Torrington Arms, Torrington

An attractive looking pub a few minutes walk from the centre of the village, it’s a whitewashed stone building with plenty of hanging baskets to brighten it up. On the inside though, it doesn’t quite have the cosy and quaint charm that you may be expecting, and instead feels somewhat dated and basic. It’s essentially all one open plan room, with the larger area to the left holding a pool table and a large plasma, although this was not in use. To the right is a smaller area with a dart board, trophy shelf and a good selection of pictures on the walls – some quite contemporary artwork of colourful ships as well as photo’s of the pub sports teams and old ones of the village. Various net lights were hung from the ceiling and an unusual clock featured numbered, miniature snooker balls representing each digit. There was also a small, black fire-place. Seating was traditional red velvet chairs and stools, and the bar counter appeared to be covered in some sort of fake wood such as Formica. The landlady was friendly enough and struck up a conversation, but with only three of four other punters in on a Saturday evening, one cannot help but be concerned for it’s future. Unusually, food is only offered on Monday – Wednesday evenings. The solitary real ale on tap was St. Austell’s Dartmoor Best, although there was another pump that was not in use. There were a number of keg beers available however, some of which I didn’t even realise were still made – John Smith’s Extra Smooth, Tetley Smooth Flow and Double Diamond! (or was that a lager? Before my time really). The solitary cider was Thatcher’s Gold.