34.
Bampton and back to Oxford,
Back to British soil this time, and
another cycle pub crawl on a glorious Summer's day!
This crawl marked yet another first; notably the use of a car in order to crack
some more inaccessible places. Dave had been doing some reconnaissance whilst
doing Sainsburys deliveries and had spotted a number
of potentially fine looking pubs though had not had the opportunity to sample
them at first hand. We loaded the bikes into my car and drove along the A40,
via Witney and Carterton,
to Alvescote where the first stop was the Plough.
This was quite a pleasant pub, both inside and outside and had the reasonably
priced Wadworth's products IPA, 6X and Summersault
on. The Summersault was excellent and was followed down with some slightly damp
pork scratchings. Beer garden had a nice set of
shaded trestle tables and inside was the sort of pub which could be sat in for
a long portion of a Winter's day. Further distractions
included a small horse grazing in an adjacent field and a tattooed girl
drinking with her mate outside.
Jumping back in the car (we'd only had a
half each) we had a short drive to the Vines at Black Bourton,
an almost bistro-like pub, though fortunately we sat outside and didn't have to
concern ourselves with that too much. Old Hooky and Shires were on draught so
Dave had a half of Old Hooky and I contented myself with the weaker,
and inferior quality, Shires. We didn't think that there was anything special
about this pub apart from the very 80's looking gents' done in metal and black
furnishing, rather like the toilet in the nightclub on the spaceship Red
Dwarf. Last hop in the car took us to Clanfield,
a hotbed of the Conservative party. The Clanfield
Tavern was our watering hole of choice, and it took us a while to get served as
there were a load of middle-aged rich blokes in there wearing shorts, polo
shirts and deck-shoes and eating chips, discussing their next Tory party
meeting, but despite their efforts the pub was OK. We opted for Hook Norton
Best in preference to the 6X; evidently the Old Hooky had run out. Very nice toilets too, and first barmaids of the day.
Moving the car to Bampton,
from where it would be collected the next day, we espied three pubs around the
market place thing. Our first point of ale purchase was the Horse Shoes, a
nasty pub with two bars but no outside to speak of. We could now move onto the
hard stuff, so went for the
Hoping that things would look up, we
ventured across the road to the Romany Inn. It didn't look much from the
outside, with a peeling sign, though it appeared to have a balcony above the
entrance with some tables on it. Try as we might, we couldn't see how to get up
there. The Romany makes history as the first pub to score 20 out of 25. Let's
see how it achieved this.
The toilets and bar snacks, though not
splendid, were most satisfactory. The beer was a big winner; they had Archer's
Village and Cottage Broadgauge Bitter and
Reluctantly leaving this watering hole, we
ventured next door to the Talbot Hotel. This was deathly quiet, but we were
engaged in drink driving anecdotes by the landlord, who was serving good halves
of London Pride at the excellent price of £1.85 per pint. The pub was quite
pleasant, if a little spartan, and we sat at the bar
watching the last rites of the cricket, though we could equally have sat in
some of the nice bay window seats. We thought that it was time to get on the
bikes and lock the car, but no sooner had we ventured 100 yards,
we came across the Morris Clown, purportedly Oxfordshire's
best pub according to Camra. Not according to us,
that was a couple of doors back. The Morris Clown was OK, and had 3 beers; West
Berks Yaffle, Courage Best and Hook Norton Best as
well as Warsteiner lager, but all in all it wasn't up
to much. Interior was wooden beams and at least the toilets were accessible
from the outside without having to pass the bar. The beer tasted disappointing.
Snacks included pickled eggs, but there is no disguising the fact that there is
something up with the Camra people if this gets voted
Oxfordshire's finest.
Finally, we got the opportunity for a
proper cycle ride and headed to the Red Lion at Aston. This had a bit of a feel
of an estate pub in the country and a few toothless locals were outside, but
the landlord was welcoming and we tucked into our excellent halves of Hobgoblin
whilst playing a couple of games of free pool. The Hobgoblin posters get extra
marks: What's wrong, lager boy, afraid you might taste something? Even though
it wasn't wonderful, it would be worth a return visit. A reasonable cycle
followed, giving us time to sober a little, and cross the river at a ford
getting our feet wet, and we arrived at 5.55 at the Blue Boar, Longworth. A pub so 'English Countryside' that Dave
remarked it would have 'Americans creaming their
pants' had they come on the trip. I have 'de riguer
country pub' on my listings, as the place was in a fine Cotswold stone
building, covered in ivy. Beers comprised Ruddles
Best and Bombardier, and were served by a blonde serving wench.
After a brisk cycle, lugging our bikes
over a fence, we arrived at Newbridge, where we found
two pubs. The first that we decided to visit was the Maybush,
where we found Morlands Best and Abbot Ale on, served
by a more than adequate selection of barmaids, including one that was a dead
ringer for one of the two girls in Shampoo. The pub is in delightful
surroundings, on the banks of a river, and here we decided to fortify ourselves
with a couple of plates of chips. The interior of the pub is also very good
too. Across the road and two sets of traffic lights is the Rose Revived, which
we thought might be up to the same standards, but alas not. The beer was Old
Speckled Hen, Abbot and Greene King IPA, and the riverside setting just wasn't
as good. And the pub was a bit foodier than the Maybush.
It was getting later as we made our way to
the Red Lion at Northmoor. We'd been here before to
experience their rather sedate atmosphere. It's still a rather good pub though,
with St Austell Tribute, IPA and Abbot on draught, and some very helpful
clientele latching onto us as soon as we brought out the map. Relaxing is
perhaps the best word for it - you could settle in at any time of year. The
Harcourt Arms at Stanton Harcourt is a grand pub, which as expected can only
survive by being rather foody and having a touch of
the IKEA about its interior. Old Hooky and Adnam's
Best were a little below standard in quality and a bit pricey, but at least
draught beer is still on. Not alot else I can say
about it except that most people were dining in another room.
On leaving Stanton Harcourt, we happened
upon the Fox, a very standard Greene King pub doing, surprise surprise, IPA and Abbot. We probably should have given this
one a miss, since there were no redeeming features in this wasteland, apart
perhaps from quite a good range of bar snacks. Everything else was textbook
Greene King. Moving swiftly on then, well, perhaps not, we travelled
across the fields in the twilight, across some field and along a lane,
eventually pitching up at the Talbot, at Swinford,
near Eynsham, another one from a previous visit.
Although the risque pictures from the toilet have
gone, the pub still scored well in various ways. For a start, a good range of Arkells beer was on, being Moonlight, Kingsdown,
3B and Summer Ale, and it tasted rather good. We managed to get a very good
window seat as well, in a pub which has a good layout and atmosphere. The bar
snacks are also very interesting, and include stuffed olives. Last but not
least, on the occasion of our visit there were a couple of attractive barmaids
serving.
As we left the pub, the day was starting
to catch up. The safest way home was in the pitch black across the fields to Wolvercote beside the river, which took us about an hour,
and pushed our mileage up to 25 miles, largely because we couldn't see and had
to venture very slowly. And not helped much by the fact that I went over my
handlebars and Dave managed to get a puncture. Also not helped by the fact that
some twat had driven an F reg Sierra into a bridge at
Wytham, and the cops were there clearing the road,
thus delaying us further (and having a moan that we had less than adequate
lights, though not questioning our sobriety, probably because it had all worn
off by that stage). The last act of the evening was a quick trip to Boss kebabs
of Summertown, for a well earned snack, and to celebrate the first ratings 20.
Will it live up to its mark when we return in the future?
Dan
Lovegrove
dan@doctor-lovegrove.com
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