Ferry Across the Wye

This post contains pubs in two counties...

...a brewery tap.
...a hand-pulled ferry.
...and lots of Wye Valley beer.

We were spending a long weekend in Symond's Yat, staying in a cottage in the tree-lined gorge that the River Wye runs through, with friends Tim and Marta and Luna - chaos reincarnated in canine form.

But first, I'd spotted a midday beer diversion in Gloucestershire where we could sit next to shiny brewing equipment.

Bespoke Brewing (Building 5, Church Farm, Church St, Littledean, Cinderford GL14 3NL)
Bespoke started brewing in 2012 in nearby Micheldean.  They were brought by the current owners six years later, who proceeded to move the brew kit to a new home in 2021.
That home is located up a gravel lane running between the church yard and a field of sheep, eventually leading you to farm buildings and reassuring banners advertising coffee and ale. 

There were a decent number of folks in the sunshine on benchs outside, the barn-like taproom proving less of a draw in the fine weather.  Just me that gets a silly grin sitting drinking next to fermenting vessels, then.

Draft beers came in the form of Arbor 'Mosaic', Stround 'Easy Peasy', a mysterious 'Bohemian Lager', plus two of their own concoctions.
We stuck with their own, ordering halves of the Bespoke 'Forest Gold' and 'Test Brew': the test brew being a 6-point-something % American IPA with lesser-seen hops.

  And very nice it was too.

Top marks also for the coffee counter here who brewed a quite marvellous and expertly presented espresso and cappucino, as well as having tempting sweet treats that could very well have scuppered my appetite for lunch.
Top marks for the WC too, a mini musuem of breweriana... 

Our rendezvous point with our friends was in Blaisden.
Guess who picked a former local Camra award winner to have lunch in?

The Red Hart (Blaisdon Ln, Blaisdon, Longhope GL17 0AH)
At least I picked well (this time).  It's a former local CAMRA Pub of the Year, serving a South West selection of cask ales from Otter, Butcombe, and Glastonbury Brewery.

The Red Hart has its bar counter facing the front door, with a pleasant rustic dining room to the right and trad village pub seating to the left.  Super flagstone flooring, random tools on the wall, an odd bit foliage failing to hide the speaker...

We took advange of the good weather, sitting in the lovely peaceful garden, enjoying the Glastonbury Best Bitter and the chefs interpretation of Indian street-food samosa chat.
A great place.  Which I knew it would be as soon as I caught a glimpse the old battered pub sign...

We'd left ourselves with a final 14-mile leg of the journey to reach Symonds Yat, our home for 2-nights, located down mildly challenging lanes.  Which would be easy to drive down if only nobody else had had the idea of coming here on a sunny weekend.

Our cottage was in Symond's Yat West.
The 2025 Good Beer Guide entrant was in Symonds Yat East, the River Wye inconviently in the way.  Although that makes for a unique final approach to a pub...

The Saracen's Head (Symonds Yat East, HR9 6JL)
Whatever Chris De Burgh may tell you, you do have to pay the ferryman.  £2 each for the short distance across the water - cripes, on a cost:distance ratio that's more than even HS2 will charge us (probably).
Advance warning to this penny-pinching pub-ticker - you'll have to cough up £6 for a pint at the bar here too.

The Saracen's selling point is the location and the chance to sit on one of several outdoor terraces overlooking the river.  Inside there is a dining room with a modern feel, whilst the bar spoils its olde-worlde stone floors with the olive paint job.
Plenty of youthful high-season staff on duty, happily calling people to the end of the counter and scuppering the queue that the holiday-makers so desperately want to form.

Here's the beer choice - lots of similar ales, missing the opportunity to put anything mild or dark on...

The Wye Valley 'Sundowner' and 'Butty Bach' were both on reasonable form, supped whilst watching the ferry go and back and forth admidst the constant cacophany of busy pubbiness.

Symonds Yat East is all about the steep gorge and rocks and has a lot less buildings than its neighbour on the other side of the river.
We made our way back there the following day, walking the long-way round via the Biblins camp site rope bridge, being as the ferryman doesn't kick into action until the pub opens.
A short steep climb takes you to the spendid viewpoint which shows why this area has been given the area of outstanding natural beauty tag.

Back down at river-level we opted to poke our heads into the hotel instead of returning to the Saracen's.

Royal Lodge (Symonds Yat East, HR9 6JL)
This is very much a hotel rather than a pub, the route to the bar taking you past a check-in desk, then through a dining room, the cereal dispensers still on the table after breakfast service.
Tempting as a bowl of bran flakes was, one of our party (that'd be me) didn't need any as he'd left everyone in bed that morning and popped down to Wetherspoons in Monmouth for breakfast.

I was sure there'd be no cask in the hotel bar, but was proved wrong...

Another new variety of Wye Valley beer for me, ensuring I didn't end up drinking Butty Bach all weekend.
The 'Pyoneer' was a superb sweet malty amber ale, brewed with Target and Goldings hops.  On great form, although the less said about the condition of the Clavel & Hind beer on the second pump, the better.

A short walk alongside the riverside path took us to the Old Ferrie Inn, except for that pesky bit of water being in the way again.
This pub also has a hand-pulled ferry to collect punters from the opposite bank.  With a bit of added jeopardy that they could only take a limited number, all sat at one end, to prevent the ferry getting grounded with the low levels of the Wye.

Ye Old Ferrie Inn (Ferrie Lane, Symonds Yat West, HR9 6BL)
This pub claims to date back the 15th century; to a time when it provided refreshment to the folk using the ferry crossing here to transport livestock from one side to the other.  
As with the Saracen's, this has an enviable location to draw the crowds in.  We saw little of the interior - packed the rafters when we were there - sticking to the outdoor benches overlooking the water, knocking back the Butty Bach.

There was one more pub in close proximity a little further up the lanes...

The Wye Knott Inn (Symonds Yat West, HR9 6BJ)
And this was probably my favourite of the lot.
Inside there is a decent traditional pub room in front of the bar, with more seating by the windows along the front in an extension to the original building.
I can find little out about the pub other than it being nicknamed 'Jampots' after using jam jars to serve beer during a wartime glass shortage.  I think I prefer Jampots to Wye Knott Inn.

There were two cask ales on the bar: the tropical hoppiness of Ledbury 'Olicana Pale Ale' and the malty 'Llandogo Trow Ale' from Kingstone Brewery.  The landlord was enthusiastic about his beers and did a fine job of selling Tim both scratchings and chicharones.

 

Very much not vegetarian, but the Hobson's bags were worth manuevering into the picture of my pint.
The Wye Knott has a pretty non-descript garden across the road from the pub, so scores more local trade than the hotspots by the river.  It's also a short somewhat precarious stagger downhill on a path through to the trees to the caravan park from where I guess they pick up some trade.  Someone's certainly drinking the cask, as both pints were in great condition.

So that brings an end to exploration of a handful of pub in Symonds Yat and a fine sunny weekend.  Back to Oxfordshire now and a new 2026 Good Beer Guide waiting on the doorstep. 

Propping Up the Bar in Cheltenham Spa

This was my first visit to Cheltenham since coming for the football in 2006.  I was surprised that absolutely nothing in the town centre looked familiar to me, which means my memory isn't what it used to be, or that I imagined my 00's ground-hopping and Forest being in the third division.

The day started - as all the best days do - in 'Spoons before midday.

The Moon Under Water (16-24 Bath Road, Cheltenham, GL50 7HA)
A bit of a photography fail on this, the second JDW branch in the town.  It's basically an old car showroom with a greenhouse on the front of it - unlikely to win any awards for most spectacular Spoons architecture.

Inside, it's spacious, stretching a fair way back, with the bar in the middle, and some nice decking overlooking a narrow bit of the River Chelt at the very back.  The Moon Under Water still bills itself as a Lloyds No1, with glitter balls, a dance floor, and adverts for DJ Rob suggesting this wouldn't be the ideal place to settle with a paperback for a quiet Saturday evening pint.

A limited menu due to some kitchen issues was probably the reason we found this place very quiet at midday (the more central Bank House Spoons had been packed when we passed it).

I was impressed by the line-up of cask ales - beers from Oakham, Wolf, Salopian, Kirkstall, and Glamorgan breweries on this visit.
I picked the Salopian 'Time Machine', starting the day at a sensible strength of 3.9%.  Let's see how long my beer choices remain 'sensible'.

Two great value pints later, we departed from Spoons and made a short walk from the Moon Under Water onto the High Street and out to the town's best known beer drinking pub.
A previous National Pub of the Year, winning the CAMRA award in 2015.

Sandford Park Ale House (20 High Street, Cheltenham, GL50 1DZ)
Entering through the front door, you can circumnavigate the whole pub.  There is a staircase to some upper rooms in the middle, a pleasant snug to one side, bar billiards in the next room, and the bar counter in the corner by the doors to a decent back garden.

The beer selection was pretty spectacular: 9 ales on cask making it tricky to pick one.  I decided it was cloudy and chilly enough for the dark stuff, ordering a Hop Shed 'Phoenix Porter'.

We had a bit of a pub food fail here, with the wrong items arriving at the table.  We got extra fries to compensate, but that was far more fries than I needed.   To top this off, I went back to the bar for an unwise half of the 8.4% Verdant 'What Are Dreams Made Of?'

We should really had have a good long walk to aid the digestion after the Ale House.
But instead we bowled into our next venue, The Strand, just a couple of hundred meters along the road.

The Strand (40-42 High Street, Cheltenham, GL50 1EE)
The beers in this bright, airy bar were listed on a giant mind-boggling wooden board to the side of the counter.  It looked like they had a Red Willow takeover, with all 4 cask beers and 7 of the keg picks coming from the Macclesfield brewery.
I ordered a Red Willow 'F200 Nelson Idaho 7', because I love a catchy name.

If I'm going to pick faults with The Strand, I'll grumble about the uncomfortable high stools.  But it serves a purpose as a modern craft bar; the beer was on decent form; and there was a good range of folk in the L-shaped room, tucking into plates of food and enjoying a wide range of drink options.

 

We moved on before Mrs PropUptheBar could spot the rum and caramel boozy shakes on the drinks menu.

Next up, we decided to venture a little further outside the town centre to visit the Kemble Brewery Tap, a 2024 Good Beer Guide entry, although it has dropped out in the new edition.
Our route took us past some impressive street art...

We found our route to the pub through some tranquil side streets (thanks Google, I'd have struggled in the days when I relied on a hand-scribbled inaccurate map of inconsistent scale). 

The Kemble Brewery (27 Fairview Street, Cheltenham, GL52 2JF)
Disappointingly, it's not a brewery at all.  What a fiddle.
In fact, it was originally built as a butchers shop in 1845, before becoming a pub in 1847.  At one point, a landlord produced cider in the back yard, which seems to be where it got the name from. 
It's a single narrow room, pretty traditional, with various instruments hung from the walls.

I ordered a half of Salopian 'Lemon Dream' - other options being Salopian 'Darwin', Wye Valley 'Butty Bach' and 'HPA', the latter two billed on a small balckboard as "Kemble Inn favourites".
A good quality beer, in a reasonably comfy pub, although I'm not sure we really needed to make the trek out of town to it.

Our next destination was the Bath Tavern.

The Bath Tavern (68 Bath Road, Cheltenham, GL53 7JT)
I do believe that this was once an unspoilt trad city pub, run by the same family for some 130 years.  Although I've arrived a bit too late, with it now under new management and having had a bit of a refurb and smartening-up.
That said it was still a pleasant place to sit and while away 30-minutes and sheltered us from a sudden rain shower.
The Wye Valley 'HPA' was the sole cask option, and was on reasonable form.

I'd promised Mrs PropUptheBar craft beer in Cheltenham.
So let's put the remaining GBG pubs on hold for a future visit and delve into some stupidly strong keg murk in Planet Caravan - not just a Black Sabbath album track.

Planet Caravan (25 Bath Street, Cheltenham, GL50 1YA)
Somewhat dangerously, this bar in a converted estate agent was hosting a Left Handed Giant tap takeover on our visit.
Just pick something easy-going and sensible.
Ooooh! 'Blender Celebration' - a 12% imperial stout concoction.  Doh!

It was probably for the best that this small bar was uncomfortably busy whilst we were there, lest we decide to stay and work our way through more of the LHG beers.  Even the upstairs room was full - and upstairs rooms in micros never get full.  My dinky wooden stool was situated on the dog-leg of the route through the bar, necessitating acrobatic movements to avoid being clobbered by folk on their way to the WCs.

Right.  We'd switched from the cask to the craft, so we may as well continue the theme.
We headed into the bustling Brewery Quarter, where there is little left of the old West Country Brewery, closed in 1998 and demolished (with the exception of the main brew house) in 2004.
In this entertainment quarter you'll now find Brewhouse & Kitchen, the Botanist, Alchemist, Cosy Club, and all those sorts of things.
And Brewdog, who opened this branch in February 2022...

Brewdog Cheltenham (Unit 3, The Brewery Quarter, Henrietta Street, Cheltenham, GL50 4FA)
I know it has been a while since Brewdog were hip and trendy, and this was a serious distraction from ticking off the beer guide pubs.  But we've got a little collection of those Brewdog venue postcards and wanted a Cheltenham one.

The branch of the chain is situated in a former restaurant - one big square room with a high ceiling with some odd foliage hanging from it.  Plenty of people on the high tables closest to the bar, although the half set aside for eating was looking painfully quiet for a Saturday evening.

I do appreciate the choice of beers at Bewdog, displayed on the giant white illuminated beer board, especially their guest options.  A Fuerst Wiacek 'Feral' double IPA was the beer that threatened to send me to sleep on the train journey home.

And it was toward that train home that we headed.
With a quick stop at the Railway en-route.  

Thank you, Cheltenham, for a pleasant day out.
We will be back, as we forgot to do any sight-seeing, have another Wetherspoons to call in to, and several more pubs to visit.  And it's a much easier train trip from Oxford via Worcester than I'd previously thought.

Stroud Pub Explorations

On a wet and wintery Saturday we made a trip to the Gloucestershire town of Stroud.  Voted in 2021 by the Telegraph as the best place in the UK to live, this is a hilly old town at the meeting point of the Five Valleys.

We left Oxford with glorious blue skies in the morning, so just typical that it began to rain as soon as we stepped out of the train station.  So off we went, in search of the shelter of the first pub.  Right in the centre of town, this was a busy place, with an entrance that didn't look especially pub-like...

 

The Ale House (9 John Street, Stroud, GL5 2HA - web)
It's still fairly un-pub-like when you head through the front door into a hallway with staircase to the left.  You've got to head to the end of this to find the bar in a high-ceilinged room brightened by a skylight. We'd been beaten to the prime spot in front of the fireplace, so instead made ourselves at home in the adjoining second room.

The beer range was superb - Electric Bear won the funky modern pump clip award, with other ales coming from the likes of Oakham, Thornbridge and Arbor alongside cask ciders.
I chose the local that I'd never heard of - Tiley's Pale Ale, from a brewpub in Ham. 

A steady flow of folks came in, the tables filling up whilst the two excitable dogs at the next table tangled themselves together at frequent intervals.
My beer was spot-on, going down a treat, as I began to contemplate whether going back for a second would be detrimental to our pub-crawling plans for the rest of the day.

I was a big fan of the Ale House, but we spotted the rain had stopped and decided it was time to move on.

We headed away from the centre, making our way to the Bowbridge Arms on the edge of town.  Google said 12 minutes.  It seemed longer than that, but that could just be due to the amount of time I spent crossing the road and trying (and failing) to get a picture of the pub that wasn't scuppered by the roadworks in front of it.

Bowbridge Arms (London Road, Bowbridge, Stroud, GL5 2AY - web)
The Bowbridge was re-opened in 2016 after a spell closed and now has a bright modern airy feel to it.

Wye Valley 'Butty Bach', Butcombe 'Original' and St Austell 'Proper Job' were the beers on the bar.  My Butty Bach had to be returned as undrinkable and was exchanged for a Butcombe.  I took a swig of this, gave it the thumbs-up, and said "thanks, much better", because that's what I'd decided I was going to do in advance.  Then it occurred that this was teetering on the brink too.  And can you really take two pints back?
So, bad day for the beer quality.

Which is a shame because the place was comfy, the home-cooked food nice and the staff cheery and friendly.
Bet the Proper Job was great!

Heading straight up the hill opposite the Bowbridge Arms, the sun briefly emerged to light up Crown and Sceptre pub.

Crown and Sceptre (98 Horns Road, Stroud, GL5 1RG - web)
The pub was doing a good mid-afternoon trade.  The last few available tables were reserved for the imminent arrival of the hockey team, leaving stools at the end of the bar our only seating option.  Which was a fine vantage point, although we did feel a bit in the way.

Beers on offer were Uley 'Best Bitter' and 'Pigs Ear', Stroud 'Budding' and a guest from Bristol Beer Factory.  I went with the Uley - a brewery I don't see very often - an enjoyable traditional beer.

 

There were pump clips stuck on the ceiling, movie posters covering the walls of the gents, (long dead) spiders in display cases hanging next to the entrance, and lots of motorcycle memorabilia.  It was fantastically cluttered with all sorts of oddities...  

And here's a picture of a chap showing off his skills at the Ringing the Bull game.  I think the only other place I've come across this is in the Trip to Jerusalem in Nottingham.

And you always know you're in a good pub when there's a tray of cobs on the bar!

We left by the side door...

Back downhill and onto the Thames and Severn canal towpath for the mile-and-a-bit walk to the local brewery. 

Stroud Brewery Tap (Kingfisher Business Park, London Road, Thrupp, GL5 2BY - web)
Founded in 2006, the Stroud Brewery has moved a couple of times prior to settling into this industrial unit.  I'm not going to try to describe it, as I can't beat the fine, detailed WhatPub description, including the line "somewhere between a diminutive Bavarian beer hall and Wagamama’s"

Ignore the fact that I managed to take a picture of the bar with two people and plenty of space around it.  The place was busy, initially relegating us to the covered seating in little sheds outside by the canal.  It was cold though, so nice to get the chance to bag a table indoors when a few folk moved on.

Four cask ales: Budding, Tom Long, O.P.A and Fall.  I went for the Fall, not just because it was on a special offer at £3 a pint, but because it was a smoked bitter and I love my smoky beers.  And this was a good'un, on great form as you'd hope from a bar next to the brewery.

There's no lights on towpaths and falling into the canal is bad news anywhere, let alone a couple of hours from home.  So, as it was getting dusky very early, we set out to make our walk back before it got too dark.  
We struck off on a footpath and found one of Stroud's hills, climbing to a good height above the town, then heading along some lanes until we reached the Prince Albert.

Prince Albert (Rodborough Hill, Stroud - web)
It's six nations time again, isn't it?
The Prince Albert was packed, every seat and perch taken as folks squeezed in to watch Scotland v England on the screens at either side of the bar.  Even the back yard was busy with an outdoor screen although we managed to get a table that nobody wanted as it was at too tight an angle to see the oval ball antics.

The rugby does a great job of of filling pubs up, with the staff being kept busy steadily pouring the beers.
Doesn't mean I have to like it, though.

I really need to revisit the Prince Albert another time to fully appreciate it.

My pint of Stroud Organic Pale Ale was in great condition, but quaffed rather too quickly as we calculated how fast we could walk down the hill and get the most direct homebound train.

Stroud was one of those 'how come I've never been here before' kind of destinations.  Nice Saturday street market, good views, Forest Green Rovers nearby and enough good pubs to see us surprisingly not ending up in Wetherspoons.  Next time hopefully we'll get some sunshine and avoid the rugby in the Prince Albert.