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The White Horse, Slough
Hedgerley
Postal town: Slough
SL2 3UY
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 8½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Moby Duck left this review about The White Horse
This was a long overdue first visit here. A classic traditional country pub whose reputation went before it, rustic and two roomed, a small public bar and slightly larger lounge, where I ended up.The floor is carpeted , some black beams and posts, exposed brick walls and white plaster ceiling. The beer menu is displayed on a blackboard, 7 real ales, 2 craft keg and a couple of real Ciders. I had a couple of pints, Two by Two New England Simco and First And Last Equinox combined with a very tasty Spicy Sausage casserole.
A really good pub.
On 25th October 2020
- rating: 9
[User has posted 1875 recommendations about 1848 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Blue Scrumpy left this review about The White Horse
As a fairly regular visitor to the White Horse, I rate this village pub very highly. It is one of very few pubs I would award a 10/10 for across the UK, having been to almost 7,000 to date.
The approach from the motorway is along a narrow lane. As previous reviewers have said, the exterior of the pub is a picture postcard image of an English country pub, with hanging baskets and the like.
Inside, there is a small bar and a slightly larger lounge, where food is served only at lunchtimes.
At the rear, there is a reasonably large garden and an undercover tented area with patio heaters. Service is from either bar, or from a hatch in the tented area. A further marquee is generally added for the 3 annual beer festivals.
On my last visit, there were 8 real ales. Rebellion IPA is a regular. Guests were Mighty Oak Maldon Gold, Green Duck Blonde, Three Sods Boho Bitter, Treen's Smolder, Bond Brews Kaptain Chaos, Rudgate Dragon's Gold & Cold Black Label Pirate Bay. All real ales are served directly from the cask. In addition, there are generally 2 craft beers. Last Wednesday, these were Northern Monk Don't Mess With Yorkshire & Big Smoke Electric Eye.
The pub is also good for cider. The range has recently been reduced from 3 to 2. Hayward Farm Medium & Nightingale Kentish Perry on my last visit.
During the pandemic, the pub was open for take-outs served from the cold store in the garden. I was probably visiting more regularly then, as few other pubs were open.
A great pub that most will enjoy if you don't mind ales served direct from the cask.
On 4th August 2020
- rating: 10
[User has posted 2493 recommendations about 2492 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about The White Horse
Having walked across the fields from Gerrards Cross on a scorching hot summer's day, the sight of this pub, with its colourful floral displays on the front, was a most welcome sight. This is a marvellous old rural pub with bags of character in a Grade II listed building. You enter into a passageway of sorts with a small snug-like room to the left offering a few nice seating options around a fine fireplace on the end wall. There is a small section of servery to the rear and a dartboard as well, although I can't imagine it can be used once a few customers have settled down in here. Carrying on, you emerge into the main bar, with just a small hatch on the back wall acting as a servery. A board next to the hatch lists all of the ale options and opposite, under the front windows, there is a very appealing deli-counter with an amazing array of cheeses, pies and other such delights. The room is carpeted and surprisingly dark on a bright sunny day. Tables of various sizes fill the room supported by numerous benches and chairs. The place has a nice rustic feel thanks to the dark ceiling beams that cross the room, adorned with a wagon wheel, various pump clips, pans, tankards, horse brasses, lamps and a small collection of ceramic chickens among other things. The walls are partly bare brick and covered with paintings, old documents, hunting horns, photos and CAMRA certificates. Most of the tables were laid for lunch on our Sunday afternoon visit, so we headed out to the very well tended beer garden which has a covered area near to the rear door and a smart patio and lawn area beyond.
The pub seems to be a CAMRA favourite and there was certainly a wide selection of cask ale available, all served straight from the barrel. Options on this occasion were Oakham Scarlet Macaw, Neepsend Helios, Wadworth Filthy Clucker, Blue Square Moonlight Blonde, Black Hill Towneley, Dancing Duck Back Sack and Quack(!) and Rebellion IPA, plus three real ciders. I tried the Scarlet Macaw, which was in great condition and passing back through the village later in the day, we stopped off again and I enjoyed and equally good pint of the Moonlight Blonde. We also had some lunch here and I plumped for the homemade chicken pie which was fantastic and very good value too.
I thought this was a wonderful pub that was fully deserving of the various accolades it's received over the years. There is a suggestion that I may have got lucky with the quality of my pint, but they seemed to be coping well in the kind of hot weather that would flummox many a pub and my two pints were outstanding. This was an idyllic spot for a day of summer drinking and felt very much like a destination pub to me.
On 20th July 2017
- rating: 9
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Ian Mapp left this review about The White Horse
Hard for me to rate this. The pub is superb - old school, 8 real ales on, full of charming locals with a real buzz.
However, my Little London Pryde was ghastly, in look (flat), taste (vinegar) and price £3.85. Dont like gravity fed beer direct from the barrel. Its needs to be hand pulled to get some life into it.
Maybe it was a bad pint or an ill choice, but it left a real bad taste in my mouth.
A Shame.
Photos and story at my walking blog - http://bit.ly/1YyYaor
On 19th June 2016
- rating: 4
[User has posted 277 recommendations about 276 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about White Horse
This is a classic country pub with added bonus of being a real ale and cider house. Situated just inside Buckinghamshire, 10 mins off the M40, the pub is located in the pretty village of Hedgerley. The exterior has a classic postcard look to it, with hanging baskets and the like. Up to eight real ales (with a large dollop of unheard-of microbreweries) are on sale and three real ciders are available, all served straight from the cask via a small serving hatch in pint pots. A Belgian draught beer is also often on sale too. Prices are, I suppose, slightly on the higher side but you are getting a selection of drinks almost unique to the area. Beer quality is, however, decidedly patchy as there can sometimes be a tendency for some of the beers to have hung around overly long and can taste a bit tired/tart. The interior is divided into two rooms; to the left, a small public bar with flagstone floor, furnished with wooden inglenook seating and tables, with a dart board hanging from the wall. The lounge to the right is a cosier affair, carpeted and genteel. In this bar there is the only real sign of modernity, a large deli fridge which the pub uses to sell a simple selection of cheese and meat. In the summer the large well-tended garden is a wonderful place to sit with your beer/cider – although sitting out the front is almost as good! In the winter, real fires are roaring inside. This is a pub undisturbed by modern distractions – no piped music, TV or fruit machines.
Whilst this is certainly a must-visit pub I can’t award top marks due the inconsistent beer quality I keep encountering.
On 28th July 2012
- rating: 7
[User has posted 5107 recommendations about 5090 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve of N21 left this review about White Horse
Not much I can add to the excellent description of the White Horse by John below, except to say that the numerous CAMRA awards displayed above the serving counter have now been joined by one for Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead CAMRA pub of the year for 2011 and it apparently polled over a 3rd of the votes cast.
As John mentions, as well as the permanent Rebellion IPA, there are up to 7 other ales available from the cask as well as real ciders and a draft Belgium beer. And the Ale choice is usually well balanced, with a choice of Mild’s, seasonal ales and strong ales usually available.
For example last Thursday evening the range available was
The Verulam Brewery Dark Mild,
Allgates Sybilla, a Czech style Pale Ale.
Milltown Sludders Gold (brand new Huddersfield Brewery opened in July 11)
Hadrian and Border Brewery Farne Islands Bitter
Wincle Waller, a Pale ale from the Wincle Beer Company
Klein Kolsh, a Belguim style beer from the TigerTops Brewery in Wakefield
And a Binghams brew from the Twyford Micro brewery.
To confirm, a Grade II listed country pub, brimming with character and an extensive range of frequently changing ales. Pub’s don’t get much better than this.
On 30th August 2011
- rating: 10
[User has posted 2122 recommendations about 2001 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
John Bonser left this review about White Horse
Every now and then, I make a specific trip to visit a pub that has appeared on my radar. Sometimes one returns disappointed, thinking “Why the heck did I bother ?”. My visit to The White Horse in Hedgerley last Sunday certainly did not fall into that category.
It’s a remote Grade 2 listed 15th century village pub with a fine setting in the Buckinghamshire countryside a few miles outside Gerrards Cross. A picture postcard cottage style whitewashed exterior features attractive flower boxes and an old style central entrance under a V shaped porch. Several old wooden plaques high up on the wall tell us that the pub won the First Prize in the Wethered Flower Competition in 1984 and 1988. The pub is next door to the village church and there’s decent walks in the area.
On the left as you go in is the small characterful public bar. This features a flagstoned floor, wooden bench seats and an inglenook in which there are several padded seats ( mind your head !). A low ceiling with blackened beams complete the traditional feel. Walls are decorated with local pictures and maps and include a photo of a South Bucks Home Guard Platoon in 1944. Despite not being a big room, space is found for a dartboard. Board games and dominoes are also available.
The lounge bar is larger, carpeted and retains a cosy comfortable and traditional unspoilt feel. Jugs and pots hang down from the dark beams. Horse brasses, timber frames and exposed brickwork also feature. A collection of pump clips and various framed CAMRA award certificates bear testimony to the extensive range of real ales that have been served here over the years. Of specific interest is a framed deed of sale document dating back to 1814 recording the transfer of the property from private ownership to Thos Wethered and Sons Brewery. Opposite the small bar counter is a small deli-style food counter where a variety of cheeses, meats, salads etc are sold. Home cooked hot food is also available at lunchtime, but, pleasingly, it’s most definitely first and foremost a drinkers pub. Needless to say, there’s no TV’s, music or fruit machines.
From this bar, a door leads out to an outside covered patio area and an attractive sloping landscaped garden. This really is a proper working garden and features potting sheds and plant beds. Pathways lead off in a seemingly random fashion to a number of different seating areas with park style seats and benches. There’s also a few seats outside at the front of the pub. A BBQ was due to start at 4 pm on the afternoon of my visit.
On the real ale front, beer is served to both bars from the cask from a room behind the small hatched bar counter. Rebellion IPA appears to be the one regular beer. A further 7 or 8 micro brewery beers from around the country are also on the go at any one time.
My visit last Sunday lunchtime happened to coincide with the pub’s “19th Nervous Breakdown Annual Beer Festival” held over the Whitsun Bank Holiday in a beer tent at the top of the garden in which over 120 beers in total, largely from micros, appeared over the 4 days. There were a few names that I had heard of and encountered previously ( eg – Allgates, Blindmans, Church End, Ossett ), but a good number that I hadn’t ( Devilfish, Junction, Loch Leven, Raw, Stray Dog and Wood Farm to name but a few ) and it is pretty clear that the Gill Halfpints of this world would have had a field day. The beer list ( a copy of which could be obtained on receipt of a token donation to the chosen charity – Help for Heroes -) even had a box where you could record your tick. Of particular note was Beowulf’s Walsall Gold, a beer ( not sampled ) with an advertised ABV of 9.5% at a price of £ 4.00p per pint. Other beers of more modest gravities tended to range from £ 3.00p to £ 3.45p.
The pub has been a CAMRA Good Beer Guide regular over the years where the narrative descriptions have included such phrases as “the word gem undersells this rural real ale drinkers paradise” and “pubs do not get much better than this”, sentiments with which it is difficult to disagree.
It cost me £ 12 day return on the train ( Marylebone – Gerrards Cross ) followed by a 3 mile walk down country lanes to get there and I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.
This really is one of the best pubs that you are ever likely to visit and, irrespective of the beer festival, I have no hesitation in scoring it the full 10 out of 10. You really should make the effort to do this one.
On 1st June 2011
- rating: 10
[User has posted 560 recommendations about 560 pubs]