The Five Bells Inn, Ashford

The Five Bells is quite a remote pub in an area of Kent surrounded by hills. It is part of the Pickled Egg chain and was the second of the chain we visited on this crawl of the county. There were many similarities with the Woolpack at Warehorne that we had visited earlier. It was quiet when we arrived. But most of the lunch crowd had clearly gone home, whilst the dinner crowd were yet to arrive. Staff were busy getting ready for the evening session with a pizza oven in the kitchen up and running and staff fetching in copious amounts of wood for the fires. The interior is cosy and welcoming, with plenty of pillars creating separate dining and drinking areas. Toilets were rather strange, with 4 cubicles in a unisex space and a sink that took several laps to discover how to get any water out! The 3 ales on were Harvey's Sussex Best Bitter, Watsum Fortitude & Old Dairy Red Top. Dudda's Tun Spiced Cider was also on handpull.

Upmarket gastro-pub, away from it all in the shadow of the hills to the north. Very traditional interior with various seating / dining areas around the staple-shaped counter, all sadly out of use for a few more days until the coronavirus restrictions are relaxed. However, the temporary restaurant area under a marquee was doing very good business on a Friday lunchtime, and the newly enhanced rear patio beer garden was starting to fill up too as I stopped for a pint on my walk. I found the 'house' Pale (brewery unknown), Old Dairy's Red Top (£4.20) and Hop Fuzz English bitter on offer from three of the six handpumps.

Official site of The Five Bells Inn - www.fivebellsbrabourne.co.uk

Official site of The Five Bells Inn - www.fivebellsbrabourne.co.uk