This blog was stimulated on reading the Winter 2022 issue of the CAMRA magazine BEER, which includes an article about statutory protection of pubs in England; the article mentions 2 pubs that I have visited regularly in the past, one of which is The Bridge Inn, Bridge Hill, Topsham EX3 0QQ. My first trip to The Bridge Inn was in 1985, when I visited in the old days of different opening hours in the countryside, with similar hours to Exeter (I was working for Exeter Health Authority), in the summer (Summer Opening), but closing earlier at night from the end of the summer holidays. Anyway, fewer evening hours when I went with my girlfriend of the time, and future ex-wife Julie, presumably she knew about the pub and encouraged me to go.
Anyway, a bit of a first when I visited, something I'd never seen before, mostly because my earlier drinking had not been in free houses, a BEER MENU. How excited I was, written up on a board, I can't remember how many ales they sold, but somewhere between 8 and 10! Now it appears, from their facebook page, that they have 7 ales; recently including mild and dark ales from West Country brewers Teignworthy (website) and Pitchfork (website), plus more paler ales, eg from Powderkeg (website). The other lovely thing was, they go to the cellar to pour the ales straight from the cask into the glass and bring them back to the customer, and I've always been dead impressed with ales delivered by gravity ever since, cheers!
This 16th century pub has been in the ownership of the same family since 1897, and what a great job they've done to keep it such a homely place to visit. My first visit was in midweek, in the early Autumn, and it was very quiet, with only us 2 and a couple of farmers in the room. I seem to remember a roaring fire, although they appear to have a stove (above, photo from their facebook page, cheers!). Although we weren't listening to the other 2 customers in the room (we were in the 'getting to know' you phase of our relationship), we couldn't understand much of what they were saying, they were speaking that fast and with heavy Devonian country accents; I'd only been living in Devon for a couple of months, but now I'd really arrived... 😉
As you can see from the top photograph (many thanks to Building Design), the pub isn't that small, although it is very homely. When I was living in Exeter, they used to open up a much larger bar/room in the summer/when more customers were there, and they served ales from handpumps in that bar. My brother, Dan, came down and stayed with us once (more than once actually) when he was attending a friend's wedding in Topsham. We drove him to The Bridge Inn to meet up with other friends of his who were also attending the wedding, and he was dead impressed with the pub too. However, what I'm getting at is that it is a wonderful old pub selling excellent ales from West Country brewers, and I do need to make a return very soon!
Not so great news though, as the Cumbrian brewer Jennings (website, and cheers for image above), which was bought out by Marston's in 2005, has stopped brewing, despite their history going back to 1828, and from 1874 at the current site, just 2 miles away from their origin. Another larger brewery switching the brewing of its subsidiary's beers to another of its sites sadly (News & Star), presumably another accountant's decision. 😞
Cheers for now folks!
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