The Tollemache Inn (JD Wetherspoon), Grantham

An L shaped ‘spoons with a very long, long side to the L. The front is on the long, long, main street of Grantham almost next to the unimpressive town hall. The counter is also L shaped but an equal length in each direction. Three sets of five pulls with the usual keg stuff in between, the dross was at each end with the interesting festival beers on the middle set but overflowing to each end. High seating through the middle of the short side of the L with lower seating to the sides and at the long side of the L. Staff seemed to be on the ball and the beer quality was better than acceptable. Toilets upstairs at the far end of the long side of the L so a real trip to Narnia here.

The Tollemache Inn is an L-shaped Wetherspoons with a central L-shaped serving counter that faces a sea of high tables up the left-hand side of the pub. Some steps towards the rear lead down to an open plan sunken seating area which is where I’d sit if eating. I counted fifteen hand pumps on the counter and noted the presence of the usual three suspects plus Mileston’s Dark Galleon, Acorn Brewery’s Old Moor Porter, Brewster Brewery’s Decadence, 8 Sail Brewery’s King John’s Jewels and Fenman Bitter, Black Hole Brewery’s Cosmic and Magpie Brewery’s Jay IPA. The service was polite and it was the busiest pub I visited on a recent Tuesday crawl of the town.

Seemingly routine 'spoons housed in a fine old building at the south end of the High Street area (with most other pubs located in the older area further north). However, with many places currently doing a limited cask beer selection as they come out of lockdown, this one bucks the trend with at least nine of the handpumps in three banks of five in use. Better still, there was a good selection of non-standard offerings, including three real ales from Milestone (and my pint of the Rich Ruby red ale was excellent value at £2.15) and a pair from Zest.

L shaped Spoons with an old skool brown and mushroom interior, which is perhaps a little smaller than their normal offerings. Apparently one of the first JDW’s to be opened outside of the capital. Named, as amusingly noted below, after Grantham’s second most famous politician. The large arched windows are of interest. Three genuine guest ales on - my Brewsters Porter was decent and Deggy’s was reported good too. Toilets are a long hike, I advise you set-off early before the floodgates are being bulged. Ate breakfast here the following day and it was classic Spoons with plenty of locals putting the world to rights over a few pre-midday beers. I had a soft spot for this one, but maybe that’s more a reflection of the Grantham pub scene than anything else?