More exciting Notts dormitory towns, as I revisit Bingham for the first time since wasting a tenner in the local Euronics on a mobile phone lead that didn’t work. I should have brought it back 4 years later; that would show them.
Nottinghamshire rivals Bedfordshire as our most boring GBG county, and I’ll find few folk who disagree.
But Bingham is a lively if not lovely market town, with the Methodist Centre the pick of (well, the only) modernist architecture, and a gaggle (?) of metal detectorists (?) near the station.
Last time out I did the Spoons, still the busiest pub in town, and I thought that might be Bingham put to bed.
So where did the Wheatsheaf come from, with its “Pub.Kitchen.Rooms” nonsense ? Well, 1779, older than the oldest American.
It wasn’t heaving, with the custom enjoying our early Summer, but I’m determined to enjoy every second of indoor drinking before someone steals it from us again.
Ooo look, it’s Bass !
There’s an Ossett and a Summer Lightning and a Golden Glow as well on a delightfully 2005 line-up.
But you NEVER turn down Bass, even if the number of pumps (mainly flavoured cider) is a bit of a warning sign. As is the absence of any pork scratchings !
“There you go my lovely” says the charming and efficient barperson, obviously taking pity on the demented soul sitting outside on the hottest day of the year.
They are undoubtedly the star of the show, as the Bass is the epitome of “OK, I guess. Call it 2.5“, lacking the enthusiastic turnover from a posse of Old Codgers. To be fair, the Pipers cheese and onion crisps are beautifully conditioned.
Citra asks the eternal question on Twitter;
To which the only possible answer can be “It depends on the pub, mate”.
Do you make it an official policy to always try the Bass if it’s on? If so I reckon you’ve had it in all its various forms, from nectar to… well, considerably less than nectar, let’s just say. 😉
I do like the look of that Wheatsheaf interior, and “There you go my lovely” must be a nice thing to be on the receiving end of. Attempting a Cathy-Price-style visit to every Wheatsheaf would be a worthy challenge, wouldn’t it– there are dozens if not hundreds of them, I’d imagine.
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I think I always would, Mark, as when it’s very good it’s great. Some places just don’t look like “Bass pubs” though and the Wheatsheaf is one of them.
I was going to disagree with you about the interior as being too modern, but then I looked at the photos (took a few but the light was wrong) and I remembered I thought it was tasteful. The only problem was the lack of customers inside !
I imagine there’s approximately 277.3 Wheatsheafs, Mark.
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There are 213 according to Pubs Galore. https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/stats/pubs/pub-names/
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Does that include the Wombat & Wheatsheaf, Wheatshif, and Bob @199 the Wheatsheaf?
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Now there’s a coincidence.
Only an hour ago I commented on the Beer and Pubs Forum
“Martin,
I remember the Wheatsheaf in Bingham as an “Old coaching inn serving consistently good beer”. The local beer guide ambiguously added “Meals at lunch and evening on saturdays only”. I enjoyed several pints of Shipstones from electric pumps in the Wheatsheaf from 1986 to 1989 with attending four residential courses nearby.”
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It is a nice looking pub with lovely service. Perhaps on a cooler day with a few more folk inside the Bass would have been a notch better.
I had “Shipstones” yesterday !
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I remember offering the pubs of Bingham as an example to the egregious Py to disprove his contention that everywhere was brimming with cutting-edge craft beer. I don’t think he ever took me up on my suggestion of a pub crawl there, though 🙄
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I remember that, he’s a Nottingham lad, isn’t he ? Pretty much every pub once you leave central Nottingham heading west to the coast is a variation on that theme. I wondered if there’s be an explosion in micropubs or the Beerheadz pubs but no sign of that, and cask sales continue to plummet.
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Heading east, not west. You do this deliberately, don’t you?
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As I’ve said many times, it depends…
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Does Thurman know? The Bass mafia will be sending round the heavies (i.e. Mudgie) to have a quiet word in their shell like…
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They’ll have taken it off and replaced it with something naff by then..
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