The Queens Arms (JD Wetherspoon), Winsford

Quite a dismal place, Winsford. As represented by its pub scene. Yeovil is the only place that comes to mine with less options. The town centre, and this pub, is miles from the train station. A walk through terraced housing, along a dual carriageway and then through a town park led to the grim shopping centre, which this pub sits opposite. If you can find your way through. A traditional pub converted by spoons - everything you would expect - £1.89 for some very interesting beers - Adnams Old Ale and a rather nice Black Jack Porter all for £1.89 cheered me up no end. Two comfy seats in the whole of the downstairs. There may have been more upstairs. Busy on a Monday afternoon with friendly service.

Visited last Tuesday just after 5pm. Two banks of five hand pulls with all seemingly clipped but with some duplicated. Four guest ales (£2.10 pint / £1.05 half) although one of these was Hobgoblin Gold so was disregarded from the line-up as far as I was concerned! The customer base was a mix of the after work crowd and families out for meals. Not the fanciest of Spoons but by no means the worst. There are a couple of fires - not in use at the time of my visit but presumably do see some action as there were warning signs about hot surfaces, to protect the intellectually challenged from themselves. I may have rated the pub higher if it weren't for the noisy annoying family that plonked themselves down on the table behind me. I was surprised, on leaving, to glance back and discover only two children there making all that noise. I have nothing against families in pubs and of course Spoons is very popular amongst that demographic with their cheap food deals, but this place felt a bit like a day care centre for delinquent urchins. I was contemplating staying for a second drink, but by the time I had listened to the row behind me for a few minutes I was happy to sup up and leave. Toilets are upstairs as usual, there is beer garden to the front, and a large but empty car park - presumably the fact it is pay and display accounted for its emptiness.

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

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

Always a pub, but the original building is not as old as it first appears, and now with a substantial single-storey side extension by Wetherspoon. Partly opened-out inside, but there are enough bits of wall remaining to leave a number of distinct seating / dining areas. Sizeable patio beer garden at the front. Only has five handpumps, but three of these were pulling Coach House beers - Post Horn (£2.10), Dick Turpin and the seasonal Coachman's - in addition to the usual Ruddles and Abbot.

Not too bad a Wethers over the road from some shopping precinct. It looks like its had an extension built onto the side of it. Usual Wethers interior and 10 handpumps on the bar. The large beer garden out front was cluttered with prams on my afternoon visit. The pubs in Winsford seemed to be spread out making a pub crawl a bit of a ramble.

The Queens Arms is an original pub of the same name, albeit a fairly modern one dating from 1958. It's an L shaped room with fairly typical fixtures and fittings. It includes an extensive front garden / patio that actually includes some real grass. On a warm Spring Saturday this was packed leaving plenty of room inside. The bar has ten hand pumps which had one unused, the JDW Trio Of Doom, Thornbridge Peverel, Spitting Feathers Old Wavertonian & Empire IPA, Peerless Red Wheat, Weetwood Oast House and Adnam's Two Brewers Irish Red. I went for the Peerless beer which was in excellent condition. I thought this was a good Spoons. It would have got an 8 with a more interesting building.