109. Bampton revisited, Saturday 11th August 2007

On this crawl of 11 pubs, we managed to do four that were called the Red Lion. Dave's mate Luke was in town and we decided that an amusing thing to do would be to have a tour of some of our best pubs from the past by bike. Bampton was selected as we could drive the bikes there by car and then collect the cars the following day. It all started quite nicely as I arrived back from Peterborough in the morning and had a duck baguette from Bartlett's Butchers in Kidlington (I recall someone awkward being in front of me). Anyway, I digress, and we set off a little later than desired to the Clanfield Tavern in Clanfield which on our first visit had struck us as a pub with a predominantly rich clientele of men with small cocks. The Clanfield Tavern is however a very nice pub and we were lucky enough to have some Castle Eden ale, although Luke elected to have lager instead. It was very nice.

As we'd only had a half, we were able to drive to Bampton and the much lauded Romany Inn. It was not nearly as good this time although still OK. The ale selection was pedestrian, it wasn't the best quality and the snacks disappointed, as we reminisced over a half of 6X. As I recall the juke box was pretty good. A few doors down is the more pikey friendly Talbot Hotel where we had to wait an age for service. I don't remember what we had but it was probably a London Pride or similar. I actually quite like the pub and the set up is good for being able to watch the football results on the TV. Final pub in Bampton is the Morris Clown which is always raved about by CAMRA. I think we could understand why they rate it now. It's got a good selection of very tasty beers and a wide array of snacks. We went outside to enjoy our beers because the rugby was on.

A short cycle followed which took us to the Red Lion at Aston which is quite a rough and ready pub. Dave and I had Ringwood 49er which was of reasonable quality, whilst Luke had some sort of lager which he proceeded to pour out of the window when no-one was looking. I think that there may have been some access or other to the football scores, but we had to leave before the final scores came on. The toilets were dingy and the pub in general looked as though it could do with some sort of renovation. These sort of country pub are always a big disappointment.

We had intended to do a bit of cross-country cycling and cross the river by the ford at Chimney then do a pub in Longworth and the two at Newbridge. Alas the river was still dangerously high and we elected not to cross it and instead retrace our steps and make our way to Newbridge along the side of the Thames which was covered with a film of light coloured mud although it wasn't too boggy underfoot. Unfortunately the two pubs at Newbridge were being cleaned up after the flooding which put paid to this idea. About 2, or maybe 3, hours after our previous pub we finally arrived at the Red Lion in Northmoor which was very busy again as there was some sort of band performing in the evening. We sat outside with the bikes whilst I mended a pucture sustained Thames-side. The beer was actually quite good in the form of Hedgerow, a Ruddles one I think with overtones of blackberry and apple, and Tribute.

Time was ticking by but the Ferryman at Bablockhythe was not that far away and so we decided to make a bit of a detour there. This one is also by the river but unfortunately someone had the foresight to build it up high enough and it had not flooded, at least not to the extent where it had to be closed. This place is a bit of a toilet, although the location is quite good, because it is very much like a large suburban semi-detached house inside. There were also lots of families and people whom you would not normally find in pubs frequenting the bar and getting in our way. There were Wadworths products and I think we had some keg 6X or other, served by a barman that I don't think we liked at all for some reason. The ferry to Eaton has also been removed, John Prescott this isn't integrated transport is it?

Things were not particularly looking upwards once we had ordered a couple of halves at the Harcourt Arms in Stanton Harcourt because the interesting looking beer that we had thought that we wanted was in fact off. The pub itself is reasonably good and the garden is quite nice, as it is not as foody as the rest of the pub. The toilets are well worth a visit too.

Another reasonable cycle followed to allow us to get to Eynsham. We stocked up from Co-op on food that was on the turn because we could not find a chip shop. Cycling out of the town a bit, we stopped at the Newlands Arms which was quite a pleasant locals' pub. They have some nice trestle tables across the road from the main pub which is a thoroughly pleasant place to have a coupe of ales. Night was closing in by this point so we made our way to Cassington and another Red Lion. Again, this was quite a moderately lively locals' pub. They had cask Tetley on offer which was OK. It is always difficult to get around the bar in this pub because it is so cramped. As I recall, Luke managed to get a free sample of some minty shit or other in here.

Final pub of the day was the fourth Red Lion in Yarnton. This place has gone a bit trendy now, but at least they had a bit of beer available in the shape of Hedgerow again which was actually better than the first lot we tried. At about 10pm it was time to make our way to Match of the Day, and we did so using the incredibly dark and potentially muddy track that runs between the Turnpike and yarnton and Kidlington Football Club. This took a fair while although no-one came to great mishap.


Home
Back

Dan Lovegrove
dan@doctor-lovegrove.com

Last updated 9th November 2007.