PUB WITH NO NAME

I finally found the Pub With No Name at Prior’s Dean, which is odd because it’s called the White Horse.  It’s appeared in Beer Guides and Pub Guides over the years, as famed for it’s remoteness as it’s historic interior.

As with quite a few “remote” pubs, it’s only a couple or so miles off a major road, the A3 at Petersfield.  That 2 mile journey takes a good 20 minutes though, on several very minor roads better suited to horses.

Priors Dean is a hamlet that isn’t even shown on my very large-scale Philip Navigator, and the pub isn’t even in the village. With no internet, and no signs, actually finding the pub is better done on foot, as that’s the only way you’ll notice the remains of the sign, and the pub is set well back from the sign.  The pub cat by the pond is a bit of a giveaway as well, I suppose.  It’s as quiet as you’d expect, bar the flying Chinook.

It’s the sort of rustic old pub that the Good Pub Guide and the wealthy love, and does indeed look like most of it’s business comes from the affluent villages towards Alton and Petersfield.

But it also feels like a pub that drinkers would use, and I don’t see lots of reserved signs on tables in the main bar, which is stunning.  The youngish Landlord also has the sort of irreverent conversation with you that you just don’t get much anymore. Lovely bloke.

It’s a must-visit pub.  The only slight thing against it may be obvious if you look below.

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Those are all very good beers; I think my Ringwood would be even better if it was one of four not one of eight  !

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

7 thoughts on “PUB WITH NO NAME”

  1. I went here once in the early 80s and vaguely remember being a bit underwhelmed. Back then it served beer on gravity – the 1977 GBG lists it as having Eldridge Pope Royal Oak, Courage Directors and Youngs Special and Mild on gravity, and Bass on electric pump (!?). Not many lower-gravity beers there for drivers.

    Even then it’s described as “smart free house with beams and brasses” and is listed as being in the Good Food Guide. Maybe I was expecting somewhere a bit more down-to-earth.

    I take it you’ve been to the Harrow at Steep just down the road.

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    1. Yes – I was expecting something more basic too, but the Landlord made the pub for me. Still had the Bass mirror but it’s a Fullers pub now.

      Rather depressingly I haven’t been to the Harrow; must have driven quite close to it as well and stayed in the Premier Inn a mile’s walk away. Oddly, it’s been out of the Beer Guide for a while.

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  2. Este uun loc foarte frumos cu oameni minunați. Am avut prilejul să lucrez aici și a fost super! Mă bucur că a fost redeschis și Dumnezeu să le dea sănătate și putere de munca acestor oameni! JOHNNY

    Translation :

    It is a very beautiful place with wonderful people. I had the opportunity to work here and it was great! I am glad that it was reopened and may God give health and strength to the work of these people!

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  3. I worked as a groom back in the 80s stables around this area and we used to go for some seriously drunken nights on the old no name beer which was an absolute killer. It was fantastic and atmosphere you don’t really get any more. My biker bf and his mates at the time used to camp nearby in a field I seem to recall…

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  4. Actually the White Horse. Was John Arlott’s (cricket commentator) local before he moved to the Channel Islands. I once organised an Edward Thomas themed walk for my work colleagues around here, with lunch at the pub….

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