someone has to be first in to disturb the young staff member from tinkering with her phone.

It was a bit of an eyesight tester, studying the pump clips pinned up at the back of the bar - three from Hawkshead, one from the Heritage Brewery, and the old favourite Saltaire 'Triple Choc' stout.
I've enjoyed everything I've tried from Burton's Heritage Brewery and despite an awful pump clip the 'Happy as Larry' was a superb bitter - best beer of the day.

After a quiet and uneventful twenty-five minutes spent in the micro, we figured we had time to visit one more of Shipston's pubs.  

You're not far from Hook Norton in these parts, so it seemed like a good idea to grab a pint of Hooky in the Coach & Horses...

Coach & Horses (16 New Street, Shipstone on Stour, CV36 4EN)
Chutneys has recently moved in and taken over half the pub, leaving two interconnecting rooms - dominated by TVs and dart boards - to make up the Coach & Horses.
There were three hand pumps on the bar, but only one in operation serving a rather dodgy 'Hooky'.  But that didn't spoil the pub visit. 

It's not everywhere that I get asked if I "happen to be a BT TV installer".
Drama unfolded as the locals instructed the staff member how to change the channel on the small TV to show the rugby.  But in doing so the enormo screen in the corner flicked onto a blue menu which nobody could navigate away from.  Half the folks in the pub ambled behind the bar to have a go with the remote controls.  
The rest entered into an animated debate as to which buttons to press, to no avail; the staff member rolled her eyes; the chap in the corner said "they could write a bleedin' sitcom about you lot".

Y'now what, I'm quite good with TVs.  I kinda wish I'd got involved now.  Maybe I'd have got another ropey Hooky as a reward.

"Do come back," the lady behind the bar called to us as we returned our glasses to the bar and went to leave, "this lot aren't always here."

The bridge over the River Stour

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 choice on the bar was 'Horizon', Henry's IPA', 'Swordfish', and '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's 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 pub.
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 could make it.
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 to 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.