The County Hotel (JD Wetherspoon), Ashford

My Kent beer guide from over 20 years ago revrals that this place sold Courage Best and Harvey's Best so one must assume this was a Courage pub. If other original pubs JDW have taken over are anything to go by one it would have had a chequered past. Essentially this one is a large split level room but the front part is divided up into smaller areas. The bar is towards the rear on the right and straddles both levels. There is a patio at the back. Overall the place seemed to be running OK on my early Friday afternoon visit. The lower section of the bar has six hand pumps then there are two rows of four in the upper part. Despite all of these the choice was not that great with the JDW Trio Of Doom plus one of their International beers doubled up and four Available Soon. This left just the local G2 Crux & Otava IPA. I tried both of these (£2.80) and they were in good condition. This place is expensive for a JDW with a standard guest ale price of £2.65. I could live with that if it wasn't for all the Available Soon options. This could be a very good Spoons but with the poor beer choice it's slightly above average.

The County Hotel is a huge Wetherspoons that was busy with a young party crowd on Friday night last week. There is a large front seating area and then steps up to the bar where standard draught and a mix of guests and usual JDW ales are available. Beyond the bar is more seating and a patio area that was mobbed with young’uns is found out the back. Cheap beer and cheap food served all day.