The Bath Arms (JD Wetherspoon), Warminster

A former coaching inn dating from the 18th Century, this fine building was renovated about 3 years ago by JDW and is still an hotel. The ground floor is open plan, has the original tiled floor and is more atmospheric than most Spoons, though the usual mute gaming machines remain irritating, more so here as they are out of place. The bar counter feels crowded, especially as one of the banks of handpumps is at one end and not easily reachable when the pub is busy. Ales on were Ruddles, Doombar and Abbott, plus a guest line-up of Hobgoblin IPA, Banks's New England Old World IPA (badged Σογο by JDW), Blindman's Icarus and Milk Street's Milk Stout, while Punk IPA was on keg. All a bit too heavy for a session, I thought, and a lighter session beer among the guests would have improved things. The staff were a bit wet, and many of the locals, while friendly, were a bit of a shower. There was a single boxed cider, Old Rosie. Definitely worth including in a town crawl, it has more of a local feel than most JDWs.

The Bath Arms is an original old hotel that has only been open as a Spoons since 2014 and is a listed building. As with other of their old hotels the pub itself is a rambling affair within a largely open plan ground floor. Being a newer Spoons the fixtures and fittings are better than average and the toilets are downstairs rather than taking space away from the hotel rooms. Although the bar has two sets of six hand pumps the beer choice wasn't that great with two unused, the JDW Trio Of Doom doubled, Twisted Conscript & Rebel, RCH Goldbine and a cider. It transpired that the Conscript wasn't on and the cider was from a box in the fridge so there were actually four unused leaving only two viable ale options. Happily the Goldbine was on offer at £1.39 and it was fine. After that I tried the Devil's Leaf Cider (£2.95) one brewed with nettles. I thought this was a pleasant enough Spoons but the beer choce was hopeless.

Official site of The Bath Arms (JD Wetherspoon) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

Official site of The Bath Arms (JD Wetherspoon) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

Wetherspoon's hotel and pub in an old building but with surprisingly modern furniture and light decor that actually works quite well. Fully staffed too, which was just as well on a busy Saturday morning. Only about half of the 12 handpumps were on, and mostly dull stuff such as Ruddles, Doom Bar and Abbot, but the local Milk Street Same Again (£2.20) was in good form. Old Rosie cider noted too.

Large and historic-looking building in town centre which belies the fairly modern interior. Not unpleasant but lacking in much character. Seemed to be a reasonably-run sort of 'Spoons and the sampled beers were in good condition.