The White Hart, Belper

I included this pub on a pub crawl of the area, having been recommended to do so by the landlord of the Black Bulls Head a mile along the road. It's quite a pleasant walk from the Dead Poets Inn and we had started at the Holly Bush at Makeney, so this one had a bit of a challenge on its hands against three top pubs. The woman who was running the pub when we turned up shortly after 4pm opening was pleasant and welcoming, and the beers were good without being brilliant. I went for Brains Reverend James and Whim Hartington IPA. We were the only customers for the hour we were in the pub. Two weeks later I did the same crawl with another group, but this time the pub was closed because of a problem with the cellar, and in fact I was told elsewhere that they do not have an underground beer store, so they struggled to keep the beers during the heatwave in mid-July. Perhaps we should come back again in the autumn.

Official site of The White Hart - seanrb.wixsite.com

Official site of The White Hart - seanrb.wixsite.com

Facebook page of The White Hart - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of The White Hart - www.facebook.com

The White Hart is a good bus journey uphill out of Belper and is situated in the village of Bargate. Just when I thought I'd probably done all of the decent pubs Belper has to offer, I was proved wrong again. This pub certainly has more of a typical village pub feel than the town centre pubs of Belper. It also has an excellent range of ales and cider. Beers on our visit were the regulars - Oakham Citra & Timothy Taylor Boltmaker, along with 4 guests - Aurora Amarillo, Shiny Disco Balls, Abbeydale Salvation - Sea Salt & Caramel Stout & Black Sheep Special Ale. Ciders were Weston's Old Rosie, Sandford Orchards Devon Scrumpy & Fanny's Bramble, Lilley's Bee Sting Perry, Mango Cider & Pineapple Cider, Thistly Cross Whisky Cask & Snail's Bank Fruit Bat. Craft beers were Shiny Fallout & Dolphin Flip, Ridgeside Make It Good & Abbeydale Heathen. Gents toilets are not exactly obvious to locate. Although we'd had a few by now and I ended up in the cellar, much to the amusement of the locals who thought I was an inspector! Another excellent pub in the Belper area.

A well run locals pub, where we met an enthusiastic young manager. This is a two roomed pub, with the larger lounge side on the left and side. The pub has flagstone floors throughout and exposed pine ceiling beams and pine backed bench seating. Another interesting feature was the collection of framed album sleeves throughout the pub, a lot of which are very iconic. The back of the pub also had a raised patio area, with a skittle alley. Six ales and two ciders on our visit, so I went for the Horbury JFB Citra, which was outstanding and in excellent condition. We also relished their local pork pies.