Doyen of countless Good Pub Guides, Times Supplements and Pashmina Yearly editions over many decades, the Village Pub finally graces the only book that matters to tickers.
So at last I get a trip to the other Barnsley.
It’s pleasant, without being an essential stop for those touring the honeypots of north Swindon.
The Barnsley Tourist Office have kindly highlighted the giant potholes for which the village is internationally famous.
You should visit now before the potholes erode completely.
The curiously named Village Pub has the usual trad boozer affectations like signs saying “Rooms“, but I seriously doubt they still serve Prosecco out of this hatch.
This was the busiest “pub” I saw in the Cotswolds, packed midweek with retired gentlefolk.
Wealthy retirees don’t drink much, particularly at lunchtime, even with the soothing sound of Jeremy Vine to encourage them.
“Will you be dining with us, Sir”
“Just a drink please”
“Of course, Sir. No worries, Sir”
I waited and waited for the barman to get a break from taking complex bookings, then plumped for the HPA.
I kid you not, it took him five minutes and three goes to pull a half. The first attempt was 43% froth.
“Bit lively !”
“Yes sir. Would you like to pay now”
It was OK, as Wye Valley always are (NBSS 3). With one caveat.
An Italian couple joined me in the seats at the bar (the only place not taken by diners) and (eventually) had a half of Cotswold Lager.
It can’t have been much colder than my HPA.
And the Coopers isn’t in the Guide, folks.
That’s not Barnsley! But I’m not Bitter.
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Such online criticism of the GBG may see you hunted by the CAMRA chair’s social media monitoring committee. Wicked, wicked boy.
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I’m cutting up my gold card (but keeping Mrs RM’s card to get discounts).
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Apparently I once caused ructions at HQ with this blogpost 😛
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Cookie was right back then…
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Cookie is rarely wrong 😀
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Ah yes, the other Barnsley, Pashmina Central. I’d have had the Butty Bach if I were you.
“Will you be dining with us Sir?” AAAAAAARGH!
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“The soothing sound of Jeremy Vine.” That’s already more than enough to put me off!
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And there’s a Swindon in South Staffordshire.
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Fortunately there’s only one 45° 22′ 30″ N, 122° 42′ 8″ W
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Only one Queen Camel (in Somerset – early 80s GBG) though, I surmise
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Must be Yeovil, that’s name of a suburb ?
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So if a half of cask takes five minutes to be pulled (too frothy, I gather), what do you think is the culprit? Is the pub keeping the beer poorly?
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I know NOTHING about beer, Mark ! You know, when I did that Banks’s brewery tour I was astonished to find they make the beer from fresh with water and hoppy stuff ,they don’t just pour cans imported from China into a big metal container.
Sometimes the first beers of a new cask can be lively, sometimes it’s just because the barman is holding the glass wrong, The guy in Banks’s brewery tap would have done it properly. 😉
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Well, you evidently know more about beer than that barman does: he can’t even tilt the glass properly! 😉
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After Fossbridge I was delighted that you’d arrived at a proper Yorkshire town, until, like Richard, I realised it’s not Barnsley after all…
“Yes sir. Would you like to pay now”
Although based on dining tab mentality – that phrase annoys the hell out of me – the correct answer is ‘No I’ll pay next time I visit the pub’.
Sounds like he narrowly escaped the next worst crime – speaking in the ‘posh third person’ – ‘Is Sir dining with us today?’ etc….Aarrgh!
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‘No I’ll pay next time I visit the pub’. Brilliant. I’d already said (twice) I was just in for a drink so why would I want a tab ?
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I guess he was just repeating the customer service ‘speak’ he’d been taught…
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