INTO THE (PEWSEY MICRO PUB) VALLEY

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As you’ll know by now, I never miss a chance of squeezing a Skids song title in , even in an area as tranquil as Salisbury Plain. This is more “Out of Town” than “Sweet Suburbia“.

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As I must have said before, I have a cousin in Pewsey, but as I’d already had my tea (chicken tikka bites and trail mix from the Co-Op in Shrewton) there was no need to call in at ten minutes notice.

“At last” you cry, a micro. Confusingly, The Shed didn’t use to be a shed.

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Photo nicked from my own blog

My higher quality readers may recall a failed visit here a year ago, but that was before it got in the Beer Guide anyway.

This was an interesting experience. Two Old Boys at the bar, two Old Boys at the window table, four local beers. All your micro pub bingo clichés ticked. H*b** *u*.

Hoping for banter, I told the landlady I reckoned this was the smallest pub in the UK, and got into a fight over the dimensions at the Nutshell and how that Cleethorpes serving hatch isn’t a real pub. It ended amicably.

I asked for the local beer, always a daft question when they all are, and got a pint of that Ambush Stealth (“it is hazy, you know”) which was just about perfect.

But where do you sit ? And do you interrupt the conversation going on either side of you ? Micros can be scary places for folk who aren’t part of the drinking club.

Somehow, it worked

But the banter to my right was marvellous, all about pulleys and handles and acetyline lamps, rather than Key Keg and C02, and I butted in to ask nosey questions about Pewsey pubs to my heart’s content.

And before Mudgie asked, there were two toilets. Two. It is possible.dav

Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

20 thoughts on “INTO THE (PEWSEY MICRO PUB) VALLEY”

      1. I’ve been gender neutral for decades – always pop into the ladies given the choice.
        Not only are the bogs cleaner but you get a better level of gossip in the ladies’ jacks.

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    2. If your cousin actually was Scottish, you could call on them and give them an opportunity to say “You’ll have had your tea?”

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  3. “even in an area as tranquil as Salisbury Plain.”

    Wouldn’t Peter Gabriel work there as well? 😉

    With regards to the OS map, the writing is fairly small but I could swear it says ‘Winter’s Coming’ in the lower right. 🙂

    Oh and I’m drinking out of a similar glass as that used by the gents in the first photo.

    “I told the landlady I reckoned this was the smallest pub in the UK,”

    If the fight ended poorly you could always fall back on saying it’s the largest shed in the UK. 😉

    “all about pulleys and handles and acetyline lamps, rather than Key Keg and C02,”

    Oh I dunno. I’ve always associated pulley and handles and whatnot with key keg and CO2.

    Cheers

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    1. Solsbury Hill is actually a hill near Bath and has nothing to do (except phonetically) with Salisbury Plain. And Salisbury Plain isn’t particularly quiet as much of it is a military firing range.

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      1. Sigh. I was trying to be funny but it’s just not in me*. 🙂

        Cheers

        * – I’ll keep trying though! (which makes the missus roll her eyes for some reason)

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