The village of Aldermaston is a few miles away from Reading in Berkshire on the A4 coaching road towards Bath. It has a medieval church and some beautiful old brick buildings, some of them with tall Tudor-style chimneys. One Saturday we decided to go for a drive and we popped into Aldermaston's oldest pub, The Hind's Head.
The pub is said to date from the 1600s, and like many older establishments it looks fairly small from the outside but once you enter there's loads of room. There are lots of little nooks and areas you can sit, and on the walls there's memorabilia from Aldermaston's history. There are photographs, cricket collectibles and some drawings from the 1700s and 1800s showing different aspects of the life of a coaching village. It even received a mention in a book from 2002 named Strangest Pubs in Britain, although I think that was more to do with the unusual addition in the garden, which I'll come on to later.
One really interesting part of the pub is called The Vault, a small closed-off area a bit like a tiny cellar, which dates to around 1645. It's used for larger dining groups of between 6-8 and you can book it specially. Outside near the garden is a small cell (probably why it ended up in the 'Strangest' book) which was used in the nineteenth century for someone who was drunk and disorderly but is now out of use. The current owner told us that a man in the mid-1800s who was placed in there one night, began a fire to keep himself warm and unfortunately accidentally set fire to himself along with the jail. That's a sad story so I'll move on to the lunch...
We sat down and ordered our lunch - I had the fish and chips and my husband had the chicken supreme. Both meals were really lovely, the service was great and the staff were amazing. The menu has a lot of 'British classic' type dishes including steaks, a burger and some starters. My husband also had a pudding and ordered the chocolate brownie and ice cream which was one of the best brownies we'd had, a secret recipe created by the pub's owners.
I've read some reviews online, but honestly I found the meal reasonably priced in consideration of the beautiful historic atmosphere and the quality of the food served. They also have rooms that you can stay in, and the table next to us had a dog who slept under the table while the family ate. The Hind's Head is really a quirky and interesting pub that just seems really well-run and put together, perfect for us history fans. They do a good roast Sunday lunch too, so I've been told.
After lunch we decided to take a look at the local medieval church of St Mary's just outside the village (historic lunch and a church, what a day, right), but when I tried to open the door I found it locked. It was a nice stroll around the churchyard though, and I found an old eighteenth-century gravestone and some Norman carvings. Oh, and a giant gnarly yew tree which I reckon is probably as old as the church itself.
 |
0 Comments