The Mitre, Buckingham

his was a very busy pub with a good range of ales on, and we enjoyed an 8% Oakham Bona Nox beer and Lancaster Red. There were a few different TV's round the pub, showing different sporting events.

This is reputedly the oldest pub in Buckingham, and I have no reason to believe that this is not the case. It’s an attractive stone built building with a traditional interior and also has a “secret” garden at the rear and a lean-to smoking shed. Inside it’s essentially all one open plan room, although with some partitioning to break it up slightly. The flooring was a rather nondescript screed, but other than that it featured all the usual old pub features such as a beamed ceiling and a large brick fire-place with a log fire blazing away. Paintwork was a mixture of orange and green which might sound a bit much but they were both fairly muted shades and worked quite well and there was dark wood panelling on the lower part of the walls. A pool table was up a couple of steps and through an archway at one end and there was also a darts board. A board next to the fire listed various up-coming events such as poll/quiz/darts nights as well as a curry night although unfortunately they were not doing any food on the Tuesday evening that I visited. There were some friendly locals sat at the bar who suggested a couple of other places where I could get some food. A piano was in one corner and also a community notice board. There were a couple of plasmas on the wall and a board listed various upcoming sports fixtures, although fortunately these were not in use when I visited. Seating was a mixture of small round tables and chairs along with some wooden benches around the perimeter. Good choice of beers on tap with their own Mitre Ale from Silverstone, Whittlebury Golden Vale, Patriot American Pale Ale and Oakham’s Inferno and Perun. Ciders were Strongbow and a very pleasant Cotswold Cider.

Known to be the oldest pub in Buckingham this is a village stile pub with a nice beer garden at the rear, very in tune with its clientèle. 3 Real ale pumps, 2 were the usual standard beers, 1 was a rotating pump with a history of interesting beers, although most of the beer we saw was pretty flat and ours was not in good condition.