The Wyndham Arms, Salisbury

Official site of The Wyndham Arms - www.hopback.co.uk

Official site of The Wyndham Arms - www.hopback.co.uk

This pub is out on the fringes of the city centre, but still easily reached within 10 - 15 minutes. It’s a classic local’s boozer, now run by the Hop Back Brewery, with an unfortunate location alongside the busy A36. Entering from the main road, you find yourself in a compact front seating area with some basic banquette and chair arrangements around the four walls, a few arty prints on display and a fireplace to the rear, with a little cut-away next to it, allowing you to see through to the bar. Passing through a doorway to the rear right, you enter the long, narrow main bar area - a carpeted space with low tongue and groove wall panels and another small fireplace to the front, with an unlit stove inside. A small seating space to the front left has a single table served by a banquette and a few low stools and the walls here are covered in lots of Hop Back breweriana and an amazing collection of paintings of the pub, plus one particularly impressive needlework rendering of the building. The bar runs down the left-hand wall and has a simple brick counter front and a basic shelving unit bar back. To the rear, the room opens out slightly into a lounge area, with padded banquettes around three sides, an unused TV screen to the rear and a dartboard over to the right. There also appeared to be a side room, or maybe just an exit to a garden, over to the right, opposite the bar, but I failed to explore this properly. A good range of Hop Back beers were available on cask, with options comprising Summer Lightning, Citra, Crop Circle, GFB and Entire Stout. I gave the Citra a try and thought it was a decent enough beer, if perhaps not the best this brewery has to offer. I had arrived shortly after opening, but there were already a fair few customers in attendance and it was notable that everyone was drinking cask. This is a nice little boozer, well enough away from the tourists in the city centre, and with a nice little buzz about it. The interior is a little basic and maybe not as homely as you’d hope - a feature with other Hop Back pubs I’ve visited, but regardless of this, I still would’ve been happy to stay here for a session and especially enjoyed looking through all those great pub portraits. Definitely worth the short walk from town to check this place out.

This pub is said to be where Hop Back brewery started, and we found there was a full range of their beers available, Crop Circle .. GHB .. Citra .. Summer Lightning and Taiphoon. We chose and enjoyed the Taiphoon.

This pub is pristine and well worth a visit. The pub consists of two entrances, a corner entrance with a timber carved Hopback emblem over the doorway, this leads into a small corner room which has two large arched shaped sash windows and bench seating. There is also a side door entrance which leads you along a short lobby into the main bar. The main bar area consists of a rectangle shaped room with the bar along the side wall and a small snug opposite. The bar had an exposed brick frontage and oak counter. Six Hopback beers on handpump, so we went for the Summer Lightning and Hopback Citra, both were in superb condition.

Hop Back owned pub offering 5 on Sat, Summer Lightning, GFB, Crop Circle, Spring Zing, and Downton Forest King. Small front room beyond which is a narrow area with bar on left opening back out to seating area at far end with tv, prepping up for the afternoon rugby, below which is sited the somewhat inaccessible dartboard, my scribblings say there was another room to the right opposite the bar. Friendly enough welcome, the locals here were clustered at the bar itself and, with that choice, why not? Not a hugely characterful building, but good beer & folk.