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The Bell Inn, Reading

Pub added by elizabeth mcgraw
Bell Lane
Aldworth
Postal town: Reading
RG8 9SE
Phone: 01635578272

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Reviews (Current Rating Average: of 10) Add Review see review guidelines


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Blackthorn _ left this review about The Bell Inn

A well regarded pub in an attractive village, this isn’t somewhere you’re likely to stumble across by accident, but is certainly worth making an effort to get to, and for a somewhat out of the way pub, we were pleasantly surprised to find several other punters in there on our Thursday afternoon visit. A sign directed you to “parking in the field” which is up a slope behind the pub, and the adjacent field had a number of chicken’s running around and an old abandoned car that was presumably their roost.

The front door leads you in to an entrance hallway with rooms off to either side. The bar counter, if it can be called that, is inset in to the right hand room and also adjoins the hallway. It’s certainly not a bar counter in the conventional sense though, more of a small bar room with glazed windows and hatches through which to serve you. It reminded me more of an old station ticket office rather than your normal pub. The room to the left had old beams on the ceiling, dark wood panelling on the lower part of the walls, and rough, mustard colour plasterwork above. A large fireplace was a prominent feature on one wall with an unusual deep maroon paint job on the bricks at the back. Despite a couple of logs in the fireplace, it was disappointing that the wood burning stove was just an electric imitation rather than the real thing. All sorts of beer accolades were on the walls as well as a large collection of Good Beer Guide books. The room to the right was perhaps a little more atmospheric, although broadly similar in terms of décor with another attractive brick fireplace and plenty more pictures on the wall.

Beers on tap were Rebellion Roasted Nuts, Baldrick Mild, Amwell Spring’s Chairman Dave and Arkell’s BBB. The cider choice was extensive and on this occasion consisted of Lilley’s Rhubarb and Apple & Pear, BumbleBee Craft cider and a trio from the local Tutts Clump – Ridgeway, Berkshire Diamond and Traditional Farmhouse. All in all, a lovely old pub and well worth taking the effort to track down.

On 10th June 2022 - rating: 9
[User has posted 1937 recommendations about 1850 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Quinno _ left this review about The Bell Inn

Visited on a weekday lunchtime to celebrate re-opening. Inevitably it's garden seating only (uncovered bar table umbrellas) but the beer and service were as impeccable as every, NBSS 3.5-4.5 all round.

April 2017, and before
A real gem, which ticks lots of boxes:

-the unspoilt multi-roomed interior (it's a CAMRA heritage pub) where the beer is dispensed from a central booth with sliding windows, a real open fire and the tables which are inside the old bread ovens built into the wall.

-the ale range. Five local beers from West Berkshire and Arkells (always offering a mild) which are served in pint pots as standard. Real cider is available from Uptons and there’s no draught lager.

-the simple food selection which is basic but tasty, with posh hot rolls (duck and orange pate/Ox tongue, anyone?) and some other larger dishes.

-the service. The Bell has been overseen by generations of the same family for the past 200-odd years. Service is always friendly, even when busy.

-the atmosphere. No mobile phones. No music. No electronics. No pool table. Just chat (and darts when not too packed).

-the great outdoors. A nice garden and an outside gents pissoir with almost no roof, nicknamed the Planetarium.

There aren’t many ‘visit before you die’ pubs but this is most certainly one. Close to perfect and delivers every time.

On 26th June 2021 - rating: 10
[User has posted 5050 recommendations about 5033 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Will Larter left this review about The Bell Inn

My final pub on my cycle (and train) tour of the south east, visiting pubs that had been recommended by members of this site, plus a clutch of micropubs on the north Kent coast and whatever I came upon in the course of my travels. This is one of two to achieve a normally rare but in both instances well deserved 10. (The other was the Half Way House near Tonbridge.) I was staying at the hostel in Streatley, and my departure from there to arrive here at opening time coincided with a heavy shower that turned parts of Streatly Hill into a torrent and me into a rather wet and bedraggled cyclist. At opening time a steady stream of regulars found their way here - most of them arriving by car, it seems. The atmosphere was convivial and welcoming, and the choice of beers enticing. So much so that I had three halves rather than the two I had promised myself while waiting for the door to open: West Berkshire Old Tyler (which is Good Old Boy re-badged and with extra hops), Indigenous Baldrick Mild and Rebellion Roasted Nuts, also a mild. All were interesting and flavoursome, though advocates for tight sparklers and swan necks would probably say they were flat. I enjoyed all three and the only downside was the realisation of the unlikelihood of finding my way back here in the near future.

Date of visit: 2nd May 2019

On 31st May 2019 - rating: 10
[User has posted 3699 recommendations about 3440 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Moby Duck left this review about The Bell Inn

A wonderful old country pub well out in the sticks and not so easy to find , Its exactly as Quinno describes below, I did unwittingly break the mobile phone rule, only seeing the not so prominent notice high on the wall above my head, I got away with it though. It's very much a locals pub and they all seemed a friendly lot as was who I took to be the landlord serving through the hatch in the bar. Beers were West Berks Old Tyler and Maggs Magnificent Mild, Loose Cannon Some Like It Hop, Arkles BBB and Kingsdown Ale, The Loose Cannon beer was good and the mild was magnificent as it name suggests.
A must visit pub in my book.

On 8th March 2019 - rating: 9
[User has posted 1868 recommendations about 1841 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Peter Jillings left this review about The Bell

A quintessential village pub, can get busy.

On 23rd February 2014 - rating: 10
[User has posted 59 recommendations about 54 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


train man left this review about The Bell Inn

A bit of a hike away from our Goring starting point, but once I read in GPG that it was 14c, run by same family for 200yrs, and served NO draught lager it just had to be done. Original & authentic, displays an award for ‘most unchanged pub'. Bar is a servery with one window to a narrow L-shaped room the long side of which was filled with drinkers seated in recesses which looked rather like fireplaces, the other ‘hatch' is to a corridor across which is a slightly larger room with seating, a dartboard, & displaying old pumpclips, many from West Berkshire brewery whose beer featured at the bar on Sat. Leaping Lord & Maggs Mild, Arkells BBB, plus another whose name I forget but which was delicious. Outside gents, large beer garden and fields beyond, one of which will be the cricket pitch when mown in summer. Well worth the detour, and thanks to Murdocks taxi for the timely service from Goring & back.

On 3rd December 2007 - no rating submitted
[User has posted 412 recommendations about 411 pubs]