The Rose & Portcullis, Glastonbury

Located in the village of Butleigh, this is another decent rural pub, which seems to major on food. The large car park was certainly busy on my arrival. Many were in the large dining room at the rear. At the front of a pub is a much smaller bar area. Towards 2pm, the pub appeared to be getting ready to close for a few hours, with diners filtering out. Although, some locals were discussing the Six Nations rugby with the landlord, who may well have been staying open for people to watch it on TV, with the kitchen closed. But I didn't stay long enough to find out. Ales on were Bristol Beer Factory Notorious & Fine Tuned Langport Bitter & Sunshine Reggae. Ciders were listed on a board. I opted for the Heck's Medium Cider, which was listed as 5%. Although, I believe it is much stronger than that. A Katy cider from Heck's was also listed. But this may well have been in bottles.

The interior is well described below, while outside there is a large car park, a good sized garden with plenty of tables and benches for al fresco dining, and there is a separate function room which may have been a skittle alley. There are many rugby memorabilia dotted around the walls, the pub being the spiritual home of the Butleigh Rugby Club. As well as a few ciders there were 4 ales on: Otter Amber and Bitter, Glastobury Spring Loaded and, continuing with the rugby theme, Haka. The beer was in first-class condition, the staff were very welcoming even though they were extremely busy, and the other customers were friendly. A thoroughly enjoyable visit and one which I shall repeat.It's on the 2018 Somerset Ale Trail.

Official site of The Rose and Portcullis - rose-and-portcullis.co.uk

Official site of The Rose and Portcullis - rose-and-portcullis.co.uk

A traditional, stone-built country pub, this appears to have been extended and modernised in recent years and may perhaps have lost some of it’s character, but it is nonetheless still a very pleasant pub and still retains plenty of traditional features. It consists of a number of rooms which were probably entirely separate at one time but it has now been opened up so that one flows in to the other. There are large flagstones on the floor throughout whilst the walls are a mixture of exposed stone work and plaster. In the large room at the front these have been painted in contrasting shades of maroon and cream. A number of old local photographs were on the wall and there was also a piano and an old stone fire-place. One of the ceiling beams had a carved rose on it in a nod to the pub’s name. A smaller room behind this had a trophy cabinet, a few logs smouldering away in the fire-place and the two old sofas in front of it were a popular spot. A smaller room off to one side housed a darts board, yet another fire-place with a wood burning stove and a very large beer barrel, perhaps offering somewhere to rest your pint. Hops were strung around the bar counter and at the rear was a more modern extension that was perhaps more geared up for dining. We didn’t investigate this, but from a quick glance it looked to be slightly more contemporary with large glass doors at the back and a laminate wood floor. Beers on tap were Bays Topsail from Torbay, Timothy Taylor Landlord, Otter Ale and Sharp’s Own which makes a change from the omnipresent Doom Bar. Ciders were also well represented with Ashton Press, Reveller and Maverick from Orchard Pig and something that the board up above the bar described as “Farmhouse Cider (strength varies)” !

This is a good quality rural somerset pub, revived by the new owners of the past 2 years or so. Entering from he large car park the bar with up to 5 real ales is on your left. Straight ahead is a small seating area with an open fire and a selection of newspapers to read with a pint. Larger dining areas are off to the left and right, with another bar snug tucked away. Floor around the bar area is stone flagstones. Beers on were Otter, Doom Bar, Ledbury Gold, Teignworthy Harvey's Ale and Butcombe Rare Breed. Food looks to be good quality. the pub is certainly popular with a good mix of locals drinking and diners eating.