June 2023. Ashford, Kent (there’s one in Middlesex, allegedly).
Our rail trips from Rye always involve a change at Ashford International. If you were compiling a “Bucket list” for someone aged 58 (still young) I doubt “get to the heart of the eternal mystery that is Ashford would be on it.
But Mrs RM and I had thirty (30) minutes to kill between Deal and home and the map said it was two minutes walk to the Curious Brewery raved about by Ashford Advocate Paul (here) and Woking Wonder Ed (here).
It was either that or join the queue for Starbucks.
The map said “two minutes”, but that rather assumed you’d already left Platform 5 and found your way to the vast expanse of an international station now disowned by Eurostar (see also : Ebbsfleet).
Naming your streets after French left backs from FC Nancy never ends well.
But the Curious building looked curious, and it is true that if you had the same approach to crossing busy roads as Stafford’s Paul Mudge and myself that it would indeed be possible to reach the brewery tap in two minutes.
As long as you could jump the fence. And then fly up those stairs.
By the time we reached the bar we’d used 10 of those 30 minutes and Mrs RM was already getting fractious about getting back to the platform, so nipped to the ladies while I necked a quick half.
Folk who do Beer Twitter will know and care that Curious (who I’ve hardly ever seen on the bar) are brewing Wild Beer (who I’ve hardly ever seen, either, though at least the latter had a rather gorgeous Tap in Cheltenham).
The Curious Tap is essentially a giant hangar of a burger restaurant with space for folk who want free WiFi for their laptops, and if we’d been in need of tea and WiFi I’ve no doubt we’d have used it for that purpose, as their Millionaire Stout was every good indeed. Lovely staff too.
Perhaps the best bet for beer in Andover ? That would be the very definition of damning with faint praise.
retiredmartin 
We rocked up a month or so ago when it was closed and on the off chance asked in the brewery if it was possible to look around. It turns out we were speaking to the original brewer who was amazingly friendly gave us a super tour and a load of samples to take away as the bar taps had just been cleaned and not reconnected.
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They were very friendly, Tony.
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It’s about time the word “International” was dropped from the station name. No Eurostar trains have stopped at Ashford since before the pandemic, with additional passport checks, due to Brexit, bearing a large share of the blame.
It’s ludicrous that those of us who live in Kent, have to make a cross-London trip to St Pancras, in order to board a train that will whizz us back through a station we could have reached in just 30 minutes (from Tonbridge).
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Yes, very disappointing.
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Let’s not get started on the very long list of what’s ludicrous about this county these days, Paul, eh?
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T’other Paul,
Yes, t’other day I was reading that the number of ‘all year round’ stations served by Eurostar has dropped since the additional passport checks from thirteen for four.
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You can name streets Faucheux if you like, and that’s, er, for sure.
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Oh very good.
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“Ashford (Surrey)” is between Staines and Feltham.
Other Ashfords are available, but not by rail.
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