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Detail Pages
The Barley Mow, Littleton, Shepperton
Shepperton
TW17 0EE
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 8 of 10) see review guidelines
Quinno _ left this review about The Barley Mow
17 years since my last visit and as I’d heard that John the landlord was still in situ I thought I’d pop back given I was (sort of) on the train line. Not much change inside and it’s as I remember (and as the reviewers below describe), a traditional place with a 70’s feel and proud to be British/English. Cask offering remains strong through sadly the quality wasn’t really up to snuff, with neither my Tring Sunshine (NBSS 2) or Hop Back Summer Lightning (2.5) really justifying the perennial GBG slot. That said, it’s a nice friendly backstreet local that would tick most people’s boxes and was busy on my Saturday afternoon visit. 7.5
January 2007
Hidden away in a residential area, 15 minutes walk from the station over the motorway, this is a fantastic community pub for any discerning drinker. Five handpulls (Sharp's IPA, Hepworths Old Ale (superb), Hop Back Entire Stout, Hogsback TEA and Summer Lightning on the go last night...I think!!) and great to see a couple of dark beers on the go for the colder months. Mr Whitehead's ciders in the cellar as well for the apple grapplers. The rambling interior is adorned with various nik-naks and also boasts a fully-operational bar billiards table. Unobtrusive piped music usually consists of languid blues and jazz. Talking of music, there’s live jazz on Wednesday nights. Interesting food is available (I hear it’s pretty good). Landlord John is a classic friendly eccentric and adds a lot of character to the place. Brilliant, an absolute must-visit. Rated 9
On 24th April 2024
- rating: 7
[User has posted 5099 recommendations about 5082 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Malden man left this review about Barley Mow
This is an excellent local pub, situated away from Shepperton centre down a side street of houses. The exterior is attractively symmetrical with a pair of bay windows and two sheaves of wheat at first floor level. There is an add-on single storey portion to one side. Inside there is one medium sized boarded room with carpeted areas with the bar off centre directly opposite the entrance. Beer mats cover the walls, beams and bar gantry but there is plenty more of interest to catch the eye, framed cigarette cards, old painted wooden advertisements, jugs and bottles, a case of vintage smoking paraphernalia, a selection of bus tickets, framed Twickenham rugby tickets, a rugby shirt and a whole load more. There is a music corner with an upright piano, guitars and drums mounted on the wall as well as a small statuette of James Brown. Live music is a regular Friday and Saturday evening event and the gigs are listed on a chalkboard. Live Jazz also on Wednesdays.
There is also a bar billiards table tucked in a corner, the pub runs a cricket team, there is an information board and details on how to join; seating is mostly regular tables, bar stools plus a few barrel tables also with stools.
The bar gantry is laden with stacks of beer bottles but the real stars are on the pumps, four handpumps were dispensing Hop Back Summer Lightning, Ascot Ales Alley Cat, Hog's Back T.E.A , Windsor & Eton Seattle Porter plus there were two ciders from Weston's, Old Rosie and Rosie's Pig. The pub is a current GBG entry and rightly so. I liked the place straightaway on entering, it was a murky and damp early evening but inside was warm, cheerful and welcoming with a good atmosphere generated by a good few drinkers around the bar.
I did a short circular route from the station via The Bell, Harrow and here, you could include The Bull but I ran out of time. Worth noting, if you do approach from The Harrow along the main road there is a footpath after a single house which takes you across a bridge over the River Ash and onto Watersplash Rd. Not shown on the map but you can pick it on the satellite image.
On 21st November 2014
- rating: 8
[User has posted 1708 recommendations about 1681 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about Barley Mow
This pub had on Summer Lightning, Ascot Single Hop, Cottage Brewing Sticky Wicket, and Vale Brewing Co Grumpling Ale (£3.60 a pint). At some point during my visit the Grumpling Ale apparently went off, to be replaced by Portobello Summer Blonde. I didn’t see any sign of food or menus when I was in on Wednesday afternoon.
This is a top notch pub. The signs are there as you approach – the CAMRA Locale poster, plus umpteen GBG entry posters on display in the windows. Inside, one of the beams also has on display many framed CAMRA Pub of the Year awards. This pub was clearly at one time quite small, in the way of backstreet pubs, but at some point has been extended into a cottage on the right. It’s nicely carpeted giving it a homely feel, and is furnished with an eclectic mix of settles and normal tables and chairs, and with no tall tables/tall stools or sofas in sight. The walls are covered with all manner of prints and photographs; the bar gantry has a display of unusual bottled beers; and shelves at the top of the walls bore various pottery, bottles, jugs, and other stuff like that. Another shelf at the end of the bar counter had a mini library of books, as well as several magazines – including “What’s Brewing”, although that latest London Drinker wasn’t there, possibly because I had strayed too far from the centre of London. There was no music playing, and nor was there a TV on. There might have been a TV lurking somewhere at the back, but I couldn’t see one from where I was sitting. There was a bit of nationalism on display, with Union Flags all over place, possibly related to some sporting event.
I would be very happy to visit this pub again, but it has to be said that it’s a bit out of the way for those of us who tend to concentrate on London pubs, being past the boundary of fare Zone 6. But it’s certainly worth the walk from Shepperton Station if you happen to be there for any reason.
On 7th August 2014
- rating: 8
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Moby Duck left this review about Barley Mow
Called in for a brief visit on a friday lunchtime,The Barley Mow is very much a traditional backstreet local's pub,five handpumps serving the likes of Hopback summer lightening, Hog's Back TEA, and an IPA from Silverton Brewery amongst others, I tried a pint of Windsor and Eton Boatman which was fine apart from being ice cold, refreshing on a warm and sticky day but does impair the flavour somewhat,I have been finding this a recurring theme lately.Quiet when we got there at about 12.45 but within half an hour started filling up with local workmen.A very pleasant drinkers pub,one I would'nt mind a return visit to.
On 1st September 2012
- rating: 7
[User has posted 1875 recommendations about 1848 pubs]
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John Bonser left this review about Barley Mow
In a quiet residential side street in Shepperton Green ( across the other side of the M3 from Shepperton itself ) , is The Barley Mow, a fine traditional community local.
It’s a comfortably furnished, carpeted pub well decorated with framed cigarette cards, an old typewriter, old prints and ornaments etc. The traditional curved wooden bar, facing us as we enter, is adorned with pump clips and the gantry shelf houses an impressive collection of bottled beers.
It’s clearly a community focused pub as a number of photographs of the pub’s river raft team competing on the River Thames during the annual village fete testify. It’s also got its own golf society – The Barmy Mow.
A small alcove contains a number of old photographs showing the pub in days long gone when it was either a Manns or a Watneys house. Externally, the pub looks very much unchanged from those days, with a central door either side of a set of bay windows and two decorative wheatsheafs high up on the wall above the entrance. The pub dates back to 1906.
On the right of the bar is a dedicated music area with a decorative wall mural covering one wall. Here there’s also a piano. Wednesday evening is jazz night and there’s also music on Saturday evening and Sunday lunchtime.
In the lobby leading out to the car park and smoking area at the back are a collection of framed rugby shirts, but this is certainly not a sports orientated pub with, pleasingly, on my Sunday afternoon visit, the pub remaining a sports free zone, despite the fact that several important Premiership football fixtures were on.
Also pleasingly, and increasingly unusual for Surrey, it’s very much a drinkers pub with no food to distract us from the serious business of supping and conversing with our fellow human beings, although small bowls of free crisps on the tables are a nice touch. The peace and quiet was later interrupted when the Sunday afternoon music started, which rather dominated proceedings in a smallish pub like this.
The landlord is evidently a real ale enthusiast with 5 pumps which were serving an enterprising and interesting range of LocAle beers – Hogs Back TEA, Hop Back Summer Lightning, Hammerpot Woodcote Ale, Bingham Doodle Stout and Windsor and Eton Conqueror Black IPA ( the latter sounding a bit of a contradiction to me ). Notably, and I didn’t pick up on it at the time, 3 of these 5 beers have an ABV of at least 5 % and even the weakest beer – Hogs Back TEA – has an ABV of 4.2%. It seems churlish to be critical, but one wonders if one or more session beers would be an attractive and desirable alternative to one of the stronger brews. The pub has been a CAMRA Good Beer Guide regular for many years now and is the local North Surrey CAMRA Branch Pub of the Year for 2011.
This is one of those pubs that you immediately take to and, whilst I’m not sure that I’d put it in the “absolute must-visit” category, it’s not that far short and it’s definitely down for a revisit.
On 25th November 2011
- rating: 8
[User has posted 560 recommendations about 560 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Graham Coombs left this review about Barley Mow Shepperton
Hadn't been here for years and very pleasantly surprised. Excellent serious drinkers pub, with pleasant layout and furnishings, plus excellent range of beers including examples from local breweries. Live music on Weds and Sats, darts, bar billiards, even a piano in the bar! I'll be back!
On 17th October 2010
- rating: 9
[User has posted 3351 recommendations about 3288 pubs]
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Roger Button left this review about Barley Mow Shepperton
A wonderful local’s pub is situated in a relatively quiet residential area on the road to nowhere but is well worth seeking out if you are likely to find yourself in the area. 5 Ales, usually local (they are part of the LocAle scheme), with Summer Lightning and T.E.A. being the regulars supplemented by 3 guests (a Triple FFF brace of Moondance and Comfortably Numb as well as Hepworth Old Ale being the recent choices for my visit). The landlord always gives me the impression he really cares for his beers and I have always found the quality to be excellent. The pub is usually busy even when you don’t expect it which is always a good sign although one end of the pub is set out for diners during the day and makes it tricky to bag a table if not eating. There are plenty of displays, antiques, portraits, old style telephones, typewriters and collections of cigarette cards, bottles and pump clips. A small basic TV suggests that live Sport and the X Factor are not big priorities on the entertainment front however there is a bar billiards table that comes as a surprise. Music plays a big part of the ambience with a large music themed mural set across a couple of walls and a diet of piped 60’s soul, blues and jazz that feels just right with the relaxed ambience during the day although there is a programme of live music ranging from jazz evenings to rock covers bands which may be a bit intrusive if you aren’t expecting it. The pub is very dog friendly with many slouched pooches evident every time I call in (my brother lives just down the road). I certainly wouldn’t complain if it was my local.
On 6th January 2010
- rating: 8
[User has posted 1239 recommendations about 1233 pubs]
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train man left this review about Barley Mow
Good beer selection, 4/5 pumps incl Summer Lightning and Hogsback TEA when I visited at lunch but, whilst the latter was not quite rejectable it certainly was not in peak condition. They were serving plenty of it but others, incl someone I presumed to be the guv, seemed happy with it. The place was quite busy around 13:00 and noticeably a locals place, I liked the bouyant atmosphere and maybe I was unlucky with the beer but that doesn't mean I wasn't disappointed, especially in light of glowing comments attached.
On 7th June 2007
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 412 recommendations about 411 pubs]
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David Lunn left this review about Barley Mow Shepperton
A friendly local pub with a relaxed atmosphere. Live Jazz every Wednesday and a quiz every Thursday with a good turnout for both. Live bands some Saturdays featuring mainly local bands, also very well supported. Beer festivals held several times a
On 12th January 2005
- rating: 10
[User has posted 1 recommendations about 1 pubs]