Newbury - In Dog Beers...I've Still Had Too Many

Having barely visited Berkshire in the past year, I found myself making a flurry of trips to the neighbouring county to tick off the 2026 Beer Guide pubs I hadn't previously visited.
Even though the new edition will land on the doorstep soon, inevitably finding a gastro in a West Berks village with no public transport and an obscure cricket club bar as new entries.

My current goal was to visit the Delphic Brewery Tap in Newbury.
Delphic have upscaled a bit since I last visited the town, at which point they brewed beers in a garage in Thatcham and the Wheatsheaf was your best bet to sample their wares.

The relatively new taproom opens 4 days a week, confusingly at a different time each day.  Hence I arrived a bit too early, glanced at what else was nearby and ended up in the Dolphin.

The Dolphin (113 Bartholomew St, Newbury RG14 5DT)
At first glance, this looks like a proper traditional town pub, but it had a revamp around 2018 to turn it into a "boutique pub hotel".  Their website also promises it is "fun filled".  Uh-oh.
You probably need to visit on a weekend evening for optimum fun, unless the dolphin in the fireplace counts...

 

The pub itself is a vast open-plan place, with a conservatory and pleasant courtyard beer garden to the rear.  The route to the upstairs WCs rivals the longest of long distance toilet treks within the Wetherspoon estate, highlighting just how far back from the street the Dolphin stretches.
Cask options on the bar were two familiar brews from Yorkshire.

I don't see 'Lightfoot' in these parts very often, so picked this, a 4.1% blonde ale that was promoted from summer seasonal special to permanent beer.  It was quite acceptable although probably would have been better had anyone else in the Dolphin looked remotely interested in cask ale.
I took this to the front room which they've named the Batholomew Bar.  In an open-plan layout, why does this bit need it's own name?  At least it's reasonably pub-like with some proper seating.

Razorlight, The Hunna, The Wombats, and Blossoms provided a soundtrack that looks like my line-up from hell at a family-friendly music festival.
I declared it was time to drink up and move on when Catfish and the Bottlemen came on, strolling back to the old auto parts shop that now houses the brewery tap room.

Delphic Brewery Tap (Mayors Ln, Newbury RG14 5DR)
Delphic Brewery started out in 2017 as a home brew project, then properly established themselves two-years later with an upgrade in equipment and capacity.  The icing on the cake is the town centre tap room which opened in 2024.
No surprises within - it's a little bit cavernous and industrial, the brewing vessels lit up by coloured lights and set behind the bar and a ledge which divides the room.

From three hand pumps, two cask ales were being served.

The 'World's End' pale for me - brewed in the first week of lock-down 2020 and now a permanent fixture - and a 'Cherry Bakes Well' white stout (?) from the keg lines.
Both super beers.
I took these to the sofa in the corner which I sank far too far into, the rest of the furniture made up of a mix & match of regular pub surplus, plus one particularly intriguing tabletop...

Delphic provide this month's shiny brewing equipment picture...

And the fact that I managed to photograph WC artwork from two of the three toilet cubicles suggests that dehydration wasn't setting in...

 

The next venue on my itinerary has been awarded the accolade of West Berks CAMRA Pub of the Year 2026, so is a dead cert for Beer Guides of the future.

Weirside (Merlion House, W Mills, Newbury RG14 5HP)
This small and comfortable bar is run by a chap who was previously landlord of Newbury's Clock Tower pub in the early 2000s.
It has been set up in a unit which previously housed a Mr Moo Juice shop.  Things are looking up for beer drinkers in Newbury, but not so rosy for those wanting moo juice.

On the bar were four cask ales, all priced at £5.50: 'Old Hooky' from Oxford, Electric Bear stout from Bath, and two Arbor Ales brews from Bristol,
The Arbor 'My Little Sabrony' for me - very good.

The keg, for £1 more a pint, was a little less inspiring, the inclusion of Hawkstone lager stretching the definition of 'craft'.
The outdoor weir-side seating is minimal - no chance for me of a seat on the tiny outdoor terrace overlooking the water at the back of the pub.  Inside there are two rooms with the last free table being in the larger of these at the front.  It was doing a good trade and was certainly proving a popular place to be early on a Friday evening.

Backtracking on myself, I'd spotted somewhere en-route that looked rather interesting...

Parched (16 Bartholomew St, Newbury RG14 5LL)
Parched opened in October 2025 in premises which were previously a Japanese restaurant.
It's a typical smart modern bar which has already built up a large collection of pump clips on a beam above the bar suggesting an ever-changing range.
Current offerings included lager, pales, hefty IPAs, porters and a sour, from craft brewers you've (mostly) heard of.

Hmmm...I thought sensibility was going to go out the window with a 6.8% Azvex IPA with the tempting name 'Lethal Hop Dose'.
But actually, sensibility REALLY went out the window with the Tempest/Sudden Death collab, 'Doom Scrolling', an 11% imperial stout.  It was gorgeous though, and worth every stumble on the walk down the road afterwards.

Parched is a superb addition to Newbury's drinking scene - in fact, have Delphic, Weirside and Parched turned Newbury into a beer hotspot?
Looking back, I wish I'd returned to a couple of other pubs in the town, but - y'know - 11% stout...  It seemed wise to head to the train station and at least get one step closer to home.

Breaking my journey at Reading, I strolled up Station Road for my bi-annual check that the Bugle hasn't reopened as the best beer bar in town.
Nope.

Then trekked around onto Greyfriars Road to call in to a pub that's had a name change.

The Railway Tavern (31 Greyfriars Road, Reading, RG1 1PA)
I've passed this hundreds of times, yet never set foot inside when it was called The Gateway.  I've only known it as an Irish bar, but as of the end of 2025 it's had a refurb and rebranded to the original name.
I guess back in the 19th century, when it first opened, this was the closest pub to the station.  The name seems a bit odder now, being as you pass two other pubs and the railway club before reaching this mock Tudor corner free house.
Adding to the interest: relatives of Kate Winslet ran the pub in Victorian times; and in 1972 a group of University students set up the Reading Gay Alliance here.

It's had a smart makeover, but still offers a pool table in the back and provides a friendly welcome. 

Unfortunately, my Timothy Taylor 'Landlord' was very ropey.
I did much better in the Three Guineas at the Station.

But inevitably found I had 3½ minutes to polish off a very pricey half pint before my train departed.
Next up: Wokingham

Ludlow Best

Actually, the best of Ludlow was two posts back, but as I haven't included the brewery tap or Black Country Ales pub, I figured I could squeeze in one more Shropshire blog post.

If only as an excuse for a little bit more timber-framed glory...

And one of the more unusual places to find Union Berlin stickering...

Normally we would have made a beeline for the brewery not long after arriving in town.  But Mrs PropUptheBar diligently checked opening times before letting me make a wasted journey after 6pm on a Wednesday evening.

Ludlow Brewing Co. (Station Drive, Ludlow, SY8 2PQ)
Ludlow Brewing Company was founded by Gary and Alison Walters in 2006, a 10-barrel plant set up in an old maltings on Corve Street.  Prior to this, you had to go back in history to 1933 for the last commercial beer production in the town when the Ludlow & Craven Arms Brewery was still in existence.  Fair to say the 21st century operation has done rather well. increasing in size and moving into the old rail transit depot in 2011, which enabled them to incorporate a taproom.
A good-sized space, the shiny brewing equipment stands proud in the rear left corner, with a bar to the right.

We'd had no difficulty sourcing the Ludlow beers during our short break - they'd been readily available in all towns and villages we'd visited.  But you get the full cask range in the brewery: 'Best', 'Blonde', 'Gold', 'Black Knight', 'Stairway' and 'Red Dawn'.
I picked the 'Black Knight' - a hybrid stout/porter apparently, not that I really know the difference between stouts and porters anyway.  

 

A lovely dark beer, served in the great condition you'd hope for with the brewing kit a few meters from the hand pump.
There were also a couple of keg beers available from craft offshoot Derailed ('Jam Dunk IPA' or 'Nebula' on this occasion).  Of the two, I only tried the 'Nebula' pale ale, rushing it a bit as they were calling last orders on Friday evening.

Leaving the brewery, we headed through the small industrial estate leading to the lower end of Corve Street.  A 10-minute walk from the centre, this quiet residential area is where you'll find Ludlow's Black Country Ales pub (number 36 of the current 55 on my tick-list).  

The Unicorn (66 Corve Street, Ludlow, SY8 1DU)
A bit more black & white timber frame frontage on a pub that dates back to the early seventeenth century.
The entrance is via a coaching inn style passageway to the side, with a door through to the bar and pleasant outdoor seating to the back.
Black Country Ales added this to their portfolio in May 2025 as they continue to expand beyond the Black Country and make completing their annual ale trail that bit trickier.

Heading into the front bar with its characterful wood panelling and beams, we found seven cask ales and three ciders available.  The regular 'Pig on the Wall', 'BFG' and 'Fireside' were joined by beers from Silhill, Hobsons, Evan Evans and Oakham.
I took a Silhill 'Bullion' through to the large rear room - a space which is much more recognisably BCA than the front bar, thanks to the wide expanse of familiar fabrics, beige wallpaper and a TV screen listing the beers.

Notices in the gents warned me to mind my language...

Talking of rules and regulations, the next place we were heading to has a few.

Dog Hangs Well (14 Corve Street, Ludlow, SY8 1DA)
The first challenge that the Dog Hangs Well presents is finding it.  There's no pub sign and nothing making it immediately obvious that this three-storey Georgian town-house is your destination.  Mrs PropUptheBar looked at me in alarm when I tried the purple door with the right street number on it, thinking I was about to bowl into some unsuspecting family's front room.
"Next one," said a kindly lady passing-by..."look for the light."

Aha.  This is lit at the times that the pub is open - which isn't for a great deal of hours or days of the week.
Once inside, a corridor takes you into a lobby with three rooms leading off it.  We followed the sounds of much chatter to the back room where we found the bar counter.
Rule one was cash only. 
A choice of Hobsons, Gun, or the 360° Brewery. for cask ales on this occasion,  Procuring a Hobson's 'Champion Mild' (on middling form) I took this through to the quieter quirky front rooms.
Rule two was no mobile phones, which I guess make my pictures below contraband...

A bit of arty mild smut in the snug over the piano, there.
Alongside a chaise lounge, church pews and partitions made from old doors.
The place has been set up in this historic building by the folks who were originally behind the Blood Bay.  The latter has relaxed the rules (by getting a card machine and being chilled about taking pictures, plus not batting an eye when some tourists checked maps on phones to find the restaurant they were headed to).  No such relaxation at the Dog Hangs Well, where I glanced at my screen whilst waiting for the solitary WC and got reprimanded like a naughty school boy.

The odd name was chosen as an amalgamation of the macabre practice of hanging poacher's captured dogs in the Royal woods surrounding Ludlow and the popular Gate Hangs Well pub name.

A bit of further exploration of Ludlow took me south of the town walls to the bridge over the River Teme.  Best poke my head into the pub on the far side.

The Charlton Arms (Ludford Bridge, Ludlow, SY8 1PJ)
Originally known as the Red Lion, this old coaching inn was renamed in honour of the Charlton family who owned the nearby Ludlford House and estate.  It's now very foody, with Michelin logos and AA rosettes on their website.  Rooms facing the water were set up for dining and was packed full when I visited.  But head left of the bar and there are casual areas where it's fine to loiter with a beer.
Cask available was Hobson's 'Best', Wye Valley 'HPA' and Ludlow 'Gold'.  I stuck local with the Gold, in good condition, taken through to a room showing the football.  The local lads were both friendly and very drunk.  All Aston Villa fans, Ludlow appearing to be an outlier in their catchment zone.

Back in the centre of the town, The Church is a recent Beer Guide entry and somewhere I figured I should check out.

The Church Inn (The Buttercross, Ludlow, SY8 1AW)
This is one of those places which dates back to the 14th century, yet is thoroughly 21st century with immaculate paintwork, big bright windows, and a smart modern feel to the busy rooms within.  
It's much changed with a one-time central servery being moved to a small section to one side.  That's where I ended up, out of the way of those finishing their evening meals.  
Note the old 17th century church bell on display at the side of the bar...

A Ludlow 'Best' here was my last pint in the town, with a pop soundtrack and ITV quiz show on TV rather than football.

It has taken me an age to reach Ludlow and I'm glad that I did.  Super castle, a decent set of pubs, and good quality cask ale all round.
I'll be waffling on about London in the next couple of posts - no timber-framed buildings on show.

A Leeds Pub, Bar, and Brewery Tap Excursion

Day three of the Road Trip took us from our Halifax base to the metropolitan thrills of Leeds.

Forty minutes on a Northern rail service which was busy but still had just enough seats at Halifax for us all to sit down.
Available seats would be essential if (just theoretically) any of the group, maybe Tanya for example, had been in the Victorian Beer Cafe until after midnight quaffing craft ale and was feeling a little worse for wear.

Our first challenge on arrival was to navigate the never-ending 'improvement' works in front of Leeds station and find a way to get to the lower level.  We trekked under the bridge and into the southern part of the city in search of a Beer Guide regular Heritage pub.

Grove Inn (Back Row, Holbeck, Leeds, LS11 5PL)
Being as we arrived early and it's located a little way out of the centre we initially had the place to ourselves.
Not a bad traditional pub to find yourself able to poke your head into all of the rooms without disturbing anyone.

The Grove dates back to 1832 but the layout we see today was the responsibility of John Smith's of Tadcaster, who updated the place to create a central corridor with four rooms leading off it.  There's a comfy snug to the right of the entrance, benches and red carpet spoilt a bit by the phone charging machine in the corner.  To the left is a tap room with bar counter, or you can order from the counter on the corridor which has a second bank of hand pumps.

There was a difficult beer choice to start the day: eight cask ales available from Abbeydale, Wensleydale, Small World, Daleside, Timothy Taylor, Acorn and Rudgate.  I finally plumped for the sweet and fruity Acorn 'Plum Porter', taken through to the central snug with its rounded plain wooden benches hugging the walls.

The largest space, the rear concert room with small stage in one corner, is a slightly more recent addition, being an inter-war construction.
It's still historic enough for me and offers up some excellent pub bench seating...

A 10-minute amble took us westbound, past the spectacular-looking Temple Works building, to the Northern Monk Refectory.

The Northern Monk Refectory (The Old Flax Store, Marshalls Mill, Holbeck, Leeds, LS11 9YJ)
The taproom is located upstairs with glimpses through big windows to shiny brewing equipment en-route.  It's a bright modern space with small merch stall to one side, high and low solid bench seating, sofas under one window.  Birthday party in the middle, brewery tour folk loitering by the bar, Franz Ferdinand 'Do You Wanna' playing through the speakers.

The more adventurous stuff, and a couple of those Patron Project collaboration concoctions were on draft, whilst there were three beers on cask ('Eternal' session IPA, 'Sup' golden ale and one just being pulled through went we arrived).

I went for the keg 'Chocolate Caramel and Biscuit Porter', a rich dark 5.2% brew priced at £3.35 for the sensible half pint measure.  A pleasant visit, although I'd rather be sitting on a rickety bench next to a conditioning tank in a brewery rather than in such a smart bar, given a choice.

Next up, the Midnight Bell...

Midnight Bell (101 Water Lane, Holbeck, Leeds, LS11 5QN)
Bonus points for having John Farnham 'You're the Voice' playing on arrival.
Sadly I could find little else in the Midnight Bell which warranted my imaginary bonus points - a dining dominated affair which wasn't as a good as I'd hoped.  I don't really approve of anywhere which has every table set up for food and requires you to park your pint of beer between knives and forks.

Still, I was here to ensure I drank some Leeds Brewery beer whilst in Leeds.   And that was a success, with four of their ales as well as Cameron's 'Strongarm' and Keighley 'Three Swords' on offer.

A swift Leeds 'Best' was my pick.

We crossed back over the River Aire into the recently redeveloped area betwixt railway lines and waterways.  I suspect this thoroughfare was probably run-down and grim not so long ago, but now it's a hotbed of hotels, eateries and bars along a pedestrianised walkway.
We were aiming for an Ossett bar in the arches.

The Hop (Granary Wharf, Dark Neville St, City Centre, Leeds, LS1 4BR)
The Hop is bigger than your average railway arch venue due to the fact that these arches stretch back a long way underneath the multiple lines serving the platforms of Leeds station.  Plus the Hop occupies two of 'em.
This proved not to be the usual quiet lunchtime visit due to a festival event running across several of the Granary Wharf venues.  We entered to a sizeable crowd of folk and a lively one-man band set up on the first floor above the bar.  The sound really carries through the arches necessitating a bit of shouting at each other to be heard.

There were eight hand pumps, serving all your favourite Ossett ales from the paleness of 'Excelsius' to the darkness of 'Barghest Stout'.
Plus a new one of the 'Rat' series for me, from Huddersfield's Rat Brewery, part of the Ossett empire since 2004.

This was a tasty, biscuity, tropical pale ale, similar to 'White Rat', but not quite scaling the same heights.  We perched on a ledge to one side where a window in the brickwork provides a view through to the ground level 'cellar'.  Yep, they've gone to the trouble to put on live entertainment and myself and John were glued to a window studying barrels and pipes. 

Moving on from The Hop, we back-tracked on ourselves a little way, because there's a bar somewhere in that there tower...

SALT Granary Wharf (Candle House, Granary Wharf, City Centre, Leeds, LS1 4GJ)
SALT are another Yorkshire brewery with Ossett links - this time as a sister brewery with both under the ownership of a chap called Jamie Lawson.  This bar is one of three SALT venues in Leeds, this venue pairing your craft brews with falafel.

I skipped the cask options (more Ossett) - and the falafel - opting for one of the SALT beers on draft - 'Vermont XPA' a 4.7% pale brewed with Topaz hops.  Just a half, which is just as well because I didn't enjoy it very much.  Far too fizzy for my liking.
Participating in the same weekend festival as Hop, Granary Wharf was between musical acts and packed with punters in the modern circular surroundings.  Good for SALT, pulling in such a decent crowd and pouring the drinks at a rate of knots.

We'd burnt off the calories from the Wetherspoon's breakfast by this point and were in need of some mid-afternoon sustenance.
For that we called into the Adelphi (3 - 5 Hunslet Road, Leeds, LS10 1JQ)
This glorious pub was included in my 2023 heritage pubs of Leeds post, so I'll skip over it this time.

Except to include this picture of my Kirkstall 'Three Swords' beer, being as I'm rather pleased with it.

The old Tetley brewery, a short walk from the Adelphi, was serving as an art gallery and cafe when I visited a couple of years ago, allowing me to take a moments break from the pubs to frown at some modern art on the first floor.
The gallery has gone for the time being, the ground floor now converted into a pub by Kirkstall.

The Tetley (The Tetley, Hunslet Rd, Leeds LS10 1JQ)
Joshua Tetley brought the land for his brewery for £400 and founded the company in 1822.  In the 1960's Tetley's merged with Ind Coope of Burton and Ansell's of Birmingham, becoming Allied Breweries - the country's biggest producers of cask ale by the 1980's, at which time they employed around 1,000 people at the Leeds brewery.  Brewing continued after a 1998 amalgamation with Carlsberg, but eventually came to a halt in June 2011.

Most of the huge site has been redeveloped.  The central admin offices and reception building that we were heading is now the lone remainder, but was once dwarfed by a larger block and chimney behind, and goods vehicle entrance to the side.
We strolled in and made for the bar to our left, staff scurrying around to set up a function on the other side of the building.
It's a spacious place, gloriously decorated with ample beery pictures and display cases of breweriana.

There were several cask ales on offer, but...we're in the Tetley brewery building.   We had to drink the rejuvenated Tetley Best, even if it's now brewed 80+ miles away.

Time for something a little bit different...

Northern Guitars (41 Call Lane, City Centre, Leeds, LS1 7BT)
On a very lively street, this opened as a guitar shop in 1991, then morphed into a bar and music venue in 2015.  You can still buy your six-stringed instruments upstairs which remains as a shop.  They haven't butchered all their stock to make the door handles...

It's a cracking little place.
There were a handful of tables at the front of the ground floor, one-step up to a stage area in the corner by the window, bar counter to the back of the room

Five hand pumps offered us a choice of Ilkley 'Lotus', Saltaire 'Blonde', Timothy Taylor 'Landlord', plus 'Three Swords' or 'BYB' from the local Kirkstall Brewery. 
The 5.9% 'Lotus' for me - a proper IPA, in good condition.

There is plenty of musical decoration, especially as you head upstairs where walls are covered in gig posters and displays of old concert tickets (remember those?).
A hairy & youthful Prop Up the Bar was at Donnington Park in a heavily-patched denim jacket for that Monsters of Rock show.  You couldn't pick a much less 'monstrous' line-up of rock bands if you tried. 

 

I left the other members of the group finishing drinks in Northern Guitars, planning to catch up with them in Whitelocks.
I'd spied a recently opened brewery tap in a railway arch and couldn't resist poking my head in.

Crown Street Tap (5 Cherry Tree Walk, City Centre, Leeds, LS2 7EB)
This is fledgling railway arch pub ticking, the tap only having opened in November 2025.
It's run by Talking Tides Brew Co., a relatively new operation that started brewing in 2022 on the North Yorkshire coast.
It's brightly lit with the arch-size glass frontage, furniture a mix of high and low light wood tables within, a big crowd attracted by somewhere relatively new.
Two hand pumps served Talking Tides 'Headland' and 'Yorkshire Best', whilst there was a wider choice on keg.

Just a half of 'Yorkshire Best' for me - not my favourite beer today - an "is it past best or do I just not like it" conundrum.

Draining my beer, I made a short walk through side-streets to reach a bar which has been a Good Beer Guide regular for the past few years, yet eluded me when I was last in the city.

Wapentake (92 Kirkgate, Leeds, LS2 7DJ)
On a busy city centre street, Wappentake is a characterful bar with wooden floorboards and mismatched furniture.  A bit of Erykah Badu on the stereo when I arrived, a hubbub of conversation from a crowd of gentlefolk. (The chap standing in front in my picture gives a clue that I'm going to be the scruffiest person here).
Cask on the bar was Five Points 'Best' or Theakston's 'Old Peculiar'.  I didn't fancy the best and it had been too long a day to indulge in Old Peculiar, so I went rogue with a cask Celtic Marches cider.  Which was actually refreshing and the bit of sweetness that the palate was calling out for.

And what's a wapentake?
It's "an archaic administrative and judicial subdivision of certain English counties (primarily in the North and Midlands, such as Yorkshire and Lincolnshire)."
So now you know.

My companions had been forced to skip Whitelocks, declaring it ridiculously busy, so were instead just a few strides down the road from me in the Duck & Drake.

Another revisit for me, having spent an evening here watching live bands when I was last in Leeds.  On that occasion my bed was a 5-minute stumble down the road - no repeat late evening in the Duck & Drake this time with my bed being 15-miles away.
Just time to admire the ceramics in the gents WC again and enjoy a half of Yorkshire Heart 'Blonde'.

We finished in somewhere completely different - not on your average Leeds pub crawl...

We were here to enable one of our number to say hello to a Leeds-based family member, who in turn was checking out one of the live bands playing that evening.
I bowled in to find a crowd of folk enjoying the last couple of songs by Northwich rockers Airtight - they sounded great, but I've no idea what they looked like from my vantage point at the back of the room.
Don't they make people tall these days?

Unsurprisingly, not a stronghold for cask ale from Yorkshire micro brewers.  Northern Monk's 'Faith' was the most tempting offer.

I would have quite liked to have stuck around and seen all the bands on the bill - live entertainment free of charge is not to be sneezed at.  But we needed to make a move and aim for a Halifax-bound train.
Hells bells - the walk through the centre past Leeds Saturday night revellers was a sight to behold!