Wokingham Pub Explorations

The last time I trekked to the pub in Wokingham was in 2017 during the bitter-cold Beast From the East, ticking off a couple of pubs in the beer guide, but promising myself I'd be back.  Assuming we were less likely to get a sub-zero icy blast in July, I returned to visit a couple more pubs in the Berkshire town. 

I arrived super-early, which was inconvenient as none of the pubs opened super-early.

The Wetherspoon's replacement, The Gig House, had stuck a sticker over its 11:30 opening time, disappointing a couple of old boys who turned up and tried the door.
Shame - I was intrigued by the latest Trip Advisor reviews ("Awful", "By far the worst pub...I've experienced", "Avoid! Avoid! Avoid!").

And I was a few days too early for the grand opening of the Outhouse Brewery...

So I used the last bit of the morning to undertake the walk to the outlier pub, the Crooked Billet, planning to arrive ready for their midday opening.

This is listed as being in Wokingham, but walking out beyond the last houses of town and into the countryside, it didn't feel like it.
I passed through the intriguingly named Wokingham Without...

Without what?

Thirty minutes from the town centre, down a country lane, I reached my first pub...

Crooked Billet (Honey Hill, Wokingham, RG40 3BJ - web)
No denying it looks great with it's white weather-boarded frontage.

It'd be great in the sunshine with a pleasant garden and benches out front.  Or in the winter with cosy corners and fireplace by the bar.  So trust me to visit on a grey drizzly day when neither of those features were relevant.

Beers on offer were Brakspear 'Gravity', Hobgoblin 'Gold' or Charles Wells 'Bombardier'.
I sat with a pint of the local Brakspear's, with a cutting edge soundtrack of Dire Straits, Del Amitri and REM in the background.

There were enough people in the pub, from those dining around the corner, to a few folk with drinks and snacks in the main bar, to keep the young staff constantly on the move.

The toilets had those 'one only' Covid rules, with a "Vacant/Occupied" sign hanging on the door for users to turn around.
I always forget to turn the signs back to 'vacant' when I leave.
If you're still in the Crooked Billet, queuing for ages, wondering who's in there and what they're up to...sorry!  

Pint finished and paid for, I walked back into the town and made a beeline for the Ship Inn...

Ship Inn (104 Peach Street, Wokingham, RG40 1XH - web)
I was met by the landlord, sat with his laptop in the marquee to the rear of the pub. 
"Sign in on the NHS app, then we'll get you sorted out with a nice pint of beer - how's that sound?" he said, like a kindly uncle comforting me with the promise of booze.

I wasn't really 'sorted out' with my beer - being left to my own devices to tackle the Fullers app to place an order (£4.95 for a pint of ESB - cripes!)
This is a 400-year old coaching inn which has been given a recent refit.  By smartening and brightening it up it's undoubtedly lost some of it's historical charm, though I liked the barn-like side room, where I sat, with it's wooden beams and interesting decor.

  

I had to reach Reading by mid-afternoon, so was fast running out of time in Wokingham.  Hence quaffing the ESB rather too quickly in order to ensure I could sneak in one more pub visit.
Hmmm...turns out ESB is quite lethal when quaffing it quickly.  Lesson learned. (It's not).

Lord Raglan (30 Denmark Street, Wokingham, RG40 2BB - web)
The final pub that had caught my eye was the regenerated Lord Raglan, run by London brewery Big Smoke since 2020.
The staff member who welcomed me led me to the square dining room beyond the bar.  "You can sit... well, anywhere actually, we don't have any bookings for this afternoon" she said, presenting the empty room to me.
So, not a thriller of a pub visit...

Perhaps it'll be livelier next time I'm here, and I will be back again for the beer choice - a number of cask ales alongside a wall of taps at the back of the bar.  I went for the Big Smoke milk stout, 'Underworld', which was thoroughly enjoyable.

And that brought my short visit to Wokingham to a close.  I was tempted at the craft cafe Sit and Sip, lured by the stupidly strong imperial porters they had on offer, but ultimately deciding this would be a bad idea, mid-afternoon. 
I intend to be back, perhaps to visit the new brewery and make my own mind up about the Gig House.

Back to the Beer Festival

The sun was shining, spirits were high, and we were heading to our first beer festival since March 2020, making our way to Twyford, Berkshire.

Casting my mind back to the heady, carefree times of 2019 we had a calendar marked with tons of beer festivals, from those in the back of a pub to those in marquees and huge halls.  

Beer festivals brought us spectacular choices of real ales, sometimes in wonderful buildings such as our very own Oxford Town Hall...

And sometimes with a smaller choice..

Sidmouth Conservative Club Folk Week beer fest

Occasionally with visits from the local Morris dancers...

Aylesbury Beer Festival

And gourmet beer festival cuisine...

Pie in a Cob, why not? GBBF

On Saturday 26th June, we were back...boozin' in the middle of a field in Berkshire!

Making our way to the 11th Twyford Beer Festival, a smooth-running journey meant we arrived super-early before the gates were open.  We could technically have been the first ones in, but hung back and let other folks form a queue, so we didn't look too eager.
The bonus of coming early was picking a good spot and getting the first few beers in without any waiting time.
We found a fine spot with view of the stage and short trek to the bar, sitting next to three chaps with fantastic beards worthy of a ZZTop tribute act.

My first couple of beers came from Ascot's Disruption Is Brewing - a lovely pale ale, followed by 'Like Father Like Son', a hefty imperial Russian stout which only a complete imbecile would order at 12:15 in the sunshine.
All the ales traveled a short distance from Berkshire and surrounding counties and most were priced at £4 a pint.  We supped some wonderful beers from Rebellion, Dolphin, Bond Brews and Elusive.

Choices, choices...

The elephant in the room. 🐘
We're kinda still 'locked down'.  Sort of.  Aren't we?
When 'freedom day' failed to happen on the 21st, we figured we'd be getting an e-mail informing us that we'd have to wait a couple of months more for the beer festival.  But remarkably enough it went ahead, all done above-board in consultation with the local council.

I guess we were sat no closer to anyone than we would be in a busy beer garden or on the  south coast beaches when the Daily Mirror tells us we're due a heatwave at the weekend. 
Helped by my seismic epsilon variant hay fever, which was enough to deter anyone from settling down too close to me!

The downfall - the bit where it didn't work - was when the site reached peak business mid-afternoon.  The bar is the white tent on the right side of the picture below and the queue to it stretches just off the left side...

Thirty-plus minute queues proved too much for us and we used our remaining tokens in one go.  You couldn't keep popping back for halves.

But a big round of applause to the folks who organised Twyford beer festival in the strangest of times and put on a successful event.  Bands played to audiences for the first time in ages.  Everyone from youthful hipsters to families to miserable old buggers like me looked to be having a good time.  And a stack of cash was raised for charity.   So all good all round, then! 🍻

It's a shame we left a little earlier than intended and I missed the Elusive 11% imperial stout (and their fantastically named 'Crisp Whitty'). 
Never mind though - there was something stupidly strong with my name on it in the Weather Station in Reading.

From a Horse and Groom to a Horse & Jockey

More Good Beer Guide excursions into North Oxfordshire.

Current difficulties recruiting staff in the hospitality industry mean
taking all the help you can to keep the bar running.

With some glorious blue skies to start the day we set out on the S4 bus towards Banbury, hopping off at a remote bus stop somewhere just beyond Tackley.
From there we walked to the village of Lower Heyford (nice Beer Guide pub, but we passed before opening time) and onward over pleasant footpaths across fields of crops.

With the clock ticking nicely toward 12 noon we ambled through the village of Caulcott and reached the pub at a junction to the main road.

Horse and Groom (Lower Heyford Road, Caulcott, OX25 4ND - web)
The landlady opened the door just before noon and then seemed a little surprised at us bowling in seconds later, eagerly early, having been loitering nearby.
We ordered pints - a tasty Vale 'Best' for me - and settled on a picnic table in the small garden to the side of the pub.

A 16th century inn, this retains a charming old country-pub feel to it and I'm sure it would be lovely and cosy inside in the winter months with the fire going. 

Can't stop taking fireplace pics since my visit to the pubs on Dartmoor

Beers finished, we left Caulcott via the footpath that starts directly opposite the pub and leads to Upper Heyford.  From there we joined the canal towpath to take us northwards.
I neglected to take any pretty canal pictures (and thought it unfair to photograph the folks trying in vain to free their narrowboat which they'd managed to get stuck on a muddy bank).
But I did take a picture of a cow...

"Oi!  Stick to photographing blokes in pubs with pints
of beer and leave me to drink in peace"

It turned out to be a fair old trek that caused me to question Mrs Prop Up the Bar's map distance measuring techniques.  On a hot sticky day it was a relief to reach the footpath that branched away from the canal to the village of Clifton, the next pub finally just minutes away.

Happy to see the 'We are open' sign

The Duke at Clifton (Main Street, Clifton, OX15 0PE - web)
Located on the main street through the village, The Duke has a thatched roof and green foliage covering part of it's brickwork.  Dating back to 1774, it used to be called the Duke of Cumberland's Head, named after one of the key characters in the nearby Civil War Battle of Edgehill.
After a period of closure, the pub's been recently renovated and renamed.

Pretty inevitably it's become a bit of a dining destination, rather than a local village boozer, but the interior is characterful with wooden beams, stone floors and walls, and a big fireplace near the bar.
Having been out in the sunshine plenty, we bucked the trend, sitting by ourselves inside whilst all other customers occupied the garden.

On the bar was a surprising selection of real ales, including local award winner Turpin 'Golden Citrus' and a couple of brews from Bicester-based Wriggly Monkey Brewery. 
I picked the Wriggly Monkey 'Ambassador', a very enjoyable 5.5% IPA which went down a treat.  Sadly the same breweries 'Full Tilt' was a bit more dubious, maybe toward the end of the barrel.

Nice WC signage

We walked a dull mile along the main road from Clifton to Deddington where we rejoined the bus route.
Journeying a further 5-or-so-minutes up the A4260, we hopped off at the Bodicote stop.
A short walk through modern housing estates took us into the old village centre and we found our third Beer Guide pub of the day...



The Plough (9 High Street, Bodicote, OX15 4BZ - web)
As with the Duke, we grabbed a seat inside whilst all other punters were out in the garden.  Having had no choice but to sit in gardens in rotten weather, I don't care that we're having a mini-heatwave - I'm making the most of being allowed in the pub!

The Plough seems like a traditional village pub, a nice old building with proper old-school pub carpets and furniture.  Beers come from Wadworth's - not my favourite - and my pick of 'Horizon' was okay, but didn't leave me wanting another one.

We'd hit the time of the day that the bus schedule goes a bit irregular and discovered we had an hour to kill in Bodicote.
Crikey.  What does anyone do for an hour in Bodicote?
Aha - just a short way along the high street we spotted another pub sign.  That'll do.

The Horse and Jockey (Malthouse Lane, Bodicote, OX15 4BU)
This time we opted to follow the crowd and sat outside on tables opposite the pub.
Cask choice was Spitfire or Doom Bar, so this wasn't a location for the ticker looking for rare home brews.  I ordered a Doom Bar which was in good condition and enjoyable, scuppering my chance to be snobby and dismissive of Padstow's finest.  

Doom Bar finished, we caught the bus back and called it a day - beer, sunshine and a fair few miles wearing-out an old soul like me.
I'll be back shortly with reports of urban pub-ticking in Swindon - in the meantime, thanks for looking at the blog.  Cheers 🍻

One for the connoisseurs

The Ship - gives me a reason to love Portishead

An afternoon spent on the Somerset coast, in which we find a fine bar billiards table, dining with a view, and a big picture of sailors being lured to the rocks by sirens.
With no further ado, here's the three current Good Beer Guide pubs of Portishead...

Firstly, on the western outskirts of town, we made our way to The Ship.
A seventies building with a big car park, on a corner of a genteel housing estate from the same era, I'd never have guessed from outside that The Ship was gonna be a bit of a gem.
But it is.

The Ship (310 Down Road, Portishead, BS20 8JT)
The Beer Guide mentions that landlord Vic Long is a font of local knowledge.  And sure enough, we'd only been inside for 30 seconds and he was chatting about the wrong turns you can make when approaching on the footpath from Clevedon.
Vic has been landlord for a staggering 48 years, having built and opened the pub in 1973.

Beers available were Otter Ale, Doom Bar or Bass, the latter served from a Bass barrel dispenser in the corner of the bar.

The Ship has a couple of separate areas either side of a central staircase, all with dark wood paneled walls and bench seating, chairs and stools in various hues of red.

It's a cracking traditional pub (with traditional opening hours to match).
Proper beers, bar billiards, beer mats in a bucket and palm trees in the garden!
Great stuff!

We left the Ship and headed closer to the centre of Portishead, where our next destination was the Windmill.

The pub, the Bristol Channel and Wales are all visible in the picture, but somehow it just looks like I've started a new hobby of car park photography...

The Windmill (58 Nore Road, Portishead, BS20 6JZ - web)

The remains of the windmill itself are just to the side of the pub and date back to the 19th century.  The building has also been a club house for the golf course next door and Home Guard headquarters during the second world war.
But now it's busy welcoming gentlefolk diners.

We went through a pretty thorough routine at the 'check-in' point: have you booked?..have you checked in on the app?..have you experienced any symptoms of Covid-19?..do you have any food allergies?
Rules about stairs followed - walk up those, down those, those are two way but whatever you do don't pass anyone midway on them or disaster will ensue.
Phew!

Having not pre-booked, and the pub being busy, we figured we'd get stuck in a gloomy corner somewhere.  So it was a surprise to get taken to a table by the sweeping picture window with it's marvelous views over the Severn Estuary.
We probably benefited from a phantom pub table-booker, who made the reservation then decided not to bother showing up. 

A table with a view.

Our lunch in the Windmill was accompanied by a Butcombe Best Bitter.
As usual with Fullers, not the widest choice, but Butcombe made a nice change from Pride and it was in decent condition and went down well.

For a more varied beer choice, our next destination was a modern beer cafe.
Just over a mile away, we followed the coastline, as closely as possible, clambering over the rocky shore for the final leg as we reached the modern marina.

The Siren's Calling (The Marina, Newfoundland Way, Portishead, BS20 7PT - web)
According to Trip Advisor, this is the #1 nightlife spot in Portishead. 
It's pretty rare that I go anywhere which is classed as #1 nightlife.
That said, there are only two places in Portishead classed as nightlife on Trip Advisor, with the second being the lovely looking Black Horse pub who are probably wondering how they've ended up in this category.

The deep-water docks originally served a power station and chemical plant, now long-gone and replaced by tall modern developments surrounding a marina full of leisure boats.
Among'st the handful of coffee shops and eateries at the side of the marina, the Siren's Calling first opened it's doors in 2018.

They offered a good choice of beers, with several hand-pumps, a tap selection and a bottle fridge full of craft and classic worldwide beers.
I went for the relatively pedestrian choice of the Bristol Beer Factory 'Fortitude', an enjoyable, easy-drinking amber ale.

Sirens

Dammit, I should have sought out a sour beer so I could have used 'Sour Times' as my Portishead blog-post title.
I'm sure I could have done better. 
Prop Up the Bar crap post titles continue uninterrupted!

Weston-Super-Mare Pub Crawl

Yep

Weston-Super-Mare is the "seaside heart of Somerset" according to the tourist board.
Forget all your overseas holidays in amber list destinations - Weston has sunshine, beaches, a big wheel, amusements, chips and a pier.

As enjoyable as wandering along the seafront in the lovely weather was, we were here for the pubs.  And there were an awful lot of them according to whatpub, although many looked to be dubious ramshackle establishments dishing out Carling to the sunburned Brit seaside massive.

Wanting a spot of lunch, we opted to head to the entry in the Beer Guide that called itself a 'taproom and kitchen'.
The walk to this took us inland, passing this bit of public art...

A little way further on we found our pub with a fine crenellated rooftop...

Fork and Ale (18 Walliscote Road, Weston-Super-Mare, BS23 1UG - web)
Opened in 2019, the pub is operated by Epic Beers who in turn own Pitchfork and 3D.
A handy blackboard on the way in listed 5 cask ales from those two brands and we managed to try most of them during our lunchtime visit.

It may have been kitted out in a modern town centre bar kinda way, but I really enjoyed our visit to the Fork and Ale.
A great veggie hotdog...

And great well kept and tasty ales.  The 3D 'Java Joe' was probably my favourite, whilst this one was the most topical...

You need two pints of this twelve weeks apart to really do the job

A little while later we found ourselves in somewhere whatpub declared was the "top provider of quality real ales in Weston town centre".

Well, not really 'in it', but in the alleyway leading to it.
Hence, one of my dubious pub photo's, this time with no visible pub in it...

Brit Bar (118 High Street, Weston-Super-Mare, BS23 1HP - web)
I'm not sure whether they were open inside or not, but customers were all seated on picnic benches in the courtyard and alleyway, enjoying the summery afternoon.

We were met with one of the potential downfalls of table service: a finely remembered list of the five ales they had on, omitting who brewed them, what they were or how strong they were.

"What was the second one called?"
"Which one's darkest?"
"Who brews the first one?"
"Er, can you read them all out again?"

A printed beer list would have been good.  Even when the staff provide all the info it inevitably goes straight in one ear and out the other.
But we did indeed end up with some fine beers here.  A best bitter from Great Western Brewing Co and a 'Ghost Town' milk stout brewed by another local, Twisted Oak.
 

Next up we had a bit of a walk, heading westward from the centre into residential streets.  It didn't look to be a likely destination for a pub and, indeed, our next pub looked the least pubiest from the outside...

The Bear (66 Walliscote Road, Weston-Super-Mare, BS23 1ED - web)
This was previously the Balmoral, before being reopened in 2012 as the Bear, with a spacious ground floor bar and accommodation above.
I opted for the nicely regional 'Somerset Best Bitter', brewed by Bason Bridge Brewing Company.

I'm not really sure I enjoyed the Bear, but I guess it would be much better with a crowd of merry folk within.
Nice Bear pic in the gents though... 

We failed to complete all the current Beer Guide entries due to the micro pub being closed whilst we were in town.
As a consolation we decided to call into the Duke of Oxford which had the promising sign of a 'CAMRA discount' sticker in the window.  (I forgot to ask for my discount - I always do).

The Duke of Oxford (27 Oxford Street, Weston-Super-Mare, BS23 1TF - web)
Apparently, this corner pub, just a short way from the seafront, had sat closed for a long spell before being recently revived in 2016.
It's a bit of a bistro - cafe-bar - pub hybrid - all very modern in style.  Lots of art, various bric-a-brac and quotes painted on beams.

There were two beers on cask, both from Quantock Brewery.

My pick - a 'Talisman CF277' won my beer of the day award.

Onward, to the seafront and to 'Spoons!

Cabot Court Hotel (Knightstone Road, Weston-Super-Mare, BS23 2AH - web)
The Cabot Court was well and truly in a state of chaos.
Just after we arrived and settled at a high table the staff began guarding the door, telling all-comers that they were full.
The hard-working staff couldn't keep up with the app orders.  Not helped by the busy, fair-sized, outdoor area and the proliferation of cocktail jug orders.  A growing collection of drinks on trays was building up at the end of the bar waiting for delivery.

Our food (35 mins) beat our drinks to the table (40 mins).

I also managed to press the wrong button on the app and ordered myself a half pint as the drink included with my meal.  A mistake I haven't quite got over.
But in hindsight, as it was an Exmoor 'Beast' (great beer on good form) it was probably a good thing it was only a half.

We needed somewhere a little more relaxed and preferably with a faster drinks-to-table turnaround... 

The Regency (22-24 Lower Church Street, Weston-Super-Mare, BS23 2AG)

The Regency sits in a row of residential houses and only differentiates itself by the protruding front window and bright red pub signage.  The front seats had been a busy sun-trap when we passed earlier.  By now everyone had gone round the corner to cause the Wetherspoon's staff a nervous breakdown.
There were just a nice number of punters inside, producing a low hubbub of conversation and a relaxed feel.

My Palmer's IPA arrived 22-times faster than drinks in the Cabot Court. 
And very nice it was too.
We took our time, comfy on the cushioned bench seating in the window, making this the last pub in a good day of pub visits.

Weston had been a winner.
Next up, I'll be reporting on the Bass in Portishead.