The Volunteer Inn, Faringdon

Back in town for a couple of early evening pre dinner quick ones before heading to our restaurant booking, the Volunteer was the last of the six pubs that surround the market square in Faringdon we tried. The Volunteer is a good looking white washed pub festooned with hanging baskets from the outside, but inside it’s a small, fairly non descript one-bar town local. Clearly a couple of separate rooms back in the day, it’s now one internal space with a main bar area and then a second area down a step and only some of the original beams remaining between them. Both areas are dominated by fruit machines and large flat screen teles showing the sport. Not that you could hear them over the din of the soundtrack being played on the pub’s music system. Out the back passed the toilets I noticed an outdoor area with tables and anAunt Sally pitch. Even though there were only a few hardy locals in early evening I got the feeling that this was a good community pub where the locals come in later for a spot of vertical drinking and shouting at each other over the noise of the sound system. But with only one real ale available in the shape of a very average Doombar I will definitely be leaving this one to them and it wasn’t too long before we cut our losses and headed up Marlborough Street to make acquaintance again with the far superior Swan.