TOP 100 PUBS – THE RED LION, SNARGATE. DORIS WOULD BE PROUD.

June 2023. Snargate.

In late May 2000 I walked from Appledore station to Snargate to visit Doris’s, one of the Good Beer Guide’s legendary pubs and one of the Classic, Basic and Unspoilt legends on RW Coe’s list.

The walk through the marsh (adjacent to Speringbrook Sewer, I now note) was as magical as the Red Lion, and I’d always wanted to pop back.

Well, our caravan in Rye is just up the road from Snargate (pop. 134), so no excuse on another gorgeous evening.

Not that Mrs RM was inclined to linger and admire the scenery or St Dunstan,

with the prospect of a beer inside.

Look ! She’s beat me in.

That’s because I was admiring the courgette plants.

We sadly lost Doris in 2016 but the Red Lion is still owned by the family, though it seems to be a village asset in the traditional sense.

That famous marble bar counter is still there, but if anything the Red Lion is even more basic and unspoilt than I remember, with folk all perched on benches round the walls. A couple of kindly Old Boys moved up to allow Mrs RM and I to take the best seat in the house.

RW Coe himself had told me Doris was a bit miffed that he hadn’t judged his own local the most basic in the UK*, possibly because it sold crisps or something. I thought he was being a bit harsh.

A few more beers than I recall at the start of the millennium, and despite the lure of the P*** P***** (which everyone else was on) it would have been rude to not go Goachers.

Which seemed a slightly duff call when the mild turned out to be “nearing the end of the barrel, I think“, but it was replaced with the DSB with a good grace not always found.

Only now do I find out DSB is “Doris’s Special Bitter” brewed by Goachers for the pub, and a fine pint it was too, though I reckon Mrs RM’s Tenterden cider was the winner. Two pints for £7.80, value fans.

What a wonderful crowd they were, genuinely pleased to see visitors to their wonderful pub, delighting us with banter about adverts for Christmas.

I got up to leave, having given Mrs RM approximately 3 hours notice of my intention to go.

“He’s gone without you” said the old gent.

“Again” said Mrs RM.

*What would be the most basic and unspoilt now ? Pontfaen ?

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

13 thoughts on “TOP 100 PUBS – THE RED LION, SNARGATE. DORIS WOULD BE PROUD.”

  1. This pub has eluded me several times. For some reason, I am always there on Mondays, and then it is closed! Next month I will be in the area again, but again on Monday. Argh!

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    1. I was mentioning “the list” to someone in the bar and they said “that’s my list”, and then told me how Doris was upset she wasn’t number one, though frankly the Red Lion was a far more professionally run place than the rest on the list !

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      1. Martin, it’s interesting that it was at Doris’s that you bumped into RWC. Seven or eight years ago. Possibly longer, Matthew and I were in the Red Lion enjoying a few pints with a friend, after that semi-lethal walk along the road from Appledore station

        Standing at the bar, and knocking a few pints back as well, was a chap dressed in what can only be described as an old-fashioned, tweed suit. He was sporting an equally dated moustache and was quite loud. He also spoke with quite a plummy accent. He made a bit of a fuss about leaving, before barking out the words, “See you later, Doris.”

        Putting two and two together, and from descriptions given by other people, I’m convinced that this slightly eccentric looking gentleman was the “famous” Rodney Wolfe Coe, the man who cancelled his CAMRA membership because he didn’t have a computer!

        As you allude to, the title of the most basic and unspoilt pub in Britain, is almost certainly no longer the Sun Inn, at Leintwardine.

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  4. Lovely place, even if my only lunchtime visit coincided with a folk club rehearsal. Reckon the Fiddichside would be one of the better unspoilt gems these days.
    Bet there are a few somewhere on the NI/Eire border that are virtually unknown though.

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  5. Mrs. E and I were in Rye yesterday, but didn’t venture to Snargate.

    We managed a pint of Harvey’s at the Old Bell, and then fancied a late seafood lunch at a smart place with a nice menu, but were told firmly that “Lunch. Finishes. At two.

    Sorry, madam. It doesn’t.

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      1. Haha! We missed lunch there by minutes too, having wasted a crucial hour, but ended up barbecuing steaks back at the digs by a lake, which Mrs. E said she liked more than eating out.

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      3. Yes, it was, with quite a few visitors from over the Channel, a few of whom seemed not to understand my schoolboy French, which, in that instance, being German-speaking Swiss was perhaps to be expected…

        The last time that this happened was when you visited that mound in London while we were trying – in vain – to use the Carpenter’s Arms next door, wasn’t it?

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