Jumping On The Bass BandWaggon (And Horses) In Ibstock

The Slough tourist board have been in touch with me and asked me not to print this blog but, as David Brent would argue, there is not a lot to shout about in Slough.

However, before I go off at a tangent I must lavish a lot of praise on Pete, a reader of this blog, who sent me a comment three months ago waxing lyrical about the 304 – Waggon & Horses LE67 6LA.

In particular, he mentioned that the Bass was fantastic and as the town of Ibstock is on my LE67 patch (still the best postcode in Britain for earthy boozers) then I could resist no more.

Martin, Mudgie, Ian and the ‘other’ Martin are fellow aficionados and I am sure they would join me in raising a glass to Pete for revealing this absolute gem of a boozer.

Hopefully the glass will contain lacings like this to confirm a pint of Bass at this boozer in Ibstock is absolute nectar.

However, I don’t think I’m the first punter to find this place appealing as it is listed in CAMRA’s National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors and is around 300 years old.

Mind you, I think the Stamford and Warrington is also listed so it doesn’t necessary mean palatial!

It’s a three-roomed proper local boozer and when I popped in at round 5.30 on a Tuesday there was a good crew of five or six in the bar. It’s the sort of place I could imagine Mark  playing an old-fashioned pub game an no one batting an eyelid.

(Rivalling The Waterfall for “most letters missing on pub frontage CAMRA award 2018”)

Noticeably, a couple of punters were on Bass (always a good sign) and the rest were necking Carling but the conversation was absolutely brutal.

The gaffer/barman served me and was mid conversation with some of the boys which ended with “to be honest, if it was me, I would have twatted him.”

This brought a fair bit of laughter form the boys who told the gaffer that I’d just popped in for a Bass but the welcome was warm.  There were two other smaller rooms and one with a pool table was apparently used as a doctor’s surgery back in the day!  It is bench seating galore and, in a postcode full of proper boozers, this is up there with the best.

Eight people in a room this size constitutes an atmosphere and a couple of lads who’d been working in Slough were holding court.  Apparently Slough is an absolute S*** hole and they stopped in a Premier Inn but were told that loads of vans had been broken into so they parked somewhere else!

As well as visiting Windsor they were regaling all with  a story of Brummies’ who had moved to Slough, made a packet and were having their house renovated.

Basically, these two rough and ready builders were told that nowhere was safe to drink in Slough!  After confirming they won’t be going back they moved on to property prices ( a 150 grand pad in Ibstock is worth 600k in Windsor) and about just how boring Brexit is.

I know half a million people marched in London but that means roughly 67 million people just want to get on with it and this normal, run of the mill bloke, who likes a drink in a pub was one of them!

(Mod toilets)

He said “We could have stopped in a boozer but the people were just banging on about Brexit and its f****** boring.  I want to go out, have six pints, a decent bit of steak and have a laugh and go to bed.”

Take note Brexit (of both persuasions) bores – man in the pub doesn’t care.  They were great value and really involved me in their conversation and it was a shame I only had one pint of nectar before leaving.

However, I can’t recommend this place enough for four reasons. (1) It’s better than any pub in Slough (2) The Bass is fantastic (3) The banter and warmth from the locals is terrific and (4) it looks like a proper pub and even has letters missing on the front of the boozer!

Oh yes…and beermats…

November means my pictures will gradually decrease in quality until about March unless I can sneak off on an afternoon.

Nonetheless, this is up there with the great estate style boozers and well worth a visit.