Mrs RM was persuaded by the first bright skies of the year to brave a Rutland walk yesterday. Sadly, the footpaths around Whissendine were a mudpath, and we were confined to a few miles on (very quiet) C-roads. As they say, it’s an area of simple pleasures.
Langham, birthplace of Ruddles, is a pleasant small village with a few attractive buildings but no sign of it’s brewing heritage apart from the obligatory naming of the housing estate on the old site.
We had lunch at the White Lion in Whissendine, my last pub in Rutland’s first ever own section of the Beer Guide, and shared a half of Tiger (NBSS 2.5), which isn’t really the sort of beer you drink in halves. It’s an excellent village pub though, with lots of personal touches that made it feel less like the food-led pub it clearly is. Everards maintain some high quality but unfussy rural pubs in my experience.
We finished our day with a look at Rutland’s best known brewery, and also one of the most attractive buildings in Oakham, which seems very well served for pubs at the moment.
Grainstore’s Tap is an unusual warehouse conversion which caters to a wider demographic than some brewery taps. It would have contained the best memorabilia of the day, until I saw this opposite the new Spoons:-
I’m very easily pleased.
Rutland CAMRA has it’s own branch newsletter (at rutlandcamra.org.uk ), a good read, though I hadn’t noticed it in their pubs. A good effort for a tiny branch.
retiredmartin 
It’s a real shame that, apart from a street sign, nothing remains in Langham of Ruddles brewery. I had a tour of the place, back in the late 1980’s; an occasion which also included lunch with the then chairman, Tony Ruddle.
This was shortly after Ruddles sold out to Watneys; although to be fair they had put themselves in such a position that a takeover was both inevitable and impossible to resist. The company’s PR people had invited a group of CAMRA newsmagazine editors (of which I was one at the time), up to the brewery to learn of their plans to develop and expand the Ruddles brand. The usual platitudes about nothing changing were, of course, expressed, but history proved otherwise.
A real shame for such an iconic brand, and early exponent of real ale. Ruddles County was also a mighty fine beer in its day.
Some excellent photos, btw.
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Agree – County was a classic beer even in the early ’90s when I saw a fair bit of it; I don’t even see Ruddles Best as much in Wetherspoons these days.
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I went in the White Lion with my brother on 9th April 2013,a great Everards tied house,we also did the Three Horseshoes on the same day.
We did all pubs in Oakham apart from the wetherspoons which was about to open when we did the town.
We have now done almost all of Rutlands pubs probably about 9 short at a guess.
I really like the photos of the interia of the White Lion,that is one thing i have never done only took photos of the pubs outside.
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I normally ask for permission to take photos inside and try to keep people out of the shot or they can get a bit shirty !
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