The Bell Inn, Reading

A wonderful old country pub well out in the sticks and not so easy to find , Its exactly as Quinno describes below, I did unwittingly break the mobile phone rule, only seeing the not so prominent notice high on the wall above my head, I got away with it though. It's very much a locals pub and they all seemed a friendly lot as was who I took to be the landlord serving through the hatch in the bar. Beers were West Berks Old Tyler and Maggs Magnificent Mild, Loose Cannon Some Like It Hop, Arkles BBB and Kingsdown Ale, The Loose Cannon beer was good and the mild was magnificent as it name suggests. A must visit pub in my book.

A bit of a hike away from our Goring starting point, but once I read in GPG that it was 14c, run by same family for 200yrs, and served NO draught lager it just had to be done. Original & authentic, displays an award for ‘most unchanged pub'. Bar is a servery with one window to a narrow L-shaped room the long side of which was filled with drinkers seated in recesses which looked rather like fireplaces, the other ‘hatch' is to a corridor across which is a slightly larger room with seating, a dartboard, & displaying old pumpclips, many from West Berkshire brewery whose beer featured at the bar on Sat. Leaping Lord & Maggs Mild, Arkells BBB, plus another whose name I forget but which was delicious. Outside gents, large beer garden and fields beyond, one of which will be the cricket pitch when mown in summer. Well worth the detour, and thanks to Murdocks taxi for the timely service from Goring & back.