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 some 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.

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.

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.

Royal Oak (The Street, Charmouth, DT6 6PE)
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.

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 Ropemakers 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 my earlier golden ale. 

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!)