Giants and Woodmen - Cerne Abbas and Bridport

I'm afraid that my dedication to the blog and all things pub has trailed off at the end of 2024.

"Stuff" has gotten in the way, as it does occasionally.

So instead of pubs adorned in Christmas decorations, I'm backtracking a few few weeks to catch-up and bring you a bit of mild smut in the gents WC on the side of a hill...

After an overnight in Dorchester and a return visit to Spoons for breakfast, I made the 8-mile trip north to the village of Cerne Abbas.
On such a grey miserable day.  I appeared to have the place to myself, sensible tourists deciding to wait and visit at a time they could get their phallic chalk man pictures with blue sky backgrounds.

Extreme mud curtailed the footpath route to the Cerne Abbas brewery tap, forcing me to trek along the side of the A352.
Not a good bit of road to walk - I was happy to see the "Caution: concealed brewery entrance 300yds ahead".  Wow - that's some bespoke road signage.

Turning into that concealed entrance, the brewery was down here somewhere...

A couple of farm buildings are located at the bottom of the leafy track, where a right-hand turn, navigating a puddle that was threatening to take on 'lake' status, led we to this rural brewhouse...

Cerne Abbas Brewery Tap (Chescombe Barn, Barton Meadows Farm, Dorchester Road, Cerne Abbas, DT2 7JS)
The brewery was founded in 2014 in smaller premises, moving to this new home at the Barton Meadows Farm in 2019.  They pride themselves on brewing using green sand-filtered water (ideal for beer and once making brewing a big business in these parts) and local barley from the Cerne Valley.  The taproom puts on evening sessions for the villagers, live music, special events, and food from the appealingly named 'Papa Cheese' on a Saturday.

As is my habit, I miss all that kind of cheese and music excitement and call in when the only people in the building are the brewer and his visiting accountant.

They still had a 'closed' sign hung over the draft beer tap, worrying me for a moment that I'd made a wasted roadside trek, but all was well, my arrival providing a break from the spreadsheets.
I could buy a t-shirt, some bottles, indulge in the impressive selection of boxed ciders or the racked beers on gravity.  Soundtracked by Heart FM, unfortunately.
'Blonde', 'Styrian Wolf', and 'Cnut' (who plundered the local monastery 1,000 years ago), were the available ales.
I sank into a big sofa by the door, supping a crisp, fruity, Styrian Wolf.

The brewery tap featured from proper rustic Gents WCs...

If it's raining, you're gonna get wet while you wee.

Leaving the taproom, I back-tracked to the village of Cerne Abbas where I had a half-hour to explore the picturesque streets and look at the remnants of the Abbey before the pub opened.  The Abbey was established in 987 and was the focal point of the area for 500-or-so years before Henry VIII unleashed his wrecking ball.

Here's the old Abbot's Porch...

I'm not entirely sure I got my £2.50 in the honesty box value-for-money from a few minutes spent wandering around the courtyard of what's left of the Abbey, but never mind.

It took me to 12noon and the Giant Inn was unbolting the front door.

The Giant Inn (24 Long Street, Cerne Abbas, DT2 7JF)
This was formerly the Red Lion, hence the two-in-one pub sign (top picture on the post).
There are three pubs in Cerne, a significant drop from the whopping 14 this village once boasted.
The Good Beer Guide led me to the Giant Inn, but I suspect I'd have been drawn to it anyway with the eye-catching Victorian frontage.

Inside, they were prepping for imminent lunch arrivals with plenty of reserved table signs, mildly surprised to see my eagerly early arrival.  Real ales on the bar were Exmoor 'Fox' or Butcombe 'Rare Breed' - the Fox for me, in decent condition for the first pour of the day.

Apologies to Cerne, but I wasn't compelled to hang around and sample the other two pubs on this quiet and dull day.
Instead, how about an afternoon in Bridport, where I wanted to visit the Woodman, one of 17 pubs on the 2024 CAMRA Pub of the Year longlist.

Before that though, I nipped into the Bridport side streets to the Tiger...

The Tiger Inn (14-16 Barrack Street, Bridport, DT6 3LY)
Now this was more like it.
A warm and welcoming main room - lots of dried hops - pump clip adorned beams - other customers besides me (now that's a novelty!)

The view to the pump clips was obscured by the sit-at-the-bar blokes and I can't quite remember what the choice was.  But I do know that my Greene King 'Blood Orange' was marvellous.  A smooth chocolate orange stout brewed in collaboration with Nethergate.

This 18th century inn is wet-led, attracting a half dozen midweek afternoon drinkers when I visited.  The attention of the locals was devoted to the bar staff who'd just returned from holidays in warmer climes and was regaling them with tales of events with bottomless Prosecco and the ensuing carnage.

Onward, to the Woodman...

The Woodman Inn (61 South Street, Bridport, DT6 3NZ)
This is a bit of a regular award winner, currently crowned the 2024 Wessex CAMRA Regional Pub of the Year and the 2024 Regional Cider Pub of the Year.

Of course, I'd really like to have visited on a raucous evening, but that didn't pan out.  A friend claimed to have been there when the effects of the rustic cider had caused the old boys to need to steady themselves against the wall as they navigated the pub.  
Just a couple of solo drinkers in on my visit, both able to get to the bar without the floor spinning out from under them.

There was an impressive and varied cask choice made up of: Five Points 'Railway Porter', Swannay 'Scarpa Special', Thornbridge 'Woodlands', Downlands 'Best' and - my pick - Colbier 'Intermission', all the way from Merseyside.

The music selection provided something a little bit different: some cosmic psych from the, previously unknown to me, Black Rainbows.

This was a thoroughly pleasant pub that I could quite happily have settled in for the rest of the day.  But I'd finished the local Giant's Pint CAMRA mag, so would have needed a good book on this occasion - no earwigging of other people's conversations to keep me entertained here...

But sadly I had places to be and couldn't wait for the crowds to descent on the Woodman.

That's two short visits I've made to Bridport pubs, which is a shame as I'm sure there is a cracking evening or two to be had in this Dorset town.

A Dorchester Dawdle

An overnight in Dorchester - the Dorset version, rather than the one on the Thames.

It has been ten years since I last visited Dorset's county town.  Back then, the brewery quarter was a construction site, but in 2024 the former home of Eldridge Pope was looking rather majestic despite the obvious disappointment that it's no longer a brewery and there is no Thomas Hardy barley wine being bottled here.
The grand old brewhouse is now surrounded by chain restaurants and lounge bars, a gym, hotel, and swanky shops. 
Happily, there is still some brewing going on, albeit on a small scale.

In a shiny modern building adjacent to Dorchester South railway station, the Copper Street Brewery was established in 2018.  Probably not photogenic at the best of times - but I've gone all-out to disappoint with the picture, capturing some big reflective windows...

Copper Street Brewhouse and Taproom (8 Copper Street, Dorchester, DT1 1GH)
On a mid-week afternoon, I expected to have this place to myself.  Hence the surprise to find it bustling with a wide range of folk, relegating me a perch on the window ledge with a stack of empty barrels getting in the way of any chance of comfort.
This is basically a micro pub with a hatch to the side of the bar providing a view of some brewing kit.  Features included canine trip hazards, clutter in the sole WC, and a shelf of cans and bottles that you'd have to squeeze past the cheery, boozy blokes to get to.

On the bar counter were two casks, whilst the blackboard listed a handful of keg options including their own Saxon lager and guest beers.  I wanted something brewed on-site, so picked the cask Copper Street 'Aethelwulf', a sturdy 5.7% dark mild concocted for the Weymouth beer festival.

Whilst I would rather have liked a proper seat, this was a great little spot and a fine first beer to start my short Dorchester tour.
Moving on, I made the 8-minute stroll into the town centre and checked into my accommodation for the evening - the Old Ship.

I was staying in seemingly the only pub in town that didn't serve real ale, which was a bit of a let-down.
But it was a lot cheaper than the ambitious off-season Premier Inn prices and met my simple requirements for a night (roof, bed, TV to switch on and instantly fall asleep in front of).

Bag dropped off, I made Beer Guide regular Tom Browns my next port of call.

Tom Browns (47 High Street East, Dorchester, DT1 1HU)
This is now under the ownership of Oxfordshire pub group Oak Taverns, whose pubs appear in a few of my blog posts this year.
I just need to find my way to the Old Crown at Ebley, Stroud, to complete the lot.

I bowled in through the front door, looking forward to the revelry within...
Hmmm...

Yes, PropUptheBar, not for the first time, fails to visit places at their liveliest and best.
At one point the member of staff popped outside when he spotted friends passing by, leaving me with the whole place to myself.
But who needs a crowd when you've got an Uncut magazine soundtrack (Broken Bells...Alt J...Foster the People) and five cask beers to pick from.  These came from from Langport, Dorset Brewing Company and Piddle.  As Dorset BC brew a beer specially for the pub, I opted for the 'Tom Browns' trad best bitter.

Sat on my lonesome, I ventured to Google, deciding to look up who Tom Brown was to add some informative content to the blog.  Unfortunately, the top result was a 25-year-old homeless chap sentenced for possession of a firearm.  Which I suspect may not the Tom Brown the pub and beer are named after.

Right, let's move on to a micro down an alley...

Convivial Rabbit (1 Trinity House, Trinity Street, Dorchester, DT1 1TT)
Uh-oh, another quiet pub visit.  The crowds had swelled to four in Tom Browns when I left, but I found myself only the second punter in the 'Rabbit.   Things promised to pick up later with a number of tables reserved for the Dorchester crib players at 7:30pm, but I'd be gone before I had the chance to see how frivolous the crib crowd get.

The beers were listed on a board above the bar and fetched (very slowly) from a side room somewhere.  Quantock 'Quest for the Holy Grale', Nottingham 'Dreadnought', Cerne Abbas 'Ale', and Saltaire 'Big Table' made for a respectable choice.

The Quantock pale for me - an enjoyable pint in fine condition, from a brewery that always seem to do the business.
The Convivial Rabbit was a nice place - on the larger end of the 'micro' pub scale, with quality beer at reasonable prices.  But with no music and no crib players to liven things up, I'm afraid my time here was a little bit dull.

In the search of action, it was time to move on to the guaranteed crowds of Spoons.
The Dorchester branch is located on the traffic-heavy High Street West, in a former coaching inn with arched entrance leading through to what would once have been the stable yard.

The Royal Oak (20 High West Street, Dorchester, DT1 1UW)
This is a bit of a mix of Spoons styles - smaller rooms at the front, the design dictated by the historic hotel layout, whilst the bar is in a modern rectangular extension to the rear - Spoons-by-numbers as far as the design and furniture are concerned.

The Royal Oak offered a quality range of guest beers to pick from, from which I chose the Salopian 'Disintegration', a 5.1% strong pale ale that was crying out to be described as 'chewy'.

One pint and Fiesta burger with mushy pea side later, I was ready to set off to the Brewhouse and KItchen.  Only to discover the weather had taken a turn and it was hammering down on a dank Dorset evening.
So I scrapped the B&K plan and dashed a few meters down the road to my accommodation.

Old Ship Inn (High West Street, Dorchester, DT1 1UW)
Sadly, not quite so 'old' inside, with some ghastly wallpaper, polished wooden floors, TVs on for the sake of it, and typical town pub decor.
On the plus side - there were a nice couple of model ships on display.
And I was treated to a rousing singalong to Frank's 'That's Life' from the (possibly quite tipsy) locals around the pool table in the rear section.

A little less action around my chosen seat by the windows...

Sadly, no surprise handpumps to prove WhatPub wrong.
No silly strong craft beers or lethal dry-as-a-bone Dorset ciders.

So my evening in Dorchester ended on this smoothflow classic...