The annual trip west of the M40 into Cherwell, the unexceptional but cosy area between Banbury and Oxford.
An area lacking tourist clout but full of posh villages like Duns Tew, making a first appearance in the Guide since the Iron Age.
There’s been some good pubs round here over the years; the Crown & Tuns in Deddington was in the first 25 Beer Guides and the villages are attractively nondescript.
Duns Tew is down the road from Great Tew, home of the Falkland Arms, a rather gorgeous pub where I was once charged a less than gorgeous £10 for camembert in a box.
The White Horse is an altogether more straightforward village pub.
We tipped up at opening time to find a group of youths smoking in the drizzle.
An authentically old school posh Oxon interior.
Before I’d got within ten feet of the bar I was asked what I wanted.
Give me a chance ! I hate being rushed when you haven’t got a clue what’s on the bar.
Something odd from Cornwall, something well known but hard to keep at its best, and something off.
A half of Landlord it was. Not a good half (NBSS 2), but what a glass that is ! A bizarre half-pint jug with a pheasant motif, straight from the 1970s.
A posh village pub geared up for evening dining, I felt uncomfortable and out of place, and wondered why they didn’t just put Hooky on.
Your average city dweller would think it was all very quaint, and it was, but it wasn’t a place for the casual drinker. Two lads at the bar (who weren’t drinking the ale) were watching kitten videos on their I-Phone, which made me feel even more left out.
Quaint loos, complete with ancient Guinness adverts,
and the inevitable Baylis & Harding, always the sign of a non-pub.
We were stared at as we said “Thanks” and left, allowing them to return to their kitten videos in peace.
retiredmartin 
You’ve not sold that one to me as a go to Midlands pub….can you elaborate on the kitten videos??
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No I can’t. That’s the point. Young bar staff watching videos with young customers that you can’t see, Not good.
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Agreed! If bar staff are constantly on their phone then that is basically more important than their customers 😵
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Perhaps the kitten videos were just a cunning wheeze to hide their real purpose of alerting pubs in the surrounding area about suspicious ticker activity ?
Camrahood Watch in action.
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Cornish Coast is an abomination, a collaboration between Greene King and Verdant in North Cornwall but brewed in Suffolk.
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Oh Really ! No idea. Didn’t look authentic.
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I really liked the Falkland Arms when we stopped in this past October. I also like the look of the White Horse, outside and inside.
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I think our cheese plate was a lot cheaper than RM’s!
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Going back thirty years, the Falkland Arms used to be one of those classic “must-visit” country pubs with a national reputation, but since then seems to have very much fallen off the radar. Isn’t it owned by Hall & Woodhouse now?
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Still owned by Wadworth, as it was a decade ago when I had an excellent 6X. Horrified to see it now has seven beers on 😱
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I knew it was some brewery from the “near West Country” 😉
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Close enough ! Do Hall & Woodhouse own any classic pubs ? Very few of theirs in the Beer Guide.
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I’d forgot you’d just been !
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It’s a nice pub
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Re: the title – well dun!
(surprised no one used that yet) 😋
“We tipped up at opening time”
You fell out of the garbage bin? 🤔
“Give me a chance ! ”
Quite agree. Good Lord!
“Pheasant glass”
Yes it is. Oh sorry, I read that as pleasant glass. 😊
And agreed; looks lovely from the outside, but looks can be deceiving.
Cheers
PS – black pepper and ginseng for soap? I’d expect that maybe in Viagra. 😝
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Baylis & Harding would make an excellent name for a brewery, especially one that exported most of it’s produce.
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Perhaps it really is beer in those bottles. Simon should investigate
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Half-pint tankards like that used to be popular as beer festival commemorative glasses. I have a CAMRA 21st Anniversary one from 1992 in my cupboard.
Agreed that bar staff messing with their phones is a very bad sign, although they could do worse than watching kitten videos >^..^<
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Yes, tankards straight from 1992, the pheasant straight from my Mum’s dining table place mat.
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Have you ever noticed that the “what do you want” before you get to the bar is often accompanied by people stoof in front of the taps, so you can’t even see the pumps?
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Exactly ! As it was here. Assumes everyone comes in for their usual Peroni/Guiness/Chardonnay. Annoys me a lot.
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The motif on the tankard is a warning! They shoot Peasants down there, that’s why there was only four of you in the pub. I’m surprised you got out of the village alive. I’ve got John Nettles (Ch. Insp. Barnaby) on speed dial and I nearly rang for his help when you said you felt uncomfortable.
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Mrs RM got peasants and pheasants confused as a child in Tunbridge Wells. With disastrous consequences…
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My dad had the pheasant glasses (top photo)
Mid 70’s for sure
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Really ! So they’re genuine old glasses then ? The pub wasn’t actually that stuck in time. Ta.
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Yes think he still has one
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