35.
Quick jaunt out to Long Hanborough on a
Dave Wacey and I
decided that in order to fill the void of Sunday afternoon, we would have a
quick tour of the country by bike in order to rack up a few more pubs on the
tally, the area of Long Hanborough being selected as
we had not cracked that yet. We set off through Wolvercote
and across the fields at the University Field Centre, to the foot of Wytham Hill which was heavy going, and I got a puncture.
Fortunately we managed to limp on soft ground a few furlongs over the toll
bridge to the first pub, the Newlands Inn which we
had not been to before. This had a small beer garden out back but made up for
it with a couple of trestle tables out the front. It was quite a low beamed
pub, traditional looking with a good array of bar snacks, wet and dry, and
beers in the shape of Flowers, IPA, Pedigree and Young’s Special, though
they were a little pricey. In exceptionally organised
style, I was holding a patch on the inner tube whilst supping ale.
Approximately 100 yards up the road, we
ventured into the White Hart, which had a more localsy
feel to it and a bar that was a bit awkward to get to. The beer garden was very
good, especially for refitting bike inner tubes, though and one could access
the toilet - spotless and with a toy toilet that made flushing sounds on a
shelf - without going via the bar. Beer choices were IPA, St Austell Tribute,
Speckled Hen and Morlands Original. Bar snacks were
all dry but there were extensive ranges of nuts, probably packaged by a small
company and therefore tasty as they were minimally labelled.
A razz along the cycle path beside the A40
conveyed us to Barnard Gate, and the Boot, an extremely foody
and quite expensive pub although at least it felt very rural and there were the
boots of famous footballers adorning the walls. Unfortunately the only ale was
Hook Norton Best, and the main purpose was as a restaurant, but pleasant
nonetheless outside, despite the drone of the A40. A couple of miles on country
lanes took us past the sadly closed in the afternoon Shepherd's something or other,
though glancing through the window the beer range was nothing to write home
about.
First pub in Long Hanborough,
just off the main road was the Swan which was a strange mix of quaint and being
in someone's front room in a terraced house. Pickled eggs were available behind
the bar, as was Greene King Suffolk Summer, IPA and Ruddles
County, and very nice too the Suffolk was as we sat outside and saw a giant
Stealth bomber pass overhead (surely this should not be as they are
invisible?). After inspection of the brown toilets, I discovered a very under
populated but cluttered beer garden out back.
A short ride up the rode took us to the
George and Dragon which we had to skip as it was shut, so instead we went to
the Bell. This pub doesn't look that much from the outside, having the feel of
one of those Hungry Horse places, but it redeems itself with the excellent
views that are to be had from the beer garden out the back, northwards towards Combe. Beer range was more Suffolk Summer, IPA or Abbot.
Next on the agenda was the Three Horseshoes, a rougher looking pub which had Fabien Barthez pulling pints of
Courage Best behind the bar, and we elected to have
pints not halves in this one. It had quite a spartan
interior and not much going for it but was probably the liveliest of the day,
and the cheapest.
We headed down the road to Church Hanborough expecting to get a beer at the Hand and Shears,
but unfortunately a private party was on starting at 7 so the tight git of a landlord refused to serve us even though we
pointed out that it was only 6.50 and we would be gone by 7. Obviously he was more
interested in the rah-rah types in there and seemed to take pleasure in this
when he smugly said that he wouldn't (not couldn't) serve us when we enquired
again, rather than perhaps being a touch apologetic to the punter when you shut
early and do not have a sign informing the populace of such tactics. The smug git has thus lost himself future
sales which is a shame as it was quite nice when I was last in there.
Annoyed by this, we decided to work across
to Cassington, which involved a cross country cycle
via some fields and a nice farm and a hole in a hedge to Cassington
where we chanced across the Red Lion. This again had a quite cosy old-fashioned front part of bar and a large solids
room behind. Beers were London Pride, IPA, Tetley and good old John Bull [Romford's finest] on keg. The beer garden was also quite
nice. Leaving Cassington we travelled
down some reasonably good paths to the A40, whence we discovered some rather
poor paths the other side which involved cycling through waist height nettles
on a particularly overgrown path to Wolvercote
costing us time and ruling out further beers. If we were to turn back time, perhaps we would have gone along the A40 cycle path in
a fraction of the time!
Dan
Lovegrove
dan@doctor-lovegrove.com
Last updated 24th July 2003.