The Orange Tree, Chelmsford

Another of Chelmsford’s excellent back street boozers, this one has a nice two bar set up with each room having a very different feel to it. The left hand side of the pub is the public bar – a bare boarded room with a fairly standard bar counter in the rear right corner. The room has been filled with standard furniture – simple tables and chairs opposite the bar and decent banquettes in the open space to the left supplemented with a few upturned barrels for vertical drinkers to rest their pint on. There is a small fireplace on one wall, hidden behind a blackboard that has been propped up on the hearth, and the walls are decorated with lot of rugby themed photos and posters for rugby themed beers. I spotted a dartboard to the rear left next to some eye-catching Charington and Belhaven mirrors and there was a TV screen on showing live cricket. A corridor lined with framed rugby shirts and other such memorabilia runs behind the bar, past the toilets, to the right hand room – a smart lounge bar with plush red carpet, a nice plaster fireplace and lots more standard seating which looked ideal for anyone wanting to eat. There was also a TV screen in this room, but it remained turned off. The locals were very welcoming and I was quickly wrapped up in conversation about the cricket and the evening’s big McGregor vs Mayweather fight. The landlord apparently used to run the nearby Queens Head before defecting here and it seems that a passion for well kept real ale has followed him over. On handpull we had Dark Star Hophead, Plain Sheep Dip and IPA, St Peter’s Old Style Porter, Oakham Bishop’s Farewell and Mighty Oak Oscar Wilde Mild. I’ve always been a big fan of Plain Ales beers, so I opted for the Sheep Dip, served up by a friendly barmaid and in outstanding condition. I found this an incredibly friendly and welcoming pub with comfortable surrounds and some really excellent beer. I thought this was the sort of pub I could easily imagine losing a great many hours in and was sorely tempted to stay on and try out a few more beers, but the call of the crawl dragged me away. A great little pub and a good place to centre a crawl of the local backstreet pubs around.

This was the third of 6 2011 Good Beer Guide pubs we visited on 23.12.10. Went into the bar area which was full of folk having their pre xmas drinks and there was a noisy atmosphere. Selected Sharps Abbey Christmas and Mighty Oak Captain Bob, and went round the bak of the bar and found the quieter lounge area. They sometimes have live entertainment.