Horse & Jockey, Ross-On-Wye

The Horse & Jockey is a traditional looking pub situated in a side street just away from the town centre. It appears to have originally been a pair of knocked through town houses, the divide being more evident inside. The long and narrow main bar is ahead as you walk in and a separate room at the front is off to the right. The initial impression is of a place that is a bit disjointed with furnishings that don’t really fit in with the general ambience of the pub. The sofas at the front of the main bar seem particularly out of place. At the rear is a pool table and dart board and beyond is a beer garden that I didn’t get a chance to have a peek at. The right hand front section has more sofas and a couple of dining tables. The walls were quite bare aside from a few horse racing themed pictures in keeping with the pub name. There are a couple of TVs and a juke box but neither could lift the place above the atmosphere of a morgue, we being the only customers on a Bank Holiday Friday evening. The landlord (presumably) was welcoming enough and my pint of Bass (the only ale) was fine but you do wonder how places like this survive given that the better pubs of Ross are on the whole not much above average and it shouldn’t be too difficult to compete with most if them.