I needed seven pubs to complete the Isle of Wight. Three around Sandown in the bagn, two back in Ryde, one in the centre in Arreton, and the most difficult down at the bottom on Niton.
My plan had been to take the bus via Newport down to Joe’s.
Only two things were in my way.
a) The bus didn’t seem to come back till tomorrow.
b) It took 2hrs 24 minutes. On those vomit-inducing buses.
Reluctantly, I gave up on Niton and put it down for a day when I fancied walking there from Shanklin, which you can reach by train.
Instead, I did the easy one at Arreton.
The Dairyman’s Daughter isn’t a “classic” pub, but it’s certainly a “destination” pub, the sort that has been in the Good Pub Guide since they started charging for entry 1986.
As the opening hours hint, it’s no micro.
Arreton Barns is certainly the most chocolate box of all the places I visited on Wight this year.
A series of workshops and family entertainments tucked behind the church, with an original “fruit machine” dispense system on show.
Packed with breweriana and with a crowded farmhouse theme, it reminded me of a riverside pub in nearby Newport.
Giant tables with reserved signs, banjo music, menus on every table, one pint of cask sold in half an hour. Need I go on ?
The Bargeman’s Rest, a sister to the Daughter as it were, was my pub of the day back in February, but this time the “Brewers Fayre with tat” theme seemed a bit overplayed.
But I know how much you lot love your beer history (you’re reading the wrong blog).
It took ages to get served, with uniformed staff occupied with the coffee and cake trade at the next bar.
They’d just had a beer festival. Just missing a pub beer festival is one of life’s great joys.
Easy choice too (clue : NOT Hobgoblin).
It was awful, lacking taste and condition (NBSS 1.5). But what’s the point in taking a half back and saying the beer lacks taste and condition ? It wasn’t vinegar, just undrinkable.
To my horror I realised it was still 40 minutes till the next bus.
I tried to track down the WiFi password, which is always made impossible to find. Why don’t pubs put the password on the bottom of the beer glass.
So, how could I kill half an hour…
retiredmartin 
“still 40 minutes till the next bus” – and the Hobgoblin Gold might have been NBSS 4½ !
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“And the Hobgoblin Gold might have been NBSS 4 1/2” , (cant do the proper 1/2 thing)..
Possible, but realms of fantasy spring to mind.
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Indeed 😧
Of course, in a top pub with good cellar control selling a Firkin in an afternoon I could score 4.5 even if it was Hobgoblin Gold…
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Citra,
There’s no such thing as a ‘proper ½’.
It has to be a pint.
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The hefty bird with the purple hair and tatt on her leg has just lowered the average age of your IOW posts by about 20 years.
It’s read like the elephant’s graveyard of the south coast retirement community.
And to think Hendrix once headlined there.
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And Dylan, back in ’69.
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Ah, but I was able to see Bobby as recently as 2016. Alas, not Jimi.
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‘Just missing a pub beer festival is one of life’s great joys’
Just missing a pub beer festival is one of The worst times to visit a pub. What the hell are they going to do with all those flat, oxidised, nobody-wanted-to-drink-them-anyway festival specials designed to attract the local CAMRAs…
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If it is on form I think the Hobgoblin GOLD can be one of the best from the Wychwood brewery. It always seems to go down well on an afternoon stop midway through a long drive.
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What’s the difference, apart from the lack of customers and beer quality, from the Merchant’s in Rugby?
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I stopped off there for a toilet visit on my IoW debut last year…looks like I didn’t miss much beer wise. Great pub though a real sprawl
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I don’t remember your Wight posts. Must revisit.
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I didn’t post – sticking to my strict Midlands only rule…..occasional London and Yorkshire aside of course.
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We feel deprived 😕
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Ha ha!!! Mrs BB sometimes needs my attention!
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