The Swan, Lechlade

Facebook page of The Swan - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of The Swan - www.facebook.com

First time to visit this brew pub, and although the Old Forge Microbrewery has long since moved out to the Radnor Arms in Coleshill, it is still well worth a visit as it takes its beers from this and other small microbreweries in Oxfordshire. For our visit the Old Forge Hammer and Tongs was on alongside Fools Gold and Blond ‘n’ Bitter from the Headington based Masons Arms Old Bog Brewery. We tried all three and they were well kept. Clearly an old coaching inn of some history which apparently dates back to 1508 and an impressive stone building from the outside, The Swan Inn has recently been given a makeover and been stripped back to its original features and refurbished to regain a traditional English pub feel. And in this respect they have certainly succeeded. It is now a two room pub with a multi sectioned bar area to the right hand side as you enter, with a massive open fireplace and comfy seating in the first section, the bar area in the second section and then a final third section with seating, but more noticeable for its collection of old petrol pumps and motor bike paraphernalia which is presumably an homage to when this section functioned as an antique shop. And then the very modern feel left hand section more functions as a restaurant but also has a very large open fireplace with leather settees arranged around. The wife liked the modern style of the restaurant section and I very much liked the traditional bar area to the right and with micro brewery beers available the Swan was a winner all round.

The Swan is a decent looking stone built pub,there was one room inside and this was quite a nice room to have a drink in. There were two real ales on the bar i had a drink of Wadworth 6X and this was quite a nice drink the other beer was Flowers Original. Pub visited 8/7/2006