Avril and I had been looking at places to visit that would have lots of pubs and also be within easy reach of Banbury by train. A number had been considered, and Winchester had been identified as suitable, and so an excursion was planned. Richard Bradshaw joined us, even though he was due to fly to New York the following day. The reasonably early end to the evening that we had planned therefore was probably a good thing all round.

An early train was caught and we met up at Winchester station at not much past midday. The first pub selected was a little way out from the station, being the St James Tavern. This was a really rather good place to go drinking with a sun trap of a beer garden in a triangular shape, and a fine gents' toilet plastered with comic book pages. The beer was pretty good too, being 6X, Wadworth Horizon and St Georges, and they even changed Avril's cider without question when it was discovered that the glass was full of filth - fortunately the next one was not. The ideal place to kick off a crawl and in fairness we could have stayed a lot longer but in the end just lingered for a second before heading back down towards the town centre and the Westgate, a less well maintained pub on a street corner overlooking an archway into the city centre although strangely it had some horsey types drinking wine whilst we were there. The ladies toilet did not have any soap either. The beer selection was quite good though, with Jennings Cumberland, Ringwood 49er and Ringwood Best. Richard also had a conversation about how the merits and reputations of various serial killers has changed over time and how some maintain their notoriety whereas others do not. Anyway...

We then got the opportunity to walk through that archway and to the next pub, the Royal Oak in the bottom of a hotel, which has some sort of plaque proclaiming that it is Britain's oldest bar. That may be, but the surroundings were definitely not olde worlde although they were pleasant nevertheless. It certainly was a bar with comfortable wooden fittings, carpets, bar staff in short-sleeved shirts, chavs drinking alcopops, small blackboards with various offers in script writing on them and a table full of condiments and cutlery. The beer selection however was anything but generic, with typical Green King offerings Abbot, IPA and Old Speckled Hen supplemented with Brewers' Dark (my choice) and Rudgate. We had a quick go on the quiz machine and were most annoyed when it seemed to imply that Phil and Gary Neville were twins. Fortunately, this little cloud did not dampen our experience and we still thought that the pub was pretty good.

Time for a walk down the High Street and a brief stop at Thomas Cook for Richard to collect some dollars. Just off the High Street, facing a green space was the rather nice William Walker pub. This was pretty much a pub on three sides of a room with a central bar and steps up to the bogs in one corner. It was quite lively in there and some people were spilling out onto the street, but we managed to get a seat at the bar instead. The beer selection was pretty good too, with Doom Bar, Ringwood Best and Hopback Summer Lightning available. The pub was pretty smart, light and airy with many of the beautiful people of Winchester seemingly drinking there. Another walk followed, through the rather picturesque surroundings of Winchester Cathedral, and onto some quiet streets on the other side to the Wykeham Arms. Some local offerings from the Flowerpots brewery were sampled and were very good. A rather good pub, on a couple of levels and with mugs hanging from the ceiling and quotes from Samuel Johnson around the place. It was quiet inside, being a little way from the shops, although some common people had congregated outside near the toilet to have a smoke.

A short walk followed around a cricket pitch, by the posh school and across the river, until we reached the Black Boy, one of Winchester's finest. This is quite an interesting pub, but we only really scratched the surface of the inside and just saw a quaint front room and the way to the toilets. We did at least get a good idea of the beers on offer with local Flowerpots beers, local lager, Hopback Summer Lightning and two others that I cannot remember. Instead we sat outside, and were of great and candid help to a young chap who was collecting surveys of people using the pub. Others were not as forthcoming as us. Still, we had a good time watching people pass by the front of the pub. With time getting on a little we decided to move back into the city centre and on our way happened upon a wicker man which for some reason we crossed the main road to take a picture of, posted here to make our efforts worthwhile.

The Bishop on the Bridge is a rather posh/trendy pub in Winchester which I imagine ladies with large hats drink in now and again. They did however have a good range of Fullers products and we enjoyed the Discovery, London Pride, Ascot and ESB whilst standing at one of those quite tall round tables which was in keeping with the tall ceilings of the pub. The whole of the interior was rather grand and if I remember correctly we had to go upstairs using a splendid carpeted staircase to access the toilets. Apparently there are good views over the river but we did not get that far.

Some solids were called for and a canvas was presented in the form of the Crown and Anchor, which allowed us to have some chips and also catch the tail end of the England versus Switzerland match. It was not a particularly special pub, being a sort of standard Greene King house with Abbot, Ruddles and IPA available, and an open seating plan with toilets and a smoking area out the back. Fixtures and fittings were fairly nondescript/unmemorable, but the service was quite good. With time marching on, we had intended to get to the north of the city but were feeling the effects of the booze so instead decided to go into the more foody Corner House (for some reason I had called it the Green Man) which was on the way back to the station. This was most certainly an eating pub and, whilst it was quite snug and well decorated inside, the welcome was not so warm as we were just drinking halves of Flowerpots (and perhaps a bit obviously pissed), and so we moved on fairly quickly to let the bar staff concentrate on non essential pub tasks.

Final stop was the Albion which is not a very nice pub, but it is conveniently located near to the railway station. It is small and looks to be the sort frequented by regular drinkers who probably have too much on most nights of the week. Fortunately we were early and it had not filled up much, and I laboured through my Ringwood Best, no other options available, so much that I had to sneak it out and onto the train. Richard on the other hand still had space left and so managed an ill advised Stella, although at least we had only finished at 8pm, so he still had time to 'recover' for his transatlantic flight the following day. Avril and I made very heavy weather of our cans as the train wended its way back to Banbury. Still, as success for the format of early start and finish - in fact I don't think we could have lasted much longer - and well worth repeating.