HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY COUNTY – No. 4 – CAMBRIDGESHIRE

Well, this will be a controversial one. Five pubs in my home county, and one for you to pick.

There’s a problem with Cambridgeshire. It’s called Cambridge. I could pick half a dozen pubs in the county town on a mile from the station.

But I only get one pick, and it’s the obvious one.

Cambridge – Cambridge Blue (last visited 2022).

For 30 years the beery choice in Cambridge, the best beer and the best beery tat, though I could have made a case for the Elm Tree or Champion of the Thames in Cambridge as well.

Just after lockdown I’d have told you Tom’s pub in rural South Cambs was the best in the county, perhaps the world.

Harlton – Hare & Hounds (last visited 2020)

A community owned pub with a mixed crowd, incredible pies, and the best Bass of the year. I have no idea why I haven’t been for 3 years. Sorry, Tom.

Chippenham – Tharp Arms (last visited 2023). A shock new entry in GBG23.

Tucked away in the posh race-horsey villages east of Cambridge, the Tharp provided meat raffles, complimentary roasties and one (1) beer. It’s wonderful. And we met Maltmeister there.

Yaxley (last visited 2020)

No, honestly. Yaxley is a rarely visited village south of Peterborough; the Farmers a carvery/function room that had been advertising in the local CAMRA magazines for decades before surprise recognition in 2021. If you want to experience Fenland Cambs, you need to come here.

which brings us to;

Waterbeach – The Sun (last visited 2023)

In 2022 someone declared this the best pub in the world. And they might have been right. There’s nowhere better to experience the British “pub” experience, and the beer is always stuff you’ve heard of.

I’m biased, but I’m right.

Over to you. Your turn to nominate a pub in Peterborough. Or Ramsey. Or Newton.

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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.

20 thoughts on “HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY COUNTY – No. 4 – CAMBRIDGESHIRE”

  1. Yaxley is indeed a surprise! That advert on the back of BAE has always perplexed me, it really doesn’t sell itself to the CAMRA’s.

    I’ll go for The Punter, for no other reason(s) than it’s probably the Cambridge pub I’ve enjoyed most over the last few years, the house beer is (probably) Citra, there’s some nice art on the wall, the two or three roadside tables catch the sun nicely, it’s handy for the excellent Kettle’s Yard, they adequately fed us with the mother in law once, and of course it’s largely cycle-free in that neck of the woods. And the staff are very friendly.

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  2. I don’t know the city, or the county that well, but based on my visit to Cambridge in May 2022, the Free Press would get my vote. A smashing little, multi-room, back street boozer, and a pub for both serious drinking, and serious conversation.

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  5. Not a county I’m too familiar with, but I’d certainly put the Queen’s Head at Newton in there. Given how much Cambridge itself dominates the county, I’d give it a bit more representation, so I’d include the Free Press and the Champion of the Thames.

    Cheshire next! 😀

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    2. The Queen’s Head was the one I assumed people would think of. It is a great pub, but with 3 pubs already in that part of the map it had to go, and to be honest it can feel a little “self-aware” of its historic status, but a genuine upmarket basic drinkers pub is a rarity.

      I’m not taking this series of posts too seriously, but I’d want a bit of spread beyond the county town. That said, the Champion of the Thames (visited with you, didn’t I ?) is a marvellously unchanging boozer and you probably ought to drink Greene King in Cambridge at least once.

      I’m glad you reminded me it’s Cheshire next as I’d never know by looking at the GBG !

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      1. Being a bit too “self-aware” was, I think, what caused me to have a slight reservation about the Bridge at Topsham. Not a charge that can ever be levelled against, say, the Traveller’s Rest at Alpraham.

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    1. When I visited in August it was reduced to one room because of impact from a heavy lorry, but the landlord was hopeful of restoring it.

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      1. Haha not banned! Hare and Hounds gave me the worst welcome I’ve ever received in a pub, so I just left.
        I have it on good authority that Bass flies out the tap at The Kingston
        Not sure how you keep missing it there! Let me know when you’re planning a return and I’ll tell Mark, that a VIP is coming and Bass must be on.

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  9. “I have no idea why I haven’t been for 3 years. Sorry, Tom”

    Maybe this exercise will be a good reminder of some pubs that deserve a revisit?

    I’ve not visited a Cambridgeshire pub since 2008. Back when Doug was landlord of the Rose and Crown in March, that would have been a shoe in for the top 6.

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    1. Yes it would, and it was heaving on my revisit in 2016 though perhaps not quite the real ale showpiece of old.

      My sis is living in Ely now; perhaps I can persuade her on a March night out.

      By the by, had you heard of the “March March march” ?

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