FA Cup Action in Dorchester

The weekend of 19th-20th September saw 160 teams in action in FA Cup qualifying 2nd round fixtures.
My local club, Oxford City, had drawn a trip down south to Dorchester Town.  At first I didn't think this was a game I needed to go to...  Then I realised I could make a weekend of it and stay on Portland, have a beer in the Convivial Rabbit, and tick off a new non-league ground.  And suddenly it became essential.

I made my way through Weymouth on buses that were delayed by an Iron Man contest on the beach, eventually arriving in the county town at 12:30.
Time for a beer...

Dorchester Brewhouse & Kitchen (27 Weymouth Avenue, Dorchester, DT1 1QY)
I've meant to visit here on two previous trips to Dorchester, but never made it.  'Rain' was the most recent weak excuse.  Alighting the bus just across the road, I thought I really should pop in this time around.
The pub is a late '80s affair, constructed on the site of one-time railway buildings, turned into a Brewhouse & Kitchen in 2014.
As the name suggests, they brew on-site, providing me with September's shiny brewing equipment picture (copper edition)...

On a long bar counter there were multiple hand pumps, but just three in use, jam jar samples failing to influence my choice of 'Stationmasters Best Bitter'.

A very average beer that proved hard work.
Untappd check-ins of the Red Ale scored well, suggesting I picked wrong this time.
I sat by the brewing kit with a dubious soundtrack (Flamingosis 'Feel Yourself'???) in a pub that was far too quiet.  Tellingly the Brewhouse & Kitchen chain are down to 12 locations and looking to diversify to appeal to a wider audience.  Shame, because I do love a brew pub, but I can't recommend you rush here for the best bitter.

A walk through the redeveloped Brewery Square took me past the train station and the most recent residential additions, then out into more traditional Dorchester suburbs.

The Baker's Arms (140 Monmouth Road, Dorchester, DT1 2DH)
What a corker of a street-corner local.
Step inside and the pub is laid out over two levels, with a pleasing traditional bar at street level and a red-carpeted lounge located down a couple of stairs.  The whole pub is packed full of breweriana, with old bread ovens in the wall to one end a quirky feature.

There were three cask ales available: Bowman 'Strava', Courage 'Bombardier Golden Ale' and Ringwood 'Razor Back'.
Which was a let-down, as this is a Dorset Bass stronghold.
"Delivery issues," explained the landlord.  Not again! 
Oh well...the 'Strava' was a fine hoppy pale ale, served in great condition.  I was also given a generous taster - some would call it a third - of the golden bombardier.

The partition dividing the two levels of the pub is busily decorated...

The welcome was lovely in the Bakers - both halves of the couple in charge coming over to my table for a chat about beer, pubs and breweries and what on earth had brought me all the way here from Oxford.

Last time I was in Dorchester I missed out on the Blue Raddle with their less-than-generous opening hours.  
"You'll be lucky to find it open," my host Graham had said.
Saturday afternoon, no problem! I responded confidently.

Dammit!

I have enjoyed food and drink in the Raddle back in 2014, but seem destined never to see inside again.
The Kings Arms hotel on the High Street would have to make do as an alternative...

Kings Arms (High East Street, Dorchester, DT1 1HF)
Okay, so it's a hotel bar rather than a pub, but the Beatles and Rolling Stones have stayed here and it featured in Thomas Hardy's Mayor of Casterbridge, two plus points in my book.

What do you get in a refurbished 300-year-old coaching inn?
Fine mosaic porchway flooring and magnificent corridors...

 

A gin menu.
A wedding party (who took one look at me and must've thought who let that scruffy bugger in?)
Clementine and Spearmint handwash.
Lost & Grounded lager...

A sole handpump dispensed Butcombe 'Original', but the uniform run of keg fonts had caught my eye and I fancied the Bristol brewer's Keller Pils.
Made with German pilsner malt and Magnum, Perle and Hallertauer Mittelfruh hops, it's a respectable light lager, supped from a comfy armchair in a bar that is a little smarter than PropUptheBar is generally used to.

Departing from the Kings Arms, my route took me past the Beer Guide-listed Convivial Rabbit.  

Convivial Rabbit (1 Trinity House, Trinity Street, Dorchester, DT1 1TT)
This micropub was opened in 2016 in premises which once housed the Dorset County Chronicle.  Situated down an alleyway, I'm convinced - after a couple to tries - that it's impossible to get a good exterior picture.
Inside it's more photogenic...

It's at the larger end of the 'micro' scale, the description referring more to the focus on ale and conversation with no distractions, rather than size.
Beers available on this visit came from Electric Bear, Oakham, Exeter, Dark Revolution and Hop Union.  All under a fiver except the 'Night Drive' apricot stout at a hefty 'better be good' price of £8.90 a pint.
The hazy pale 'Regional Manager' for me.  Great pump clip...

I was clock-watching on this visit, checking how long it would take to walk to the football ground.  Making for a rather rushed visit.

But later in the day Graham was on his way back from a Bridport beer festival or competing in the Weymouth Iron Man contest - one or the other - and I managed a more relaxed visit to the Convivial Rabbit when we made it our meeting point.

But right now, a march to the football.  With a quick pause to look at the Maumbury Rings, a neolithic henge which was repurposed by the Romans for use as an amphitheatre.

The onward walk down the length of Weymouth Road took me to the southern edge of town and the Avenue Stadium.

You know you're on the edge of town when the terrace is named the Bypass End.

What a cracking ground Dorchester FC have.
It was opened in 1990, built in conjunction with landowners the Duchy of Cornwall, Tesco lending a hand in a deal that saw them get to redevelope the site of the club's original ground for the neighbouring superstore.
Beneath the impressive main stand I found my way to the club bar.

The appearance of a polypin of Glastonbury 'Arthur's Ale' on the bar counter was a welcome sight.  Bright beer, I would suspect, to enable them to heft it into place and serve it straight away.

£5.50 brought me a pint of bitter in a plastic cup.  Half downed in the posher end of the bar with the odd mix of wood panelling and suspended ceiling.  The second half taken out onto the terrace behind the goal as the game kicked off.

The tie finished 2-0 to Oxford City, the Hoops enjoying a relatively comfortable afternoon, although Dorchester didn't allow them to completely run away with it.

After making the walk back into the town centre in the drizzle, I opted to call into the Junction. 

The Junction (42 Great Western Road, Dorchester, DT1 1UF)
Built sometime in the 1700s, this large one-time coaching inn would have been part of Eldridge Pope's estate, the old brewery located just across the road.  It's a Marston's house these days, with a familiar cask line-up of Ringwood, Wychwood and Courage ales.
I ordered myself a Courage 'Directors' - not in bad condition, but not a patch on the exquisite Directors in Tutbury earlier this year. 

Later on, I'd end up back in the Convivial Rabbit, then drinking fine ale in the Copper Street Brewhouse, before sharing the bus back to Weymouth with cowboy hat wearing Dolly Parton fans from the Country in the Square event.

A football road trip that I'm glad to have made.
Hopefully my reports on visits to these lower league grounds will come in handy for Martin when Man City are demoted to this level 😉.

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 to 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...