ReviewJust over the causeway from Wareham, this is a good roadside pub which started life as a butchers, as evidenced by some old hooks still hanging from the thatched canopy. There has been a pub on this site for around 400 years, thanks to its location on the main route onto the Isle of Purbeck (or at least until the Wareham bypass was built) and it is renowned locally for putting up Cromwell’s troops back in 1642. The pub today is, to paraphrase an old football cliché, really a pub of two halves. The right hand side is the pleasant, old thatched part of the building and it houses the hop-lined servery on the back wall, opposite the main front entrance. There is some decent standard seating dotted around this area, running down to the far right end which looks out directly onto the road outside. Meanwhile, the left hand side is a more modern extension which acts as a dining area with a selection of tables of various sizes and lots of very comfortable seating. This side has much bigger windows, making it a bright space that is very appealing in the summer months in particular. The walls have been decorated with some excellent enlarged photographs of the local area, which look great. We came here for a Sunday lunch and found the food to be excellent, with mains around the £11 mark, and well worth it. Several benches are available outside the front of the pub, giving you the chance to appreciate the charming thatched building, weather permitting.
Five hand pumps were in operation, dispensing Sunny Republic Dolphin Amber, Flack Manor Double Drop, Purbeck Best Bitter, Ringwood Best and Plain Ales In The Sun, with a sixth pump sporting a turned clip. Unfortunately, my pint of Dolphin Amber had all sorts of sediment floating in it, presumably because the line hadn’t been pulled through, so the barmaid replaced it with an excellent pint of the In The Sun.
I think the strength of this pub is its food, but the beer range has certainly improved since I last visited this place several years ago and I would suggest that it is now worth making the short walk across the causeway for.
