Beaconsfield Beckons

The Microsoft news feed on my work PC seems confident that I want to read stories about George R.R. Martin's never-happening next Game of Thrones book, Man City's unlikely-to-ever-happen 115 fines, Wetherspoon's latest pub openings and closings, and behind-the-scenes insights into the Traitors. 
They haven't really got me sussed yet, but I do like keeping up to date with Spoons.

Which is how I came to pick Beaconsfield as a wintery Saturday afternoon destination, providing me the chance to visit the newly opened Chiltern.

The Chiltern (12 Station Road, Beaconsfield, HP9 1QR)
And wow!  It was doing a roaring trade - the new kid on the block bringing out the locals in force.
At first glance the building doesn't look especially old or cinema-like. Yet it opened in 1927, designed by Leathart and Granger of London in an unconventional style for a picture house.  In 1989 the credits for Nick Nolte crime thriller 'The Three Fugitives' rolled and the popcorn detritus was swept up for the final time when The Chiltern closed.  In the interim it's been a pizza restaurant, but now finds itself as one of the newest Spoons outlets.

In a Beaconsfield bid to be released from Bucks and incorporated into the capital, The Chiltern was taking part in the Wetherspoon London Beer Festival.  Presenting me with too much choice at the bar, with a cracking range of styles represented over half-a-dozen guest ale hand pulls.  The Wimbledon 'Hounds of Helles' drew me in with the dramatic pump clip and my fondness for a dunkel.  Although it was a bit light-bodied and not as good as I'd hoped.

I returned to the bar for a Mad Squirrel 'Amberillo', a super beer in great condition.  Keep this up and I'll expect to see The Chiltern in the GBG before too long.
The 'bustling' heart of the pub is the high-roofed auditorium where the bar is, whilst there are quieter seating areas in a front section and around the entryway.  
Toilets are, inevitably, a climb up the stairs, with a glass-walled passageway to them providing the birds-eye view of proceedings.

Time for a quick shot of the carpet before departing...

Then onward into the chill afternoon, my next destination no more than a couple of minutes around the corner...

The Taps Beaconsfield (5-7 Gregories Road, Beaconsfield, HP9 1HG)
This is a shop conversion, turned into a modern bar which is too smart and large to be called a micro.  It's not going to please anyone looking for a traditional pub, but it instantly gets my thumbs-up for Violent Femmes 'Blister in the Sun' playing on my arrival.

Here's the beer list...

Not a bad selection. No bargains to be had, though.

I ordered a half of the Otherworld 'Lycan' pale ale, having had a superb stout from the Dalkeith brewery in Oxford's The Grapes a couple of days earlier.
And a half of the local cask - Stardust 'Roses'.

Two decent beers.
Football chat from the three gents on the next table who turned out to be Hadley FC's Ultras (Beaconsfield Town 4 Hadley 1, hmmm...perhaps you should stayed in the pub).
And bespoke beer mats...what else can you ask for?

Moving on from the Taps, it was a three-quarter of a mile walk south from the station and shops to 'old' Beaconsfield.
Which was quite charming...

By the roundabout where the A40 and the road to the station meet, you've got the old Royal Saracen's Head on one side and the untraditionally named Vinny and Ted on the other.
There are a couple more pubs in this part of town, but lots of 'No Cask Ale' notes on the CAMRA website.

Vinny and Ted (10-12 The Broadway, Beaconsfield, HP9 1ND)
The entrance porch suggests an old pub, although I can find no record of what this used to be before becoming the second Vinny and Ted (the first being nearby in Chalfont St Peter).
It's a bright modern place within. Stylish lighting. Shiny polished wooden floors. Blankets to drape over yourself if you opt to sit outside.

Professional bloggers would ask the bar staff to pose for a picture.  I give you the bar staff's back as my Verdant murk is being expertly dispensed...

In my defence, I snapped the pic to remind myself what beers were on offer.
A really decent selection from the likes of Anspach & Hobday, Wiper & True, and Glasshouse.  There were also two hand pumps offering cask from Deya ('Steady Rolling Man') or Swannay ('Chance Your Arm').

I was foolish, spending £7.50 on a half of Verdant's 'Putty 2026', one of those concoctions which they make a new version of each year, rave about the latest variety, and charge an arm and a leg for it.  Very nice, mind you.

I'd left myself a hefty walk if I wanted to continue local explorations.  Back up past 'Spoons, past the station, and straight up the road for another mile to reach Knotty Green.
I was so chuffed to make it without any rain falling from the gathering grey clouds that I didn't notice the very neat topiary in the front garden.

The Lion of Beaconsfield (Penn Road, Knotty Green, HP9 2TN)
The oversized houses lining Penn Road with their security gates should really have given a clue that the residents of Knotty Green wouldn't be clamouring for a down-to-earth trad boozer.  Maybe this was just that at one point, but in its latest incarnation, The Lion is very much the smart and respectable dining pub.

It's unusual to get this far into Buckingham pub explorations and not have encountered ale from Marlow's Rebellion Brewery.

I boldly took a bang average pint of 'Overthrow' to the best seat in the house: the table next to the fireplace, where I disregarded the 'reserved' sign.  Actually, I think every table had a reserved sign - it was that kind of place.

 

Not a bad fireplace, I thought. But wait 'til you see the next one!

I quaffed the second half of my beer rather too quickly, keen to move on.  I was just down the road from the self-proclaimed oldest pub in England, the historic inn that will most likely be the reason any pub afficionado has hopped off the train at Beaconsfield station.

The Royal Standard of England (Forty Green Road, Forty Green, HP9 1XT)
It was autumn 2020 when I last visited, back in the time of table-service and getting told off it you wandered around too much trying to find the room where they filmed Hot Fuzz or Midsomer Murders.
To be honest, it's a tourist attraction - enormous car park (just me getting stuck in the mud on that footpath through the field of horses then...) - folks not quite knowing what to do at the bar - no-one blinking an eyelid at the odd chap taking pictures...it's almost expected here.

Two cask ales from the Chiltern Brewery, two from Rebellion, one mysterious house bitter.
All at premium prices.
I picked the Rebellion 'Roasted Nuts', served in a heavy, pub-branded, handled glass which seemed to make it last longer.

 

There are so many nooks and crannies and cosy rooms within this pub - settles and wooden benches galore, antlers and shields hung from wall throughout, and enough character to make me accept the higher-end pint prices after all.
I plonked myself in the rear banquet room...

Now that's what I call a fireplace!

Although vegetarians may not be so keen on the slabs of meat in the fridge next to it.

Finishing my pint, I raced back over the muddy footpath under a dusky sky, then through the leafy Beaconsfield suburbs, only to reach the station approach road and see the Oxford train departing.
Bugger. Forty-five minutes.  A patient wait on the platform? Back to Spoon's for more festival beers? Somewhere new?
The new 'tick' won...

The Beech House (17 Penn Road, Beaconsfield, HP9 2PN)
I'd walked past the Beech House earlier on my trek to the Lion, although it hadn't jumped out at me and got me hoping I'd have to time to spare before a train.
It's a large single-storey modern pub which has been open since 2013.  Still described as 'newly open' on CAMRA's website description, suggesting Beaconsfield really doesn't get much love from the local branch.

Huge dining room to the right, spacious drinking areas to the left.  A fair crowd in early on a Saturday evening, although I wonder how many they've lost to Spoons?
The sole hand pump served a below par Fullers 'London Pride'.

I not only kept one of the Boothe party seats warm before 18:00 but also covered half their reserved sign in London Pride due a wobbly table.  The bits of rubbish aren't mine though...I take my litter away with me.

And with that, it was time to catch a train.
Regrettably, I don't think I'm quite committed enough to be heading to Alicante to tick off the most recent of new J.D.Wetherspoon openings.

Aylesbury Pub Explorations

Another trip out east to the neighbouring shire, taking advantage of the £2 single bus fares.  This time we were sticking around in the town of Aylesbury - smaller than High Wycombe, more exciting than Buckingham, less roundabouts than Milton Keynes.

The first refreshment stop was at the historic Kings Head at the top of the market square.
It's set back behind the buildings that face that square, accessed via a cobbled alley between Adam's Travel and the waffle shop.

King's Head (Market Square, Aylesbury, HP20 2RW - web)
"One of England's best preserved coaching inns" according to the National Trust, who own the pub but leave the day-to-day running to the Chiltern Brewery.
The pub claims to date back to 1455, with an ancient courtyard and stables, tales connecting it to Oliver Cromwell, Henry VI and Anne Boleyn, and the odd ghost haunting it.  

To be honest, I expected not to like it.  Staff in uniforms, rosemary almonds for £3.50 on the snack menu, old farming implements attached to the ceiling.

 

But it was great.  A good mix of custom and a good beer range, with fine keg options and a run of hand pumps serving the reliable Chiltern Brewery brews - an enjoyable 'Ruby' for me.

Leaving the pub we headed back across the market square to the southern side where you'll find the lion statues, the County Hall (where the Great Train Robbers were on trial in '64) and the 15th century Bell Hotel in the corner. 

The Bell Hotel (40 Market Square, Aylesbury, HP20 1TX - web)
This is a 'Ghost Spoons' - it still feels every bit like a 'Spoons, retaining the local history pictures, carpet, generous early opening hours and JDW style signage to the loos (a fair trek upstairs, of course).
But Wetherspoon's sold this to the Red Cat Pub Co in 2022 - you've now got to walk round the corner to the main road to the White Hart if you want the real thing.

Gone is the wide choice of real ale, but at least there's still a local brew in the shape of Vale 'Gravitas' at a very sensible price.
Perhaps a little too quiet on a Saturday lunchtime, although the customers were spread throughout a number of different areas which make up this old pub.

A quick cultural stop to admire the Bowie statue...

Bowie's connection to the town is via the Friars club, set up by a teacher from the Grammar School.  Using any available space, initially on Monday evenings when bands were at a loose end and happy to get a gig somewhere, Friars became something of a destination for long-haired prog rock types.  The club grew into larger venues and ended up playing host to an enviable list of acts over the years, including Pink Floyd, Queen, Can, Roxy Music, Tangerine Dream.  Wow!
On the 15th July 1972 David Bowie picked Aylesbury to unleash Ziggy Stardust on the world, at what was to become one of Friars most famous shows, commemorated by the statue.

Anyway, enough musical nostalgia.  Let's head a little way out the centre to the Hop Pole.

Hop Pole (83 Bicester Road, Aylesbury, HP19 9AZ)
This was the first pub I ever visited in Aylesbury, when it was the destination for the Buckinghamshire real ale enthusiast, dishing out beers from the on-site ABC microbrewery.  I quite enjoyed those Aylesbury Brewhouse Co beers, so it's a shame to see they stopped brewing in 2020.

It's not quite the ale house it used to be - the 'Craft Beer and Grill' signage above the door raising a frown.
And it may just be me, but those white pillars and beams are too white and neat and crying out for pump clips to be stuck to them.

Not all of the ten hand pumps were in action, but there was still a good choice, my pick being a decent Vale 'Lock Prop and Barrel'.
Just behind the bar, as you're heading into the back room, is a small beer shop with some fine Belgian bottles on wooden shelves.

The Hop Pole and King's Head were the town's two entries in the 2023 Good Beer Guide. 
So where to go when we'd visited both of them?  How about New Zealand?

The New Zealand (175 Buckingham Road, Aylesbury, HP19 9QF)
The pub is named after a hamlet long-since swallowed up by expanding urban Aylesbury.
The New Zealand is a recently refurbished locals pub which very well may not have been here.
A quick search for the pub brought up a listing on the Lost Pubs Project website where, in 2013, it was on its way to being demolished for housing.
So, good to see it open, with a reasonable number of locals settled in for a Saturday afternoon session.

I'd prepped myself for something smooth and chilled from a keg, so it was a nice surprise to find a sole hand pump serving Tring 'Side Pocket for a Toad'.  Predictably, no one else in sight was on the cask, but still it was on reasonably good form.

I think we'd picked quite well - a decent town pub with pool table, darts, locals who looked like they'd still be there at closing time, and sport on enormo TVs.

Mrs PropUptheBar hadn't complained too much at the prospect of drinking Madri in a down-to-earth locals boozer.  Because she'd been pacified with a promise we'd finish our explorations of Aylesbury in somewhere with 'Craft' in the name.

Craftyard is just around the corner from the market square and a stones throw from the bus station.

Craft Yard (23a Walton Street, Aylesbury, HP20 1TZ)
This is one of three Craft Yard venues in Bucks, the first being in Tring, the other in Wendover.  There are rooms either side of the front door with Chesterfield sofas, regular tables, log burner and fancy lighting. The bar is in the back room with a patio beyond which was dominated by a hen party on our visit.
Lots of table reservations suggested this place is popular at a later hour.

For my final beer in Aylesbury, I had something crafty, hoppy, and murky.
Sat on high stools next to the indoor fake foliage wall...

Whilst Mrs PropUptheBar got carried away with her cocktail order...

Cheers 🍺

Winding my way from Wendover

A Friday afternoon spent in a quintet of Bucks pubs.
A trip encouraged by the £2 bus fare cap, which some would say is a bargain for the 23-mile journey from Oxford to Aylesbury.  Whilst others may need to be paid more than £2 to endure an hour on the bus.  Or to end up in Aylesbury.

I do have a slight grump that Red Rose Travel aren't participating in the fare cap scheme and charged me £3.50 for the onward trip to Wendover.
Oh well, I guess the extra £1.50 is for the sightseeing tour around the Elm Farm estate.

After all that bus travel, I was glad to alight in Wendover, where I made my way to the towns current Good Beer Guide entry, the King and Queen.

King & Queen (17 South Street, Wendover, HP22 6EF - web)
Although it's close to the train station it's a little off the beaten track, so I guess I'm lucky they were open for a Friday lunchtime pint.  Not that there were many folk around - just myself and two other punters. 
I settled in the small and pleasing front bar, with it's good old traditional pub carpet and a superb inglenook fireplace.  Plenty of quirky decorations dotted about, as well as a glass screen through which you could peer into to the cellar - skeletons and all!

Beers on the bar were Timothy Taylor 'Landlord', Youngs 'Original' and Verdant 'Lord Summerale'.

Oooo...I've gotta pick the beer with the Wicker Man on the pump clip.  The lady serving me looked non-the-wiser when I mentioned the movie, as I remembered that not everyone knows the 2006 Nic Cage horror classic (best check I've got that right before publishing).
Verdant have brewed this in collaboration with Weird Walks, whose guides were on sale on a display in the pub.
And these generated some entertaining friendly chat, which then progressed onto the many movies and TV shows which have been filmed nearby.

Departing from the King & Queen, there wasn't much in the way of choice for another pint in Wendover.
The proper-looking pubs, the Pack Horse and White Swan, didn't open for another couple of hours.  I was too scruffy to join the wedding party in the Fullers Bel & the Dragon at the Red Lion (that name - yuck😡).
So I resorted to the one on the main road with the floral display.

The George & Dragon (4-6 Aylesbury Road, Wendover, HP22 6JQ - web)
The Thai lady laying knifes and forks on a table looked quite shocked when I walked in.
"Can I help?"
Just popping in for a beer.
"But we shut in 30 minutes"
Yeah, I think I can manage that.

I should have heeded the dubious welcome as a warning.  My Marston's footy special beer was dreadful.
The town's oldest pub may have some fine old wooden beams, but is more Thai restaurant than trad pub, and let me down on the real ale lottery.  

My plan to walk along the Grand Union Canal was scuppered when I found the towpath closed.  So I decided to find an alternative route and figured I'd seek out a pub to stop at en-route.
Perhaps not this one, though...

Pub's end at World's End?

Reaching the village of Weston Turville, the Chandos Arms looked inviting enough and had the bonus of still having an intact roof.

Chandos Arms (1 Main Street, Weston Turville, HP22 5RR - web)
Located next to a quiet crossroads, the pub has picnic benches in an appealing grassy front garden and what I suspect is a Covid-era marquee to the side.
Stepping through the door it's clearly had a recent refurb.

There were two beers on the bar from Bedford brewers Charles Wells: 'DNA' or 'Boyds Bobber'.  I don't know who Boyd is, or what his Bobber may be, but this was a reasonable light and fruity ale.

The next leg of my walk took me to Aston Clinton.
I was heading straight to the Oak, but then this looked intriguing...

The Rothschild Arms (82 Weston Road, Aston Clinton, HP22 5EJ)
A pub that seemed completely out of place in a Bucks village.  
Although Aston Clinton is home to over 3,500 folks including, apparently, Aussie F1 driver Mark Webber, so perhaps I'd misjudged the place.

The Rothschild has a thoroughly modern decor, with US number plates stuck around the base of the bar, retro tin adverts, a pool table getting some good use, and some quirky touches, like a police box painted on the wall and mannequin stood looking out the front window.

Just the one cask ale on offer, which was one more than I'd expected to be honest.  A so-so Otter 'Hawthorn Pale Ale'.
I wasn't sold on the 'beach' garden, so sat myself in the side room with an unusual retro video shop theme.  An interesting pub, which I hope is buzzing with the Aston Clinton youth of an evening time.

A quick stroll across the village and I made my way to my final destination, the Beer Guide listed Fullers pub...

The Oak (119 Green End Street, Ashton Clinton, HP22 5EU - web)
It was quiet on a late Friday afternoon, but there were lots of staff prepping for the onslaught that an evening of Shakespeare in the garden would bring later.

The room with the larger bar counter and extension beyond looked to be intended for dining, but the front room was pleasingly simple, bedecked with flags, although I'm not sure what they were up for.
And there were proper pub customers - a few folk sitting with pints in the garden and hi-vis workmen, finished for the day, and wandering around with pints of Carlsberg.

The Dark Star 'Hophead' was on very good form - challenging the first pub for beer of the day.
This was a day when the Good Beer Guide pubs did indeed deliver the best beer.  Who would have thought it.

Next up, I'll do a bit of exploring in Aylesbury itself.