The Horse & Jockey, Montgomery

Will Larter left this review about The Horse & Jockey

I wish I could echo the previous reviewer's enthusiasm for this pub, but I found it almost empty and entirely unwelcoming. This is a roadside pub on the north end of Ystog (Church Stoke), and has a caravan site behind it. I don't know if the people staying on the site frequent the pub, but when I was there (5:30pm on a Wednesday last autumn) I was the only person there bar one customer who was walking out just as I arrived, the landlady, and a little later her husband too. There's a sort of sports bar (with pool, darts, juke box and TV), a lounge (low sofas and a solid fuel burner) and a dining room - all completely empty. (Maybe they were all up at the Miners in Priest Weston, which was full to bursting). There were two hand pumps but only one beer on, Malvern Bitter, which was initially tolerable but soon showed itself to be pretty poor (NBSS 1.5) but not worth quibbling about as there was no other real ale available. Hundreds of old pump clips adorn the ceiling testifying to this pub's former glory days.

I noted that food was available Sundays or "on request", a strange arrangement. I wonder if the pub's deterioration is as a result of poor beer and reluctant food offering, or if those have declined as the pub became quieter. And does the slightly querulous tone of the conversation I couldn't help hearing between the two people running the place result from or contribute to the lack of custom. Maybe it's better at other times.

Date of visit: 21st September 2022

On 22^nd May 2023 - rating: 4
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