Millers Arms, Chepstow

Official site of Millers Arms - millers-arms.com

Official site of Millers Arms - millers-arms.com

Located down a small side road, but only a couple of minutes’ drive from Chepstow and the end of the Severn Bridge, it’s quite a traditional pub with a predominantly local clientele I would have thought, and was largely populated by families dining on our recent Sunday afternoon visit. Internally it’s all one open plan room arranged in an L-shaped configuration. A small area to the left that was at one time clearly a separate snug has at least retained some of the wooden clad walling to separate it off slightly, and this included large areas of stained glass both in the top part of the walls and above what would have been the doorway. I can image that this was a really cosy old room at one time, but has certainly lost some of it’s ambience now, not helped by the large TV screen showing a football match. That said, there was still many traditional touches such as exposed stone walling and a large fireplace to the left with a couple of sets of antlers up above it, as well as a large selection of beer mats affixed to the wall next to the bar counter, and a couple of copper pots and so on up above it. The larger right hand part of the pub had rough wood panelling on much of the walls and a further stone fireplace and a smaller TV, although this was not in use on our visit. At the rear it seemed a lot more contemporary with pale wood strip on the floors, freshly plasterwork and pale green wood panelling on the lower part of the walls. Beers on tap were Gloucester Brewery’s Biddle and Bath Ales Gem, whilst a third pump appeared to have run out. Ciders meanwhile were Thatcher’s Haze and Stowford Press. Overall, whilst there was nothing really wrong with this pub, I didn’t really take to it for some reason, probably not helped by the large number of diners and their offspring, the lack of available seating in the snug and consequently having to perch on to a table that still had the detritus of the previous occupants all over it. Perhaps on another occasion I would have warmed to it rather more.