The Rising Sun, Wimborne

This is a large town centre pub with a reasonably pleasant location next to the River Allen. We visited late on a Friday night, when all the other pubs were kicking out, and were rather stunned to find what is normally quite a quiet, traditional pub had turned into a loud disco, packed to the rafters. This made exploring the pub, which I haven't visited for the best part of ten years, extremely difficult. The pub has a two bar layout, with the lounge area to the front offering some decent, comfy seating options in smart, traditional surrounds. To the left is the main bar area with the servery along the left hand wall and decent bench seating around the perimeter with ample standing room in between, broken up only by a few small support pillars. Moving further back down this left hand side, you reach a large open plan area which I seem to recall is usually home to a pool table, but there was no obvious sign of this, with the space instead cleared to form a dancefloor area. Decor is a mix of traditional pictures which fit in well with the dark wood floor and beams, and a few bits of contemporary art. To the right of the pub is a fairly large garden area which looks out over the river. My main memories from this pub in the past are of drinking in the marquee which is put up in the garden during the annual Wimborne Folk Festival, often accompanied by some live music. The pub is tied to Hall and Woodhouse, so there were no surprises on handpull, with just Badger First Call and Tanglefoot available. The bar staff were doing a pretty good job blitzing the long queues at the bar and I managed to enjoy a decent enough pint of the First Call before we decided we probably weren't seeing the pub in its best light and called it a night. This place always struck me as one of Wimborne's better pubs, but I think it's fair to say that the town's pub scene has moved on a lot in recent years, resulting in this place falling some way down the pecking order. If you can time your visit better than we did, you should be able to enjoy a decent pint in nice traditional surrounds, but for me it's only worth a look as part of a crawl and I can't imagine settling here for a longer session.

A traditional town pub with a long history, currently owned by Hall and Woodhouse. It oozes oak beams, wooden floors and county charm. The brick hearth houses a Victorian range which has been kitted out with electric lighting to make it look alight. The beams and exposed brickwork retain the charm. There is an unused dartboard, a pool table and a mixture of seating. Various bars ramble around the building. Open mic nights are advertised, and complimentary newspapers are available. Four handpumps on the bar, but only two ales on. I had Tanglefoot which was in good condition. A great friendly town pub, devoid of pretence, which I would happily frequent.