The Great Western, Bewdley

Railway theme pub with appropriate GWR chocolate and cream colours, excellent attention to detail. Odd layout with a bar up a step, high ceiling and a mezzanine, so some serious money must have been spent recently as it all felt quite new, although open-air the layout did sap the atmosphere a little I thought. Ale-wise, 2 x Bewdley 2x Wye Valley. My Bewdley 2857 wasn’t a great brew but was in super shape (NBSS 4.5). Cobs, IIRC. This one is a no-brainer for a crawl and combines superbly with the Waggon a few minutes up the road. As a bonus, if you get the right seat, you can see the steam train chuffing over the way.

I do like this irregular shaped railway themed pub, in which I once partook after driving a loco on the SVR as a birthday treat! It has a beer garden. Set on a couple of floors, there was plenty of railwayana to feast on for the likes of me. There was no music or TV. Decor was was GWR colours with a wood floor. Service was good and the clientele mixed. Six real ales with a very good Hop Shed Pheonix. A must do.

An unprepossessing building, though smart enough in a recent paint job, but the interior is gorgeous. Given the pub's name and its association with the Severn Valley Railway, it's not surprising to find plenty of railway themed stuff, but an April 1910 Bradshaws railway guide was not something I had anticipated seeing in a pub; almost as good were the displays of tiles (see photos). The bar had seven hand pumps, with two ciders and five real ales. The beer I went for was Bewdley Jubilee 4.3%, but it was a blend of the 3.6% Worcestershire Way and 5% "2857" (named after the steam locomotive with that number), and poured as such by the young lass behind the bar. This is a super pub, clearly frequented by beer tourists like myself but also locals coming in for some excellent real ales, and just a quiet sit down after work or a chat with friends and neighbours (there's some background music but at an ignorable volume while I was here on a midweek afternoon). Date of visit: 4th May 2022