Ooh, look, the Huawei thingy is back. Just as sinisterly, I’ve had 26 views from China so far today. You’re all under surveillance now for rubbishing Tsingtao on Beer Twitter.
In a rush now. In blog time, I’m about a day away from the Dolphin in Plymouth (Bass alert), in real time I’m a day away from drinking actual Bass in Machynlleth again.
For now, the nearest GBG tick to the Buckfast Brewery or whatever you call it. I presume the number of visitors in Ashburton reflects the preference for a Buckfast/cream tea double header over a walk on Dartmoor.
Ashburton is smaller than Waterbeach, but has eight times as many cafes and five times as many delis, one of which provides my lunch.
Which was dreadful, by the way. Cold spinach in pastry is a bad idea.
The town is quaint, and I will think fondly of it when I return to nearby Totnes the next day.
Your usual West Country narrow roads with brightly coloured buildings, a sight only scarred by that one lump of scaffolding.
Oh, it’s my pub.
It’s hard to appreciate the 889 year old features, hopefully not the barrel of Dartmoor cider, but the pub is classic Devon boozer.
“Don’t bang yer ‘ead” says someone, just as I bang my head. Were they all dwarves in 1130 AD ?
Joke over, the locals went back to debating duck eggs and their problems sleeping in the heat.
I’m all for old pubs (I’m not really) but the old wobbly tables meant my beer slid across the table on a little slop of foam, only just caught skilfully at the edge.
To be honest, it was hardly worth saving; cool and clear but completely indistinctive, and my first urinal pour of the trip (NBSS 2.5). And I know 2.5 means competently kept but I’d leave chips if they were that dull.
Time to move on, but not before banging my head on the way to the Gents BECAUSE IT’S TOO DARK !
retiredmartin 
Quite a pretty pub though:) And you have to say those streets are mighty pretty. Man.
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It was very like a small Maldon or Southwold, just next to moors not piers.
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And with a curry house. Which Southwold does not seem to have.
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And you wonder why I’m so halfhearted about Southwold…
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Yes,I know this one well on account of it being close to my multi-millionaire brother’s vast spread on Dartmoor.
Good pub where people talk to each other without the interruption of music or telly.
I’d have gone for the cider but then I drink nothing else west of Salisbury.
It’s the one and only reason I’m retiring there.
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Thought you were retired already?
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I am.
But I still like to keep my hand in with this and that and make sure Mrs PP-T is running the business I set up for her in an efficient manner.
Like young Martin I’m a kept man.
I have a Sugar Mammy.
We know our place.
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You should have gone to Cullompton and drunk Bass. The street photos would be the same and you could have claimed the tick.
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The Five Bells Inn.
Lovely village pub.
Sponsors the cricket team I occasionally turn out for although after dropping that dolly at slip earlier this month I doubt I’ll get the call again for a while.
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Looking forward to your report on the Dolphin. My 1975 GBG describes it thus:
“A dark, basic and rough pub with more than a suggestion of the old Plymouth”
This kind of makes it both threatening and a ‘must visit’ at the same time. By the way, the beer back then was Courage (Plymouth) mild and bitter served on gravity.
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Are you aware, that a collective noun for cats is a “clowder”?
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Didn’t you realise that medieval South West England was exclusively populated by Hobbits? They made it as far north as the Barley Mow at Penn Common before it was found out they couldn’t handle their Bass.
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Say what you like about the Huawei, it certainly allows you to take some lovely photos; that one at the very top is stunning. (And I’m not just saying that to please the Chinese hackers who are now watching my every move!)
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You like the same photos as I go, Mark!
To be honest, it’s easy getting shots in pubs with beer, beams and light streaming through bay windows, never mind the locals!
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I bet the Chinese buy that pub and then make a move on the pub industry…you heard it hear first
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