The Wig & Quill, Salisbury

This is a well presented Wadworth pub with a slightly opened out, former multiple room interior, just a short distance from the cathedral. Entering via a basic porch with swing doors that seemed adept at trapping pushchairs, you find yourself in a smart front lounge area that was clearly once a separate room, but has now been opened out to the rear, in order to allow smooth access to the main bar area. The lounge is carpeted and has hard bench seating down the front and right-hand sides, supported by plenty of low stools and a couple of decent armchairs. The walls and ceiling are crossed by plenty of dark wood beams and there’s a very attractive fireplace to the rear, which was thankfully lit on a cold February afternoon. A few interesting photos and arty nature pictures line the walls and the space has a homely feel that the rest of the pub fails to recapture. Moving through to the flagstone floored bar area, the servery runs along the left-hand wall, with a dark wood panelled counter front and matching bar back. A TV screen at the end of the bar was showing a subtitled news channel and there is limited seating opposite, with the space mainly given over to vertical drinkers. A partitioning screen opposite the bar hides a second seating area with lots of comfy chairs around another nice fireplace, in a space with slightly more contemporary decor. Some highly decorative screens to the rear, delineate the border between pub and restaurant areas, with the back of the pub given over to diners in a bright space with a long table through the centre of the room and smaller tables around the perimeter. Patio doors to the rear ensure plenty of light gets in and allow punters to head out to the nice looking patio beer garden. Music played quietly in the background throughout my stay and there was a good mix of customers , including a few well behaved children. There were just two Wadworth beers available on my Monday afternoon visit - 6X and Horizon - with two turned clips suggesting that more ales might’ve been on over the weekend. My half of the Horizon (£2.20) was served to me by a very cheery barman and was in decent enough condition. There are a few nice old pubs in this part of town that are worth the look for their interiors but don’t quite deliver on the beer front and this definitely fits into that category. If you don’t mind a session of Wadworth beers, this would be a nice place to spend a few hours, but for me, a quick half was sufficient enough to get a feel of what the pub has to offer.

Traditional pub dating from the 14th Century. We got a very friendly welcome from the landlady on arrival, who was proud to present five Wadworth ales across some highly polished handpumps. We went for the Wadworth Horizon and took our beers to the pleasant walled patio garden at the rear. I found this pub to be very well kept and the interior quite charming.

Busy and bustling on Saturday night, the bar runs along the side of the main area on entering this area being carpeted, the pub narrows to the rear with a boarded area here and an angular bay window at the end, not investigated beyond in the dark. This area has an old probably authentic beamed ceiling and shelves of books actually worthy of looking at. All kinds of framed pictures on the walls plus some jugs and bottles. A Wadworths house, four of theirs on plus Old Rosie cider, I enjoyed a couple of pints of Swordfish. I liked the pub, another bit of history in this town full of it despite my partner complaining about a smell which passed me by.

A good looking pub on the exterior and doesn't quite live up to the promise once inside, a pint of Wadsworths Henry IPA proved unremarkable.A pub I will probably miss out next time.

Rumour has it that this pub is due to close - possibly temporarily. We paid a visit this week and left before ordering. A young man was trying to work out how to use the till, and the barmaid was taking an age serving a couple. The place was otherwise empty and had a real run-down feel to it. Most unusual for a Wadworth house.