Just like Cheltenham's Sandford Park Alehouse, here we find a former National CAMRA Pub of the Year winner (2007) where my biggest gripe was the total lack of interaction between staff and customers and transient atmosphere, pitched somewhere between York Tap and leafy Cotswold dining pub. Someone tells me there's been a big turnover of staff recently which might explain this. Frustrating in any case, because what a pearler. I'm not old enough to remember it as a 1776 farmhouse, but you'd have to surmise that all tweaks since have been 'sympathetic'. That tiled floor, what a dream, not often you'll hear me saying 'who needs a carpet?' but this pub would be worse for one. Lacings on the Bristol BF 'Powerslide' are a dream - it slides down powerfully. And favourite BRAPA pub feature of the week 'The Cool Breeze' filters through - making it worthy bonus point. But that strange clientele mixture of hot & bothered cyclists and grumpy bearded locals just meant this Old Spot didn't ultimately hit the sweet spot.
Oi, Col mate ... look at the camera!
New Inn, Dursley
A 15 minute downhill trot into da Woodmancote hood, and what this pub (slightly) lacks in the Old Spot's visual attractiveness it more than makes up for in friendliness. The black lab is first to greet me, lolloping over and sitting on my feet so I can't see which beers are on. The landlord and two chirpy locals tell me the 'Grilled Saint' is fresh on and totally gorgeous. Well it is very fresh, but surprisingly traditional, but it all stacks up when someone tells me they are linked to Old Mill up in my neck of the woods. A wonderful air conditioning unit means I'm down wind when the black lab lets rip on a stinker of a fart which has the two guys running for cover. And our canine hero (BRAPA Pub Dog of the Year 2025 contender) then guilt trips me into throwing his soggy tennis ball across the room. A cat would never (well apart from my old cat Jasper who used to enjoy a game of fetch with my asthma inhaler top). Anyway, I smiled more in here than any other pub this holiday and that has to be worth summat. What a shame it'll probably get unfairly de-guided when they stick in Dursley's new micro which I just ran out of time on. Dursley - the pub town that Newent wasn't.
9. Drunken Duck, Gloucester
The pub experience which really lit the blue touch paper on this most epic BRAPA holiday, 67 ticks across 11 consecutive days, this early tick almost a distant memory but I'll forever be grateful for how warmly I'm welcomed into the fold by boss lady (a potential business owner, sans ombre hair) and a young dude on his first shift. Imagine doing your first pub shift and BRAPA walks in? That has to be bad luck, but he dealt with it seamlessly, and trying not be patronising, I tell him it bodes well for a lengthy career in the pub industry. We had Colin to thank, his presence broke the ice. Soon I'm reading them the hilarious GBG description, where it sounds as though some shy local CAMRA dude arrived when rowdier locals were in. And to think I nearly sat upstairs, but besides the pool table and the toilet with the missing door handle (don't get locked in) seating options ain't so plentiful. I even end up letting them do the highlighting, the only guest staff highlighting all week. Proof Gloucester can do a great micro without being all combative and grrarr.
Crown & Trumpet, Broadway
Studiously choosing to ignore the 'reserved for regulars' table sign (which I'm sure is some in-joke social experiment to see how one-time visitors react), this rural village Cotswold pub blew all neighbouring competition out of the water .... it wasn't even close, and the reason is patently simple, it is still a pub and not a restaurant in disguise .... I mean it has a carpet for heaven's sake, not just any carpet but an 8.75/10 carpet. It made Shagweaver by North Cotswold an inspired beer choice, and by gum it was good, even a step above the same drink at Bourton's Mousetrap which was also above average. We also have ruddy faced locals in three quarter length shorts who'd rather block the bar than sit at their (pretend) designated table. The chattiest cove grabs us by the scruff of the neck (not literally, but almost) to tell us he HATES any pub that opens after 12 noon, even on a Monday which today was. Strong agree. Strong pub. A rare 'I'd actually like to go back because the experience was a bit of a whirlwind'. But if I did, I'd probably end up being made to sit outside due to dining and hate it which may or may not be a reference to one of my followers experiences here!
Cheltenham Motor Club, Cheltenham
Sandwiched in between my visits to the above avg. ticks which were Sandford Park Alehouse and the Jolly Brewmaster came my overall Chelt fave, this clubby bundle of energy which was really poppin' off on this sweltering Sweltenham Saturday afternoon. Lady who arrives just before me suddenly stops stock still in the middle of the floor like an overripe pork chop and I nearly bump into her rear. If she's waiting for a drink, she's not going the right way about it so I circumnavigate her like a pubby Christopher Columbus and lean and elbow gingerly on the right hand side of the bar ... "Nice n easy Trig, nice n easy". A young lad with terrified eyes serves me a Tiley's Brown Porter, one of my favourite beers all week and Tiley's have unwittingly convinced I need to 'somehow' get myself up to the Salutation at Ham where they are brewed when I'm next down here. Awful pub to get to (hint hint, if you live local). After a few words with the guv'nor who seems made of the right fibre, I'm admiring the lovely shirt of a man behind me - think Motherwell FC meets the Periodic Table. He recognises me off that BRAPA thing I do so we have a quick chat. Paul F (not to be confused with that Paul G fellow I keep mentioning). I decide to explore outdoors when I realise there's a beer festival on! I'd only been here 15 mins already, who says I'm observant? The organiser guys try to rope me in with a taste of that New Bristol Cinder Toffee Stout which was my 2023 beer of the year when I tried it in York Tap, but I tell them I must keep my eyes on the BRAPA prize and beer festivals can be a dreadful distraction. I end up sitting with two young lads - one with links to Stroud, the other with a Gwent bent, lovely guys and they find the idea of pub ticking fairly thrilling which helps. It truly had been a joyous experience from first to last .... and was all downhill as I set off for the Beehive!
Black Horse, Shipstone-on-Stour
So many thatched beauties wind up being massive let downs inside but not this time. Final pub of the holiday, and it meant 72% of the Good Beer Guide completed. Landmark pub, landmark occasion. Yes, it was written in the stars. The locals were overly guarded, as they had been in Thirst Edition, maybe it is a South Warwickshire thing. But who cares, not me after six pints with Paul G. acting as BRAPA lord protector and chief bouncer. Just as well, when we ask what that funny contraption is to the right of the bar, we're told in rather menacing tones which I probably imagined that is a knife sharpener. The beer I drank was almost certainly called Prescott Hill Climb and almost certainly really well kept, but at this late stage nothing can be certain apart from the fact I wished this pub was walkable from mine in York. Year long exchange programme swap with Trafalgar Bay? (it's currently shut, shhh, don't tell them).
Join me Wednesday for the top five, including the worst story I've overheard in a pub all year. All our top Glos towns minus Cheltenham, plus one of the easiest reachable pubs in the Cotswolds, will feature.
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