Ramblings: Ludlow

Something a bit different; a birthday trip to Ludlow with my Dad and my sister to their annual medieval fair.

The drive westward seemed to take us to places that existed soley to keep GPS manufacturers in fat profit. Having finally made it into Shropshire, then Herefordshire, then Shropshire again, we saw many signs for Ludlow. All of which pointed perpendicular to those for the fair's park and ride sight. That was over on the racecourse - literally over the circuit (twice) and several fairways (what a great place to put a golf course).

The really rural minibus, which had a wonderful pigshit-and-mud motif, deposited us outside a pub (yay!) The Feathers is a splendidly overfussy building and would have made a good first beer of the day if it wasn't for the fact that it didn't open for another hour.














Into the fair itself - and what a spectacular setting Ludlow Castle is.


I'm now kicking myself for not taking many photos but I was rather busy eating (smoked pumpkin seeds, fat juicy olives, venison burgers) and shopping (pottery dragons, pewter christmas tree decorations and this rather nifty leather mug)


And drinking, of course. So let's concentrate on that. First up was a warming cup of punch (still really fresh and fruity). Then on to the real deal, starting with Gwatkin cider and perry. I sampled three bottled ciders and perries, the sparkling perry being particularly good. My mostly-non-alcohol drinking sister was game enough to try the cider but preferred what the stallholder called 'emergency mouthwash', their pure apple juice.

I had to try the draught Farmhouse Perry. This was practically pea-green, thoroughly opaque and ruddy lovely.

The next booze stop that morning was the Ludlow Brewery bar, set up in the basement of a ruined tower. Straw on the floor, barrels set on a trestle table, sausage smoke wafting over from the next stall.... wonderful stuff. As was the beer; I sampled The Boiling Well which was a solid, dry bitter.

By lunchtime, we're all beginning to run out of cash so we headed back into town to find a hole in the wall. And, as this meant passing by a decent looking pub, I couldn't resist dragging the folks in.

The Church Inn was a bustling, welcoming place with a great mix of the traditional (roaring open fire, wooden settles), the local (sausages from different town butchers) and the modern (an eclectic music selection driven by an ipod). Just enough time here for my first handpulled Hobson's Mild (lovely, understated stuff) since it won CAMRA Champion Beer of Britian and a glass of Weetwood Eastgate Ale (solid beer from a brewery I don't get to try too often).

For the record; the RS percentage was a healthy and tempting 50%.

Back into the fair and the last beer of the day from the Ale Tent run by Woods. Plenty of hey-nonny-nonnering going on here but that didn't distract from a good half of Old Fireside.

An excellent day out here, the fair was well planned out, solid underfoot, good range of stalls and quality food & drink.

On the way back to the bus, an unexpected bonus, A sign pointed the way to Marches Little Beer Shop - a treasure trove of stuff including their own beers. A large bottle of Brook Farm dry cider, some Teme Valley T'Other and Marches Winterfest were eagerly snapped up.

Back to the bus and the racecourse eventually; homeward bound via a 'short cut' over Clee Hill which made us want to go back there one day in the sunny summer. There followed a quick nap, waking up just in time to stop us driving to Wolverhampton.

Great day with good drinks, super shopping and a fun time with my family. Can't wait to do it all again in 2008!