First up, I do hope LifeAfterFootball‘s latest post marks a break, rather than a retirement from promoting pubs.
Aller looked spooky in the morning. I could have been in the Fens.
20 minutes later I was crossing the M5 towards Bridgwater, which has been disappointingly GBG-lite of late.
Matt had a friend near here with a pet lizard, and now has a girlfriend with a pet giant snail. What is wrong with having pink stabilo pens as pets ?
I parked up near the riverbank for my free hour, and headed to Coffee #1 for a rather disappointing breakfast in my favourite chain. At least the proper cups are back.
Plenty of trade in Coffee #1 at 8am, but otherwise a serene Bridgwater looking better than I remember. The statue is of Pubmeister directing BRAPA to the Carnival (JDW) round the corner.
Bridgwater was the site of Joe Strummer’s last performance in 2002. Joe was a cider man, so what he’d have made of the string of obvious craft venues along with Saint John Street is a matter of conjecture.
I expect Alan Winfield would have done these Proper Pubs justice.
The great news is that according to WhatPub that those five pubs give you a grand total of THREE handpumps.
And two of those dispense Doom Bar.
So glad to see the Bristol & Exeter going strong-ish, though I doubt it’s the utter shithole ciderhouse I remember from a cycling holiday 20+ years ago. Every West Country town had at least one back then, rough, slight smell of stale piss, but friendly enough until about mid-afternoon when the cider really started to hit home. I bet it’s a stripped-out coffee and craft beer shithole now…
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I assure you I didn’t go in any of them at 9am in the morning ! Always wondered where the Bridgwater pubs are, the centre is very under-pubbed.
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The ‘Yeovil’ of North Somerset, or so I’m assured. It seems to have improved, though probably not enough to tempt me back this century…
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Indeed, the Yeovil of the North. It looked tidier, but frankly Covid has been kind to town centres in an odd way, Less litter, less graffiti, less life.
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You do realize LAF’s retirement gives us all that much more time to analyze your work.
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I do hope this a break, we need someone to remind us what real pubs are.
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“First up, I do hope LifeAfterFootball‘s latest post marks a break, rather than a retirement from promoting pubs.”
I’m of two minds; it makes my perusal easier but… it suxxors.
“I could have been in the Fens.”
Or Saskatchewan. 🙂
” What is wrong with having pink stabilo pens as pets ?”
Says the man with Toure what’s-his-name.
“The statue is of Pubmeister directing BRAPA to the Carnival (JDW) round the corner.”
(slow golf clap)
“along with Saint John Street is a matter of conjecture.”
See, now the map below is much better than your usual stuff.
(Middlezoy and Westonzoyland… Zoy Vey!)
“I expect Alan Winfield would have done these Proper Pubs justice.”
And in one day too!
“And two of those dispense Doom Bar.”
I’m revising my (tentative) plans to visit as I type this.
Cheers!
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I’m surprised to see the Greenall’s sign alive and kicking (Lime Kiln Inn). There were a substantial amount of Greenall Whitley pubs close to Salford Uni, forty odd years ago. Most used metred electric pumps – CAMRA approved, but not CAMRA promoted, which might be why they fell out of favour.
Another observation – I’m very observant this morning, is the ugly “rough-cast” concrete coating applied to the frontage of the Bunch of Grapes. Former Maidstone brewers Fremlins, spoiled many of their pubs in this fashion, back in the 1960’s. The coating attracts all manner of dirt, and is impossible to keep clean. Our old, and now demolished office block at work, had a similar façade.
I suppose rough cast is an earlier predecessor of stone-cladding!
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T’other Paul,
In recent years Mitchells and Butlers have painted the outer brickwork of quite a few of their pubs white, an act of serious vandalism where, as with the Royal Oak in Stafford, the architectural splendour of Brewers’ Tudor ( brick ground floor, black and white ‘timbered’ first floor ) is ruined.
I presume they did this as white is far better seen from a distance than brown.
Maybe that’s what Fremlins had in mind during the 1960s.
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All I remember about Bridgewater is the “Bridgewater Pong” which came from the cellophane factory and you could smell from the M5.
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Bridgwater went downhill after they had to sell the “e” to Yovil due to council funding crises associated with the Carnival.
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John,
But just think how stale all those cheese cobs / cheese baps / cheese rolls / cheese balm cakes would be without their cellophane wrappings.
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