Well, when someone else is driving you to drink you may as well fill your boots.
I have to say, Duncan is a perfect passenger, never once demanding an emergency stop on the hard shoulder of the A428 A487.
So it was that on our way to St Davids we were only mildly diverted to yet another rural Welsh wonder.
A worrying sign outside the Bridge End Inn.
Despite any uncertainty about its future, and contrary to the last review on Google, we got another fantastic reception in here.
OK, it’s no Dyffryn Arms, but in 95% of the country it would stand as an unspoilt gem.
More local beers, I’m afraid.
Duncan tried both, while chatting to the sole regular at the bar about the quarry that used to dominate employment round here.
In a ferment of excitement I interrupted their flow.
“Duncan, Duncan. They’ve got Bass from the barrel“.
And so they had. No use to me, of course, but even a sniff confirmed this was the real deal.
The Gwaun Valley was turning into the Valley of Bass.
Two young lads had followed us in, and as they sat quietly sipping cokes they’d asked for politely, fussed over by the Landlady, I thought how refreshing it was to see a pub used by youngsters like that.
“I thought they were yours!” said our Landlady.
That really would have been a story.
Was Duncan wilting now?
No.
retiredmartin 
What I find remarkable is the synchronicity between Duncan’s omnipresent hooped top and Tandleman’s return to blogging last week with a post about a branded glass.
As you can tell I am bored silly at Dublin airport and slightly delerious through lack of sleep.
That first scrumpy is going to be interesting ….
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Just walked past Newton Abbot Ye Olde Cider Bar and thought of you.
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Now there’s a place. Many years ago me and the chaps went in and the landlord said we could only have halves as the scrumpy was too strong for most folk, but when he realised we were from Tyneside he changed his mind and said he assumed we’d be able to hold our drink better than the locals!
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And he was right!
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Well eldest son and I planned to visit that very establishment tomorrow.
However my Exeter-based fellow England cricket travelling supporters have roped us in to help out their Seconds tomorrow.
The lad is a handy opener but with my knees I’ve only agreed to make up numbers provided I have a runner.
And there’s scrumpy.
Christ I’m going to be sore on Sunday.
In other news the Ship Inn in Kingswear,once a lovely boozer with a great fresh fish menu,is now a Heavitree monstrosity painted slate grey with flat Otter and a tiny menu consisting of chips,chips,more chips and burgers.
Depressing.
The Prof.
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Flat Otter? Mmmm.
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It wouldn’t have been Otter, flat or otherwise, if Heavitree hadn’t ceased brewing in 1970.
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Don’t follow Mudge.
The sign outside says a Heavitree Pub.
The Otter was flat and lifeless.
Bumped into a former barman round the corner in the Steam Packet Inn and mentioned to him how poor it was considering it had the Cask Marque sign on the font.
He smiled and shook his head.
Apparently although it has the sign it’s not Cask Marque.
I don’t understand the politics of all this except that the pint was terrible and the pub worse.
Now,the Steam Packet Inn was jammers with three different Devon ciders on tap.
The Anscombe was handsome.
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Good rhyme.
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P P-T,
It is one of dozens of pubs owned by the Heavitree Brewery that ceased brewing in 1970.
Similarly there are dozens of London pubs owned by Youngs who ceased brewing in 2006.
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P P-T,
And I don’t take any notice of Cask Marque signs, firstly because it’s no guarantee that a pub has such accreditation and secondly because if it has that doesn’t necessarily mean it has good beer.
Anyway, I think we all have such fun playing the cask ale lottery that we don’t really want a scheme or a book that gets guarantees good beer.
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A cold day though. Duncan’s omnipresent hooped top had the sleeves rolled down and that’s not what we expect in the summer.
“They’ve got Bass from the barrel“ which might have been nearly as good as my two pints of Pedigree from the jug in the Holly Bush at Makeney this lunchtime – and then on the way home the Abbot was drinking well in Wirksworth as was the Banks’s in Weston. .
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Sounds like a Proper Day Out, Paul 😉
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Yes, it was.
Mrs RSM wanted to go to Cromford and one can do a lot worse than Derbyshire for proper pubs and good beer, and I missed that part of the county on my three Proper Days Out in Derbyshire in April.
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Permanent Bass?
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As long as the pub is permanent, yes.
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Coalville boozers in Wakes
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