Now that Mr Wilson has returned to what I gather the kids 
are now refering to as "the blogosphere", I though now is as good as any time to also return to these pixels with alcoholic musings, and as summer is here, I've taken the chance to get out the Good Pub Guide (27th edition, no less) and check out some of the UK's finest hostelries, before I depart these shores. Eventually. At least at the moment noone's taken the oppotunity to buy the Lorkinmobile (seen right, yesterday), so I can still drive to these places that are, as the Aussie's put it, "way out woop".
Hampshire: Dunbridge, Mill Arms
The Mill Arms really takes some finding. It's in the middle of nowheresville, south of Over Wallop, and then down about 10 miles of country lanes.
Run by a Kiwi couple who've been here for a couple of years, it's obviously had more make overs than Britney, but the building is lovely, with great spreading gardens. The GPG says it has Ringwood Best and HSB, but I went for the Guest Ale - Bath Ale's Gem. I agree with the advert - it's rich in hops with a bitter finish. Fab.
The main point of coming here was food, and the menu advertises everything from lasagne to home-smoked duck and monkfish. Alas the landlord - Mr Bentall - had run out of ham and beef... so lamb it was. I'm not sure it was worth £25 for two... rather stringy, and we had to ask the Polish waitress for mint sauce, but it made us think all was right with the world, with late spring turning into summer, as we sat in the conservatory admiring the greenery.
After this I was pretty stuffed - but the Kiwi popped up with a surprising ammount of energy and asked if we'd like "Sweeties!". Errr... oh, desert? And then went on to chat to our fellow diners about how they'd bought two other pubs last month, the Abbots Mitre and the Greyhound. Business must be good. So were the deserts: Chocolate Torte with a dollop of rasberry icecream.
Only later did I spot it was right opposite the station (well, tiny halt on the line to Cardiff - train every two hours) so I could have had a few more pints of the ale and let the train take the strain. Next time...
Hampshire: Alresford, The Globe on the Lake
I've wanted to pop in to The Globe for quite a while... three decades in fact: the last time I set food in here was when I was ten, and the parents popped in and I was permitted a coke in the garden overlooking the lake while we fed the
ducks.
Alas, I've left it too late... the door was firmly bolted, with a pile of post on the other side of it, and a small notice said that peaceable entry had been obtained, presumably from the bank. Business must be bad.
Hampshire: D'Arry's Cart & Horses, Kings Worthy
You know when good pubs go bad? When the old spit and sawdust place that has been the heart of the village for years, turns into an upmarket gastro pub, and begins offering Monkfish drizzled in something exotic? When pubs say you can come in for a pint if you want to - but the only real place to drink are the three bar stools by the bar, designed for keeping customers waiting while they take the platinum cards off those who are leaving, and escort them to their jag back to "Lunion"... D'Arry's is not that place.
It was with a feeling of doom that I went into this place that's just reopened, changing from the old Cart and Horses to D'Arry's village Dining Emporium. And yet, dare I say it, in context it works. It really does. And it has awards to prove it.
Sure, it got into a lot of trouble with the planners when the pub was gutted (and painted pink: thankfully the planners had their way on that one, and it is now back to grey).
Maybe I'm getting old, but I love the interior where the Aussie Landlords try very hard to be individualists (like everyone else) and have random bits of secondhand furniture, interspaced with lots of mirrors and galvenised steel, plus huge huge glass doors surrounding the original pub door. The food isn't bad either. Maybe I'm just getting old.
Hamshire: The Wheatsheaf, Basingstoke
One I've driven past countless times on my way in for the past decade of overnights.
Called the The Wheatsheaf, it was built in the late 19th Century and is reputed to be a coaching stop where Jane Austen walked to collect her letters. It has a lovely 18th century coaching inn, rammed into a 20th centry Travelodge. The impression is rather like a quaint old horse and cart that has been in collision with brand new fruit van. Look, the pub has fruit growing over the front door and everything.
The interior is pretty quaint, and dare I say it, it looks pretty genuine. Alas the food was so dreadful, with just 2 (two!) tiny mushrooms counting as a starter for over a fiver, and a minute minute steak, I was left with the feeling that it was like one of those phone calls you get on your mobile saying "Welcome to free upgrades" (who are plaguing me at the mo)... and despite the initial ten second thought that you're going to get a good deal, there is that sudden realisation that it really is a waste of time.
Wiltshire: New Inn, Salisbury
This is one of the few pubs in the city with a garden overlooking the Cathedral, so it's really a must visit. The GPG says it has massive beams and timbers, with an inglenook fireplace, and so it proved: a real warren of a place that's hard to find your way through to get to that garden. One side passage led to a hidden gem: more private gentleman's club with deep wooden panneling and squashy leather armchairs. Meanwhile, out in the greenery, stern notices warn that the plants are poisonous, and kids have to be kept on a lead, or some such nonsense...
As you can see from the pics, Badger's Ales have taken to advertising on every space possible, so Badger it had to be. First Gold from just over the border in Dorset. Apparently there should have been some hints of orange and spice too.
Next up, I'm going in search of that brand new icon of 20th Century travelling, the WeatherspoonsLodge. Just like a Travelodge, only above a Weatherspoons. The brilliance of that Tim Martin man knows no bounds.
Cheers thanks a lot, Young's
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Has anybody else noticed that the price of everything apart from their own ales is vastly inflated in Young's houses? Don't order a pint of Peroni. Don't ord...
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