No idea why I’m bringing you Hereford highlights. Perhaps I was just missing the Barrels.
I’m definitely missing countryside like this;
It’s not in our Top 20 towns, but looking back I seem to have caught it on a good night in 2018.
It doesn’t feel a lot bigger than Durham,(and it isn’t), similarly dominated by the Cathedral with its c.300 map of known craft beer Wye Valley pubs.
The other thing Hereford is famous for is, of course, this goal;
Yes, as a treasured Premium subscriber you get the ultra rare alternate view.
Edgar Street (possibly known as the Scrumpy Stadium these days) is one of those grounds literally in the heart of town, and frankly you could do a football /pub/cathedral /curry circuit in 4 hours.
But you should pop in Gordon Bennetts, the local brewery’s newbie, if only to be outraged by the prices, as I was last year.
“This is the sort of underpricing of beer that CAMRA is trying to stamp out, of course. Or perhaps CAMRA members think HPA and Cwtch are poor beers cheaply made ?
I often ask, in all innocence, what poor beers we shouldn’t be campaigning for. No-one will tell me.”
If the Beer in Hand is open (it’s a micro) I’d pop in there as well. No pics but I thought it was a corker.
For crafties like Mrs RM, Firefly has the Siren and Thornbridge on keg. Very 2015, but nothing wrong with 2015.
Or Bass mirrors shipped from Wrexham.
The Spoons is unmissable, and rather like the one in Winchester it’s where the youngsters come for their assignations, just like in that Shadowlands film set round here.
Yes, that’s Rosie’s Pig. Sorry.
Basically, though, a Hereford pub crawl is Barrels.
3 visits, packed every time, kicked out at closing, a rarity for me.
This bloke was entertaining his 5 year old, presumably safely in bed in faraway Ledbury, on Skype. He made our night by acting out the part of a 1972 Willie McFaul.
This is one of those joyous pubs that also seems to push through more pints of cask than the rest put together.
Only right, then, that I finished on the Robinsons.
For the 100th time, not THAT Robinsons.
Man that makes me want to be there!
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Very hard to convey a sense of Barrels. I guess it’s like the Circus but 3 times the size and with a cobbled courtyard.
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Effectively the Wye Valley brewery tap, so fierce pricing. WV clearly don’t buy the “cask should be premium-ised” argument. Difficult to find anything over £3 per pint when I was there 2/3 months ago.
The ravages of austerity have not helped Hereford I’m afraid, just the sort of place that has relied on the Tories to rescue it from the….Tories.
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Yes, I wasn’t implying Hereford is anything like similar cathedral towns such as Winchester or Worcester!
It’s a working town, with historically low pay, I assume.
At least low prices meant busy pubs when I was there.
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Aye, anon, they let ’em out, and they wonder why they do it again.
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I saw the ‘HEREFORD’ title and immediately thought, in only slightly different words, “Basically, though, a Hereford pub crawl is Barrels”.
Just like a Banbury pub crawl is Ye Olde Reindeere.
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True that.
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When I read the word “Hereford” a picture of a cathedral and a bridge sprang to mind, then, right on cue came your first illustration.
It was one of those moments.
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Etu,
Okay, I’ll guess the best pub, you guess the first illustration, but we might struggle with which town it’ll be next.
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That would be a good challenge. Guess my next town. I wouldn’t win.
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I’m sure you didn’t intend it this way, but I got a good chuckle out of the idea that football, pubs, cathedrals, and curry could all be considered as more or less of equal value.
I mean, when you’ve had a *really* good curry you’d just as soon let the local cathedral be torn down. 😉
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I think I intended it that way 😉
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Great vintage, tourist poster and superb, genuine Bass mirror. None of your repro tat there.
Hereford is on my list of UK towns to visit. Mrs PBT’s and I came close, almost exactly a year ago, when we called in at the large ASDA on the edge of the city. I wanted to take a closer look at the place; she wasn’t so keen, so in the interests of marital harmony it went on the list for another day.
To be fair, we’d already walked around Ross-on-Wye that morning, followed by a visit to the Saracen’s Head at Symonds Yat, but next time, perhaps??
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T’other Paul.
I’m not at all sure about that mirror. They’ve had a lot of practice in Wrexham and as they say ‘practice makes perfect’.
Mrs TSM often spends plenty long enough going round a ‘supermarket’ for me to manage a pub or two.
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The Stafford Mudgie, I was driving that day, and already imbibed a pint and a half at the Saracen’s Head – otherwise yes!!
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T’other Paul.
I understand now.
Mrs TSM doesn’t like my driving and so she always drives.
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It’s nice, but it’s not absolutely essential either as a historic city or a pub town. And the Mappa Mundi and the chained library are a bit “is that it, then?”
When I visited a few years ago, it was noticeable how, on a warmish Monday evening, the courtyard at the Barrels was absolutely rammed, because it’s somewhere people are allowed to smoke.
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There’s a story here waiting to be made into a film, Paul.
Travelling to the edge of Hereford and Mrs PBT pleading with you not to enter the gates of darkness. Clark Gable and Lauren Bacall to play you.
In fairness, Hereford is Maidstone with a giant church and more drunks.
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Mrs PBT’s doesn’t really have a problem with me visiting the odd pub, so unfortunately that film is on hold at the moment.
I’m not sure about the number of drunks either. Maidstone certainly has its fair share.
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Yes, we’ve heard about Pauline.
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Oh, THAT goal! Years since I’ve been to Hereford but the Barrels was always the Go-to.
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Hereford has been knocked around too much and isn’t as perfect as Shrewsbury or Ludlow. However my wife and I found enough to fill a day there. I visited the Coningsby Hospital Museum which is at a set of almshouses as well the Ancient House. The Cathedral is very nice and the Mappa Mundi and the chained library are both very interesting. Hereford feels large because the other Herefordshire towns are so much smaller.
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That’s a good summary, Charlie. Certainly worth a day of anyone’s time. As is Ledbury.
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Didn’t get an opportunity to visit the pubs but enjoyed a nice lunch
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In the 80s, a few football hooligan firms came a cropper in Hereford pubs when they tried to take on the locals, because as well as yokelly farmers they were also frequented by off-duty soldiers from the nearby regimental headquarters of the SAS.
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Yes, of course. Big mistake messing with the SAS boys.
I saw Rochdale play there in 1995 while I was visiting the 92 league grounds (0-0, dreadful).
The big pub near the ground (Wellington) was one of the liveliest I’ve been in. In 1995 I was mainly drinking the new Caffreys!
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Now Joules is “the new Caffreys”
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Actually there are similarities in the creaminess, though of course Caffreys is the more authentic beer.
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Not been to Hereford for many a year, it was on my list late last year but the biblical rain put us off an we went home. We were staying in Bromyard (about 10 miles north) , that had some nice pubs. Have you been there?
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Yes, actually stayed in Bromyard a few years back (Rose & Crown, nice place). Must have just predated this blog.
Don’t blame you. Torrential rain no fun.
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Is the Firefly not in Worcester ? (I can find no reference of a Firefly in Hereford).
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Definitely the Firefly in Hereford as well, formerly the Orange Tree. On King St near the Cathedral.
Possibly connected to Worcester as similar feel and focus on craft and vegan food.
Possibly it closed in Feb this year, just before the virus as not obvious on Google maps.
Thanks for keeping me on my toes, Mark 👍
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