The Wye Bridge House (JD Wetherspoon), Buxton

The Wye Bridge House is an staple-shaped Wetherspoons with a central L-shaped serving counter that supports two banks of five hand pumps that were duplicated with the usual three suspects plus Titanic’s Plum Porter and Robinson’s Dizzy Blonde. Not a great selection, but the Porter was spot on and went down a treat, especially at £2.50 a pint. The pub itself is rather forgettable, but on the walk up I did stop to witness a freight train passing across the railway bridge above the pub which was slightly more interesting.

This felt like a strange branch of Wetherspoons, located on a road leading out of town, away from the town centre and accordingly quiet on my mid-week visit. However, the lack of customers may have partly been due to the fact that their kitchen was closed for a refurbishment, so no food was available. You enter via a front patio seating area next to a busy main road, into a carpeted, long room with plain painted walls and some low wood wall panelling, art deco light features and the servery midway down the left-hand side of the room. Tables and chairs fill the front space near the entrance, with lots of high tables and stools opposite the bar, as tends to be the case in most 'Spoons pubs. More seating can be found to the rear, but it was all stacked up and marked as out of bounds due to the aforementioned refurbishment. The bar has a timber fronted counter with a polished stone top and plain bar back, looking like a hundred other 'Spoons serveries you've doubtless seen before. Several slots machines were quite prominently positioned and I noticed a few TV screens, all of which were switched off. There's a display case opposite the entrance with some odd sculpted animals on show and the usual local history boards and black and white photos can be seen around the walls. The pub's limited capacity had a knock on effect at the bar, with the three regular 'Spoons ales supplemented with just two guests, and all of the above were doubled up across two banks of five handpulls. I tried the Magpie Jay IPA, which was in good shape and served to me by a very cheery barmaid, whilst another barmaid was busy on the floor, scrubbing table and chair legs whilst customers moved around her. I think this could be quite a nice 'Spoons experience, but I clearly caught it at a bad time, with much of the pub and its services out of action. The service was good and the garden looked like it would be great in the summer, but there wasn't too much else to shout about on this visit and I preferred the more central pubs than this outlier. Date of visit - 17th January 2024

Extensive Wetherspoons in an old building close to the river Wye, usual sort of multi space ‘spoons rearrangement maybe a bit more haphazard due to respecting the original fabric. Roughly an L shape or perhaps a truncated U it has the standard five plus five pulls topped and tailed by T-bars. Nice decor of the more modern spoons variety. Ordering on the app I was very impressed by the speed of service and even the old plates were shifted in reasonable time, better than some more traditional pubs. All in all a pretty well run spoons, the beer is above average however not much above, but one worth a visit.

Fairly bland Spoons situated a little out of the immediate town centre which has a lovely (if you like trains!) backdrop of the arches taking freight over the way. In a former life this was the Midland Railway Hotel. Just two guest cask, my Titanic Plum Porter was fine (NBSS 3) and no problems with my breakfast. Nice seats at the far end overlooking the bridge and park. Serves its Spoonsy purpose for the town but I didn’t get much out of it otherwise.

Large and impressive Spoons on the edge of town. Plenty outdoor seating. We had a quick lunch here which was fine. I found the service to be nice and friendly and the beer was well kept. Shame I forgot the name of it! Worth a visit.