WELL, WELL, WELLS

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I see that Whitby has won Mudgie’s poll of England’s most beautiful towns, edging out Shrewsbury, Stamford and Coalville.  I can only assume that most of you don’t actually travel very widely.

Wells scored well, which surprised me a bit as it left no real impression on a couple of visits over the years, rather like Glastonbury.

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A bit of a one-trick pony, and surprisingly scruffy, I’d thought. You can forget how close it is to Wookey Hole and all that fudge made by goblins.

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Wookey for Russ

Turning up on a steamy Sunday afternoon I found the Cathedral unencumbered by scaffolding,

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Beautiful

and a few very old fashioned hotels showing why they’ve never graced the Beer Guide, but might grace Fodors.

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Tea and scones ahead, Dooreen
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More Ushers signage for you
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Previous Guide pub

But it’s a scruffy town, with rundown shops and not much cutting-edge creativity, Prosecco Pong apart.

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Name the car
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£11.24
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Future Brewhouse & Kitchen

The new Beer Guide pub is, obvs, a micro pub. Of sorts.

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Just Ales

Making a real effort, with floral displays, pork pie and pint for £6 (!) and even a sign, it could be quite crafty.  But it’s more Kent or Sidcup than Cheadle Hulme.

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Have you read all that ?

Quite cosy, Radio 4, the Average White Band, 42% cider brandy, proper seats and all, but immediately I feel my usual anti-micro resentment rising as I’m asked what I like and realise I haven’t got a clue where the beers are.

Or what any of them are.

Panicking, I pick the one described as “terrific“. It’s pretty good (NBSS 3), in a Somerset brown bitter way.

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Always difficult when there’s one Old Boy talking to the owner, an efficient lady.  But you have to make an effort to join in the conversation in micros, even when you’d rather keep yourself to yourself.

Obviously you can’t complain about the English summer, so I offer some comment on the latest English batting collapse.

“They should bring back Tavare”  or something. Nothing.

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Unimpressed with my attempt at bants

That said, it’s quite quirky and would be better with a few more folk in.  Like 98% of pubs.  Surely the newish Spoons will have life ?

Well, no. Despite the lure of nine handpumps and eavesdropping on domestic arguments over cheap Prosecco, there are (coincidentally) nine people in.

I can only assume they’ve all begun the walk in baggy trousers to Wookey Hole to see Siggs and Mikey and Chas murdering Madness in the caves. I had no wish to join them, with karaoke in Weston to come.

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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.

48 thoughts on “WELL, WELL, WELLS”

    2. @Stafford Mudgie.
      Regards your previous message,beneath this lardy exterior beats an English lionheart who retired at 50 and moved across the Irish Sea at the behest of herself keen to return home.
      Fast forward a decade or so and the business I set her up in to make me a kept man has snowballed into a monster bigger than my previous incarnation and requiring more of my time than when I worked for a living.
      Next year we plan a reverse ferret – Mrs PPT remembers the reasons why she left Ireland in the first place and wants to leave again and I want to see sell up and retire for a second time.
      So Blighty-bound we shall be to enjoy the delights of Stafford Mudgie-style breakfasting.
      The question is where ? We have Exeter has the centre of a very broad radius so I’m more than interested in RM’s wanderings.Sadly nowhere yet has really grabbed me in the way Vinnie Jones grabbed Gazza.

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      2. P P-T,
        You can’t go far wrong with the Exeter area as it’s Devon that the Mudgies originated from,
        Mable Mudge famously kept the Drewe Arms at Drewestainton, a proper pub if ever there was one, until 1994 and retired aged 99.
        Tim Martin, who is three days younger than me and founded the Wetherspoon chain best known for SMO’C pints, lives in Exeter.

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  2. Agree with you re town itself. A little too busy when I was in on a Saturday after a Wells City match (great stand). A weekend of football food and beer left it’s mark there and I was embarrassed by the queue for the single toilet on opening the door. If you can’t get away with some Tavare based bantz in Somerset where can you do it?

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  3. I stayed in Wells with my parents many years ago at an old-fashioned hotel, possibly the now-defunct Star. It had a cosy wood-panelled bar dispensing Wadworth’s 6X.

    I don’t think I’ve actually been back since so can’t really comment on whether or not it’s tatty.

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    1. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not Oldham, but the shops aren’t much different (lot of charity shops) and chain places. If you’d come via Salisbury/Winchester/Devizes (admittedly bigger) or just been to Beverley you’d be shocked. Not sure if Dick and Dave have been.

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      2. We have been to Salisbury/Winchester/Devizes/Beverley. I have not been to Oldham or Wells. I am not sure whether Dave has or not.

        A cathedral without scaffolding, I am trying to remember if I have ever seen one without it.

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      4. I was underwhelmed by Wells. Our visit was a while back. I too was surprised how high it rated in the contest. I would not have it in my top 25.

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      7. I think Whitby was a credible winner of the poll. The other ones I’d have said were prime contenders were Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Tewkesbury, Rye and Stamford, three of which didn’t get beyond the first round. Of course the whole thing was somewhat spoilt by the excessive touting for votes on behalf of Bridgnorth. I believe I was burned in effigy on its streets on Sunday night. Familiarity probably played a big part in the voting, hence the large vote for Southwold and the poor showing of Oundle.

        It’s all a matter of degree, but of “pretty” towns I’m reasonably familiar with, I wouldn’t say Knutsford, Nantwich, Frodsham or Bakewell were remotely tired and tatty.

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      8. It’s a brave man and a fool who dares to proclaim the best town.

        “Beautiful” isn’t the same as interesting. Personally I can’t see past Shrewsbury or Bridgnorth, which has the added benefit of that funicular and some good pubs.

        Totally agree, loads of towns aren’t tired or tatty. All 4 you mention good examples,

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      9. I thought it interesting that Whitby, which I love, won the contest. I really did not expect that. I am used to seeing towns like Chipping Camden win these contests. Certainly lots of places to choose from and the result reflects the wide ranging interests of the readership I think.

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      10. Agree, reflects interests and where people live. I’d bet 95% of people who voted haven’t been to Axbridge (perhaps a bit small) or Bridgnorth(just right). Whitby needs a good day and not TOO many tourists (YANKS over here, drinking our beer).

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      11. (a) Northern weighting of my readership
        (b) Whitby is a holiday place, so more people will have been there, if only on a day trip from Scarborough via Robin Hood’s Bay

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      13. Whitby can feel crowded, but a lot of the people seemed to be day trippers. At night it felt very quiet which was nice. I tried to only vote in quads where I had been to all the places listed or I had a very strong feeling for one of the towns. Bridgnorth and Shrewsbury for example.

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      14. Only voting for things you know about, Dave ? What sort of a cockananny concept is that ?

        I’m voting for Nantucket as my favourite US town, just because I like the name (and the song).

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      16. I agree with Dave on Whitby, humanity overload during the day and very nice at night. Quiet up near the Granby.

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  4. The more I travel around, the more I think the demise of pubs is less and less to do with business, rates, pubs, excise duty, and the more I understand it to be demographics and the social and economic profile of a locality. Although the cathedral is stunning, some parts of the town Martin shows us are run down and lacking investment. It’s that socio-economical aspect, coupled with a shift in attitudes, many licensed premises take the lions share of the weeks turnover in two or three sessions, that is killing pubs.

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      1. Yes. like lifeafterfotball says, there are new openings in Warwick. There are new openings all the time in Leeds, Manchester and other vibrant (financially & ethos) places, it’s the state of the local economy that drives it. Conversely, look at some of the ‘sink estates’ around Leeds, there used to be pubs a plenty, but they have all gone (e.g. Gipton & Seacroft) to be replaced by discounting supermarkets where people can get cheap booze (not necessarily British style beers neither). The Courtier at the bottom of Fairway hill in Gipton is a good example, pulled down to make way for a Lidl. The point I’m making isn’t that alcohol is too expensive, it’s that the area is in the bottom 5% depravation indices in the UK, and people just don’t have the money – there is a subtle difference and it’s the social ills that need addressing, the performance (or not) of the pub is just a symptom.

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      2. Richard,
        Yes, indeed. The division between rich and poor gets ever greater.
        There are areas where “people just don’t have the money”, “and it’s the social ills that need addressing” here, and areas where plenty of £5-a-pint “craft” bars are opening for the hipsters.
        But between the two how much room is there left for the Proper Pubs that have always looked after “the masses”?

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      3. But it’s not simply a matter of swings and roundabouts, is it? The amount of beer drunk in pubs has halved over the past twenty or so years, and large numbers of pubs have closed in all kinds of areas. Of course some types of area have done worse than others, but plenty have been lost in prosperous places too. Really it’s places like the centre of Leeds that are very much the exception to the rule.

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      4. Even Leeds was quiet on our visit this Summer Sunday, and I’ve written about Cambridge a few times (very quiet at 6pm, tourists preferring the chain restaurants).

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  5. I can’t believe Tavare didn’t elicit a response! Maybe a bit of Trescothick is the way forward? Any proper Madness cover band knows that Mike Barson is at the front of the ‘walk!’ Pah! I’ve heard them though and they are good. The chap by the chalkboard was looking very ‘reflective.’

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    1. I see Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott posted some good scores for Warwickshire 😀

      I remember when they recalled Brian Close when he was over 40.

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  6. “Wookey for Russ”

    That’s about the only ‘interesting’ bit on the map. 🙂

    “Prosecco Pong apart.”

    They got the idea from Beer Pong years ago. 😉

    “Future Brewhouse & Kitchen”

    “Future Brewhouse & Kitchen”

    Oof. Scruffy indeed.

    “Have you read all that ?”

    I’m guessing the stickers around the blackboard are beers that they rotate in and out? 😉

    “there are (coincidentally) nine people in.”

    Yikes. Definitely off the beaten track.

    Cheers

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  7. Name the car? Ford Zodiac Mk 2.

    We had a meal in the City Arms, which was then a steakhouse-type place. I remember spotting on the bar, although not sampling, Watneys Starlight.

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      1. Never had either, although i am maybe a little too young. I have had Watney’s Special and Ben Truman Export – the latter being what effectively replaced Red in Watney’s pubs.

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      2. Special Bitter was sort of half way between Red and Starlight so you are qualified to say how dreadful Watneys was !
        I remember keg Ben Truman being launched in about 1972 with the slogan “You can taste the hops in Ben Truman” but their beers did have quite a high hop rating anyway but were all keg – that’s until their Tap Bitter at a similar time to Watney’s Fined Bitter both new ( not quite ) real ales.
        My brother worked at Truman’s Brick Lane brewery one summer in the early 1970s.
        I don’t think I ever noticed Ben Truman in Watney’s pubs but I did try to avoid them like the plague.

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