This post is brought to you courtesy of a solar powered recharge of my dead phone. Technology, eh ?
Not many pubs close to Larmer Gardens, but the Museum in Farnham (not that Farnham) is 25 minutes walk. I suspect we’re the only festival goers to attempt it down a narrow lane which forces you to jump in the hedge when campervans pass.
This one is in the Beer Guide (for now) and possibly every guide to posh pubs in existence.
Thatched
Farnham appears to consist entirely of thatched cottages, and is therefore nearly as posh as Waterbeach.
Lost
Posh
The Museum is one of a collection of fine dining and sleep emporia, and oddly doesn’t seem to be benefiting from the mid afternoon tradesmen custom, despite rare all-day opening.
The adverts in the Gents are therefore rather ironic
There’s still a party of diners with loud voices discussing the Guardian and pashminas, and I wonder if we’ll be asked if we’re dining.
No-one puts Mrs RM in the corner and asks if she’s dining. It’s strictly two pints and a packet of Pipers.
Only three pumps, nothing to scare the geldings, what can go wrong ?
Mrs RM’s Sixpenny 6D from down t’road is superb, matching the chorizo perfectly (says our beer sommelier). I’ll give it a 3.5.
Sadly, the Flack Manor is a bit sharp (NBSS 1.5) Scarred by recent incredulity about my reports of poor beer here, I decide it’s me and plough on and admire the decor.
Mrs RM has a swig. “Ugh, how can you drink that, it’s vinegar !”
How indeed. Bit late to take it back, so I get a pint of the Brakspear, a reliable pint if ever I saw one.
I should have stuck to the Heinz, which interestingly someone had stuck down the side of our bench seat.
“I think it’s reached the end of the barrel” I said, being a southerner. “Your beer is filth” can offend.
The nice lady then told me there was loads left in the barrel, and presumably it had been there for a while.
Anyway, changed for 6D, but tellingly the clip NOT turned round so someone else can experience the joy of the cask ale lottery later.
If you do go, enjoy the hand wash.
retiredmartin 
“not that Farnham”, thankfully, too much BBB going on, I include the Oxford Gold in that just by association!
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I had a lovely beer experience today. Mrs WM’s half was a bit vinegary. I took it back, was thanked for telling the bar person. She went off to change the barrel and brought the new half to the table. Proper pub.
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Ah, but I bet that was in the north.
I do write about a lot of great pubs but folk only seem interested in the disasters, oddly (not).
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If Wardlow Mires counts as the north, yes. I think in part the ‘interest’ is that folk are genuinely surprised that a GBG pub should be serving poor quality cask. But as you say doesn’t happen up here very often.
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I was surprised the cask in Bristol was so dull in August; it’s not just the country pubs.
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Only been to the Mires once. Dreadful loud yuppies drinking cider, undrinkable Abbeydale, loud dogs. It dropped out of the Guide that summer so it wasn’t just me.
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If it was Wardlow Mires, had the beer been on since the previous weekend, given its very limited opening hours?
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First time the beer has ever been even slightly off for me in many a visit.. Surprising given the opening hours I agree. However my point was being thanked for taking back the beer. So many could learn from that.
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“Where all men meet as equals”, the landlord can smoke a pipe behind the bar and there’s no need for pumpclips – yes, sadly we’ll never know a time like that again.
But why are the four customers reflected as three different ones in the mirror ?
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My guess is that’s not a mirror. I think it’s a window. Note how the hats are different. And no one on this side is wearing a tie (like the bloke with the pipe). I think on this side it’s a bit like “liberté, égalité, fraternité” (with the common bond being beer) while on the other side they’re probably upper crust gin drinkers!
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Rus,
But in proper English pubs I’ve only seen mirror frames, not window frames, that shape.
Maybe it’s an optical illusion.
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> This post is brought to you courtesy of a solar powered recharge of my dead phone. Technology, eh ?
If this weather continues, you’ll just need to fit a solar panel onto the roof of your car and charge as you go.
> Not many pubs close to Larmer Gardens, but the Museum in Farnham (not that Farnham)
There is a Farnham just to the north of Slough, which is a short bus ride from your beloved Maidenhead.
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Farnham in Bucks (or is it Berks) is a treasure trove for rhododendron lovers in the spring. Thought you’d want to know tgat.
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Beer can go off but pubs should acknowledge this and turn round pump clips…a serious response for once!
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“The adverts in the Gents are therefore rather ironic”
Pfft. Secret societies have to stay secret in some way!
“I should have stuck to the Heinz, which interestingly someone had stuck down the side of our bench seat.”
I was thinking that when I saw the top photo. 😉
“and presumably it had been there for a while.”
LOL. Ok, now that’s irony for you. 🙂
“but tellingly the clip NOT turned round”
Good Lord.
“If you do go, enjoy the hand wash.”
Because… the same said ingredients don’t go well in a cream? 😉
Cheers
PS – “The Museum in one of a collection of fine dining and sleep emporia,”
I think ‘in’ should be ‘is’.
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Enjoy the hand wash because it’s more drinkable than the beer 😉
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“Farnham appears to consist entirely of thatched cottages, and is therefore nearly as posh as Waterbeach.” –Interesting comment, as I’d not realized that thatched roofs were such an indication of wealth. I know they are incredibly expensive to have replaced, so I it makes sense.
In Japan you often see thatched roof farm houses that have been completely covered over in corrugated metal, in an effort to avoid the cost of new thatching. Doubt anyone would ever do such a thing in England, though– it looks kind of awful!
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As always, Mark, you raise an interesting point. Wealthy retirees/stockbrokers seem to occupy the thatched houses here, very different in some places Like Slovenia I guess.
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The woman behind the hand pumps looks like an apparition. Was she real?
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Flack’s Double Drop is an easy beer to look after. I can only assume it must have been on the bar for over three days.
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We had very good beer in the Museum 4 years ago. It’s a bit inaccessible for festival goers, who were drinking the cider anyway. Yes, it tasted old. End of the barrel is just a polite euphemism, of course.
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I think it’s neither a window nor a mirror, but a divider put in to create a snug.
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But how could a ‘divider’ be floating three feet above the floor ?
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There was a pub we frequented when we were kids – Huntsman, Thurlstone, it’s in GBG – the landlord was an early real ale adopter (with guests) and insistent that vinegar would taint the beer, to the extent that the seafood man was not allowed to even bring vinegar into the pub and you had to have cockles and whelks au naturel.
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Richard,
Yes, I remember similar, including in the Railway Inn at Stafford.
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Didn’t do much for the seafood man’s trade on a Friday and Saturday night – What’s tha mean no f.ing vinegar, tha can’t eyt cockles and whelks wi art vinegar.
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Ah, but when I were a lad t’seafood mon’d creep into t’lounge round t’back out of t’sight of landlord in t’bar and sell ‘is vinegar sodden cockles and whelks to them in t’lounge what could afford to eat out at t’weekend.
Yes, and what a delight it was to emerge from our hovels to live it up once a week.
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