Old Lodge Inn, Stroud

Located in a somewhat isolated spot on Minchinhampton Common with little else in the immediate vicinity, I can imagine it could be quite desolate in the depths of winter, but equally a very pleasant place to sit in the beer garden in the summer. The building appears to be quite old, but has clearly had something of a makeover internally with quite a bit of money spent on it, and now has something of a contemporary appearance, despite retaining much exposed stonework. Unfortunately it was difficult to get much of a feel for it on our visit, as both of the two public bars had been reserved for a wedding function. Quite why it was necessary for the wedding party to have exclusive use of both bars when they had their own function room I’m not sure, and what made it all the more annoying was that they weren’t even using the rear one, leaving it completely empty. As a consequence, we were squashed in to a corner of the dining room, and with large tables eating all around wasn’t a particularly relaxing experience. The room itself was quite attractive, with exposed stone walling all around, polished wooden boards on the floor and a large stone fireplace at one end. From what I could see of the other two bars, these were broadly similar in terms of décor, although the front bar also had some pale green plasterwork in places, and further fireplaces stacked up with piles of logs. Beers on tap were St Austell Cornish Best, Bath Ales Gem, Otter Ale and Doom Bar. Ciders meanwhile were Stowford Press and Rekorderlig Strawberry and Lime. Overall I was quite disappointed with this, but then that’s mainly because of where we forced to sit. I can imagine if I’d visited at another time, I might have quite liked it.