Apart from his other obsessions specialist areas of GBG pubs and moths, Duncan “Pubmeister” McKay is a non-league football expert, which may be handy for BRAPA soon.
He may remember Peppard FC, a team from a quiet Oxfordshire village which won the Combined Counties League in a 1993/94 season that went well into June, and who were denied a famous giant-killing in the FA Vase due to their pitch being too small. My season of interest in the non-league game pretty much ended when when I started repeating “Headers !” “Seconds !” in my sleep.
Anyway, back in Peppardland for the first time since then, and a Quiet Lane.
This is the leafy Chilterns, the strip of villages where Reading FC footballers lived when they earned Premiership wages (now they live in Theale).
But there’s some proper Brakspear boozers here, though the ones I remember at Gallowtree Common and Stoke Row aren’t in the Beer Guide anymore.
The Highwayman at Checkendon is actually in Exlade Street, or perhaps Woodcote, or even Greater Reading if you want to be awkward. And, not being a boozer, it opened at the outrageous time of noon. So I had 90 minutes for a walk (5 miles), enough to get to Hook End and back.
Now the one certainty about great walking areas is that you’ll never see any walkers, unless they’re eating their own sandwiches in a pub car park.
But the cyclists and horses made up for it. And squirrels.
Not the most exciting walk in the Chilterns, but at least you get to see the UK’s finest collection of potholes close-up.
The Checkendon village website enthuses over its facilities. Sadly they no longer include a pub or any sort of shop, so I was famished by the time I got to the Highwayman.
Three groups were already in the bar at 12.03, and all three of them said they had a table for four booked under the name of Smithson/Parry-Hughes/D’Arry.
As they eyed up the table near the fire, I made a dash for it. And it was mine !
Not only did they miss the prime seat, the dawdlers did so much hugging and social niceties that I sneaked my order for “Burger and Old Boy” in while they were handing out the menus. THESE PEOPLE RUN OUR COUNTRY !
The bar had another perfectly good table, rejected as being too pubby (or possibly too close to the scruff with muddy jeans, who knows).
Clearly it survives the fate of the Four Horsehoes by being a restaurant, but at least the bar has a semblance of pub, and the beer range meets all my criteria.
Always Good Old Boy, of course, a decently kept half with decent texture (NBSS 3), though everyone else went for the Hoppit.
Whether that was because it was the weakest, or the quirkiest or the local one, who knows.
Anyway, the important stuff. The best burger and chips so far this year, and rather impressive service, so an 4.5 from my Michelin offshoot.
Back to the quiet lanes..
retiredmartin 
Don’t you need a Special Resolution to start scoring food?
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Yes. Mrs RM voted for it.
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Have you incorporated the Campaign for Piper’s Extended Range yet?
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Someone needs to. Felt a bit let down by their derisory sponsorship offer, mind. Two packets of the Fried Otter flavour for each 100 mentions.
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I suppose a quiet lane is one with no Ed Sheeran, or mobile phones??
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Even the sheep were humming “Galway Girl” 😱
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The whole scoring system could get out of hand, especially if you start doing potholes and I do moths. Recall that Peppard saga. I think they played at Palmer Park, an athletics stadium that is used for football so they must have widened the pitch. Next season in League One Reading FC footballers won’t be able to afford Theale.
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Sunderland are certs so Reading Birmingham and Burton could all be vying for those elusive relegation spots alongside them… Birmingham players will have to move to Longbridge by the training ground 😉
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All the top bloggers teams are struggling. Your lot, Simon’s Hull, Wickingmans Burton, Pubmeisters Reading, assume Hermit is Saints, and as for my lot…
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I can sense your stress levels as that lead dips to around 13 points! However I suspect you are secretly craving those games at Northampton and Gillingham et al again
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I’m terrified of the bottles those Scousers will throw at our coach at the Quarter Final !
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“All happening here, as Russ will no doubt comment”
I was too busy trying to find Quiet Lane (although Three Cornered Wood looks interesting). 😉
“And it was mine !”
Makes up for those two suits the other day. ☺️
“THESE PEOPLE RUN OUR COUNTRY !”
Don’t feel bad. They run a lot of bloody countries at present. 😏
“so an 4.5 from my Michelin offshoot.”
Good lord. You’re branching out? 😜
And how does one normally choose when given a choice of BBBs?
Cheers
(and now to try and go back to sleep) 😴
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In 1980 and again in 1982, Peppard won the Oxfordshire Senior Cup whilst playing in the Reading & District League. That was a major achievement, given the presence of Oxford United Reserves, Oxford City, Banbury United etc in the competition.
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They were the Grays Athletic or Rushden & Diamonds of their days. I remember walking past their ground in April 94 and seeing they still had something like 8 home games to play !
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I should have added that Peppard played in the village at that time. The move to Palmer Park happened in the 1990’s if I remember rightly, maybe when they joined the former Chiltonian League ?
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That sounds right, just after their Vase win after Oxford City was overturned due to a short pitch.
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What exactly is a Horsehoe, as in Four Horsehoes?
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A metal shoe (often seen as horse brasses in pubs) worn by horses to protect their feet. Also describes a bar shape e.g.Horseshoe Bar in Glasgow.
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Ahh, so an “s” is missing?
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“Ahh, so an “s” is missing?”
(slow golf clap)
That will teach me to read blogs at 3am. 😊
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Aliens will look back on this blog, when BRAPA is 27, and wonder. Just wonder.
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Something nobody outside deepest, darkest Oxfordshire is allowed to mention. At least not in polite company.
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A Horsehoe is a Hoe, pulled by a horse. Surely you’ve heard of the four Horsehoes of the apocalypse? They can do four rows of root vegetables at one pass! Coming to a market garden near you soon.
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Further proof that Yorkshiremen know everything worth knowing.
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One of my big bug bears here. Shabby, worn table tops with flakey varnish in pubs.
There’s no excuse for it.
Ten minutes with a power sander and a coat of varnish is all it needs. A licensee could easily do one table a day and soon improve their pub. If you are on a tight budget for cash or time then just do the table top. It might look a little incongruous at first but at least it would be clean and hygienic and show that someone actually cared.
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I thought that was pub shabby chic….
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Love that Henley Ales jug that you photographed at the top. That’s the sort of item I see in an antique shop for about $75 and then spend half an hour persuading myself not to buy it. 😉
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Looks nice with daffodils in it too.
(joke)
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Great name for a boozer
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“Great name for a boozer”
Quiet Lane to Peppard? Agreed.
And its nickname could be Banacek’s Bar.
(pretty sure that will not be understood on your side of the pond)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banacek
Cheers
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Quiet Lane To Peppard – brilliantt name.
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