A rare bit of non-Beer Guide travel for you, as we attempted to cheer up a youngest son now unable to wind up an absent elder brother by playing death metal at inhuman volumes.
The last two Saturdays we’ve taken Matt to a new skatepark at Potton, apparently built as part of an ongoing experiment by Bedfordshire Council to expand their tourist pitch beyond “the bit between Cambridge and Oxford“.
Potton’s motto is probably “We’re not as scary as Sandy“, but then they haven’t got great piles of sand or clangers or a Beer Guide entry, either. Your choice.
Never mind, you don’t necessarily need a Beer guide entry, or your own microbrewery to be a proper town, and we gave Potton every chance to impress, though I admit after 3 hours we were hoping for the rain to put an end to Matt’s mammoth skate session.
Here’s the quiet market square at 3pm.
And here’s the architectural highlights, most of them pubs. Greene King pubs.
Here’s the abandoned train station for fans of Beeching.
And here’s a TV aerial that you can’t climb.
We thought the Rising Sun looked the best bet with seven (7) beers on, because as you know the best pubs have the most beers on. I’ve been told.
Here they are;
Seven on cask, craft kegs, and several ciders. You might wonder how a small village dining pub can get through that many beers. It would be a good question.
Boak & Bailey have been singing the praise of the Youngs Ordinary, so I went for that. It was a solidly OK afternoon pint (NBSS 3), but you could see why the pub has been edged out of the Guide recently in favour of places selling Bass.
Despite my reservations about ale turnover, a White Stripes/Killers soundtrack, Baylis and Harding soap, and a wasted opportunity to have Draught Bass served from the ancient well, there was a pleasant bunch of pubgoers (and diners) keeping it ticking over at 4pm. An efficient all-rounder.
In fact, the whole town was thoroughly cheery, though I passed on the opportunity to take in Potton United Reserves at the Hollow. My loss.
Back in the market square, things had steamed up, with an unannounced parade of vintage vehicles seemingly doubling the town population in minutes.
To celebrate these events, the Coach House served Doom Bar in plastic glasses. The regulars at the George & Dragon got their Abbot in a glass. It was all very jolly and English.
In Royston Street, the goblins population looked on.
retiredmartin 
Baylis & Harding soap is sold in Bookers which is where most self respecting pub operators shop. I’m not sure whether it’s an own-label or an artisan-crafted product ( or perhaps both ).
Your continuing efforts to portray Bedfordshire as England’s most anonymous county do you credit, although for me Wiltshire still edges it.
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Thanks for that, B&H popping up more regularly than Punk IPA. Clearly artisan !
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Wiltshire has Stonehenge, Avebury, Salisbury Cathedral and Bradford-on-Avon, none of which Bedfordshire can hold a candle to 😛
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You beat me to it, Mudge. Frankly, Melksham alone is better than the whole of Bedfordshire.
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Wiltshire has Swindon. I rest my case.
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Swindon is an interesting Milton Keynes, or Bracknell or etc etc. Swindon is very underrated.
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Seven on cask! I reckon that’s a good four or five past what you’d approve of, Martin. 😉 I’ve never had Young’s Ordinary but there is something in me that just loves the humility of a brewery choosing “ordinary” as the official name of their product. Here’s hoping I can try a good pint of it someday.
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I hope so too, Mark. Best head for Bristol by the sound of it. Or the Buckingham Arms in London.
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It doesn’t actually say “Ordinary” on the pumpclip, just “Bitter”.
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Why do we think of it as “Ordinary” ? Just a nickname ? Been known as that forever I thought.
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Yes its a nickname but a universally known one.
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With regards to the signage at the Royal Oak; I’m assuming “grat” is the pre-1785 word for great, otherwise they would have used same.
As for Moons Corner; that conjured up the image of a bunch of silly sods bending over and dropping trou as it were. 🙂
Cheers
PS – “Back in the market square, things had steamed up,”
Good one.
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“Grat” is what you get when you employ me to write your signs for you !
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A couple of decent guest beers in the Rising Sun, Oakham and Tiny Rebel, they would have cheered me up. Nice looking pub.
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It is. Tiny Rebel on keg, suits Mrs RM !
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I am a bit late on this post.
But i do think Wiltshire is a lot better than Bedfordshire,Swindon has Arkells brewery which makes it well worth a visit and Devizes has Wadworth brewery,plus there are lots of nice towns to go to in Wiltshire.
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Perfectly summed up Alan
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I nominate “In Royston Street, the goblins population looked on.” as the Line In A Beer Blog Most Likely To Inspire The Next Stephen King Novel at the British Guild of Beer Writers Awards 2017
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Highly probable, though I expect the live footage of your Runcorn pub crawl wouldn’t need much adaption for a Halloween movie 😉
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Best photo(s) ever on one of your blogs!
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Steam fanatics would have loved it, I can’t stand nostalgia.
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It’s called Ordinary to differentiate it from Special, obv. The same used to happen to Brakespeare’s.
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Of course ! Rarely see Special on my travels, that’s not the same as Special London Ale I guess ?
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