The Oakhill Inn, Radstock

As described by Blackthorn, below, this great village pub has much more to offer than you’d think from a casual drive-by. There was a genuinely warm welcome from the staff, and the locals were friendly too. The ambiance was convivial, and it was a comfortable place to spend an evening. Food was mainly standard pub grub, though a bit on the expensive side, plus freshly cooked pizzas which were better VFM. Ales on were Worley’s Red Hen, Plain Ales’s Innspiration and the house ale, Oakhill Bitter, which is actually brewed by Stonehenge Brewery. Also on draught was Mallet’s cider. An understated gem which is worth a revisit.

Village pub on a road junction, with a car park unusually a little further up the road. As you enter, there is a room to the left with access to the bar, a small area with sofas to the right with another space also with access to the bar directly in front of you. Beyond that is a nice secluded outdoor patio, where most customers were taking advantage of the afternoon sun on our visit. Staff were friendly. The house beer is Oakhill Bitter (Stonehenge Eye Opener). A guest beer was Box Steam Tunnel Vision, whilst they also had a bag in the box cider on the bar back. This was the local Worley's Red Hen.

An attractive looking pub in this small village, it looks quite smart and upmarket from the outside and one is perhaps expecting some sort of trendy gastro-pub. Internally though it’s quite traditional, albeit with a slightly unusual ambience – difficult to pin down what exactly, perhaps something like the style of an old country house hotel. The main bar area is to the right and this is an L-shaped room with parquet wood flooring adjacent to the bar counter and a smaller carpeted seating area at the front. This has maroon paintwork on the walls, and a stone fire-place with a wood burning stove off to the right and there was a massive pile of logs stacked up next to this. A shelf to the left housed a number of books, a few board games and a very old radio set. Seating here was a mixture of Chesterfield arm-chairs and some very low old sofas. A smaller snug in the centre of the pub also had a wood burning stove, and this led through in to a room painted in a turquoise hue that was perhaps more geared up for dining. A large selection of old clocks covered the wall at one end and beyond this another leg of the room led to an open kitchen. There was a good choice of beers on tap which on this occasion were Glastonbury Thriller, Blindman’s Superstar, Lyme Regis Cobb and Oakhill along with Beatnik Billy and Red Hen from Worleys. Ciders meanwhile were Thatcher’s Gold and Haze as well as Copse House cider which was a new one on me.