The Five Bells, Leighton Buzzard

Fuller's pub sat within its own grounds in the village of Stanbridge. From the outside, there appeared to be 3 entrances into the pub, suggesting it was divided into more rooms at one time. Only one of these can be opened these days and you enter into a bare boarded bar area with low beams. There is a snug off to the right-hand side with the dining room off to the left. The beams were decorated with the flags of the competing nations for the Euro 2024 tournament. Whilst we couldn't spot any obvious TV, they must have been showing the football. Adverts on tables were promoting Shakespeare performances in the garden for July. They are presumably hoping that summer will have arrived by then! The real ale range was restricted to Pride & Seafarers, with handpulls clipped multiple times by the same beer. Somehow that has justified its inclusion in the 2024 Good Beer Guide.

An attractive village pub which is almost hidden from the main road by the lawns and large trees in front of it, only the pub sign gives a clue to it’s presence. Driving down the drive to the car park, a sign warns you to take care of any chickens that may be wandering around, although I didn’t spot any! It’s a good sized pub, with a large and attractive garden at the rear and divided in to eating and drinking areas. The main bar area has some partitioning to break up the space a little, but essentially it’s all one open room. It’s a cosy space with a low beamed ceiling, wood strip floor and a few old black and white photographs on the wall as well as five bells mounted on a board. A small fireplace was off to one side with a couple of seats either side of it, and at the opposite end was a snug with dark wood panelling on the wall. The dining area was also a large room stretching along the rear of the pub and this had slate tiles leading out to the garden, with parquet wood flooring in the remainder. Food wise the menu was a step or two up from your normal “pub grub”, and although it included options such as a burger or fish & chips, the majority of the dishes were slightly more adventurous and priced accordingly, with most of the mains being around the £12 - £15 mark, or even up to £20 if you went for the steak. On top of this you need to budget an extra £3 for any extras such as potatoes, chips or a fennel slaw. My herb crusted salmon fillet with a Sinatra basil salad, gran padino and fresh anchovies was a decent enough dish and quite tasty, but was it worth £14? Probably not. Beers on tap were Seafarer’s Ale and London Pride, although there were another two pumps that were unused so there may on occasions be others. Ciders were Stowford Press and Aspall’s Suffolk which makes a pleasant change from the usual dross you get around these parts.