The Merryfellow Inn, Charlton Kings

One of the first pubs I ever photographed for a pub website, was The Merryfellow Inn in Charlton Kings Cheltenham back in 2011. Because I live in Gloucestershire, I have been albe to keep a photographic record of the pub for nearly a decade. The Merryfellow has changed hands quite a few times, and has had at least two major refurbishments to the interior of the pub. One thing that has remained the same is that it has always been a friendly pub.

The Merryfellow in 2011

2013

By this point, the pub sign had been replaced. The sign had a dent in it, from being hit by a tall vehicle. The Merryfellow is slightly difficult to photograph because of the narrow roads, and the close proximty to other buildings.

2015

Not too many changes to the exterior of the pub at this point, except the window boxes. In my opinion, this was when The Merryfellow was at it's most attractive.

2016

After several years with the same colour scheme and signage, The Merryfellow had a major refurbishment in 2015. The skittle alley was converted into a restaurant, this slightly reduced the size of the spacious beer garden. The pub sign was never replaced - possibly to avoid being hit by another vehicle!

2019

This is how The Merryfellow looked in 2019 It had another major refurbishment, the exterior colour seems a little harsh to me, but there is a nice touch with the etched windows displaying the name of the pub. The interior decor is modern.

August 11th 2023

The Merryfellow has entered a new chapter of it's existence. It had been closed for quite a few months, but has recently reopened as No.3 at The Merryfellow, a restaurant. The original No.3 was based at Royal Crescent in Cheltenham, but they relocated to The Merryfellow.

Pub signs and brackets

Pub signs are an important part of a pub's identity, they provide an interesting historical record. Wherever possible, I like to photograph signs, one of the reasons for not photographing a sign, are shadows obscuring some of the detail of the sign. I don't tend to photograph signs with a corporate logo, they are mostly characterless and of no interest to me, the exception being Whitbread's West Country Ales logo, it is a design classic.

For a detailed history of West Country Ales plaques visit Gloucestershire Pubs, link provided. 

The Victory, Hereford

This is the first pub sign that I have seen, that is made out of stained glass.

The Cross Keys, Bredons Hardwick Gloucestershire

The Bat & Ball, Churchdown Gloucester 

The Eight Bells, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire

The Gryphon, Bristol

Pub sign brackets

The Cross Keys, Bream Gloucestershire

Brackets with the "Best in the West" insert, are rare. They can be found in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire - amongst other places. The Cross Keys pub closed, and has been converted into private accommodation. Unfortunately the bracket has been removed. 

Lygon Arms, Chipping Campden

Lygon Arms, Broadway

When things don't go according to plan

There are quite a few trials and tribulations, when pub photography is one of your hobbies. I will mention other difficulties and annoyances in future posts, but for now I will concentrate on a coach trip that my partner and I went on last year.

My partner is rather fond of Cornwall, especially Boscastle – he likes the wild, natural beauty. We were delighted when we discovered an excursion to Port Issac and Boscastle, so we booked a couple of seats. Our reason for the trip, was to enjoy the wonderful scenery in Cornwall, finding and photographing pubs was not our top priority. The coach journey began with beautiful blue skies, but as we approached Cornwall it became overcast which was a disappointment. We spent a few hours in Port Issac, and had a couple of drinks at The Golden Lion. which is featured in the series Doc Martin, and is known as The Crab and Lobster in the show. It was quite a reasonable place, but to be honest Port Issac left me a little cold. Perhaps it has become too overrun with fans of Doc Martin!

We then travelled to Boscastle, by this time the clock was ticking and we would not have much time there. My partner had raved about The Cobweb Inn, so I attempted to photograph it. Other tourists and transport made this quite difficult. In the time it took me to photograph the Cobweb, my partner had gone into the pub, and consumed one and a half pints of ale! He must have drunk them very quickly tick tock, tick tock! The only memory of the Cobweb that I have, is a brief walk in and out of the pub, if only I had spent less time trying to photograph the place!

Our return journey was not without incident, the coach broke down in Barnstaple. We spent the next 3 or 4 hours, waiting for a replacement coach. We arrived home at 1.am in the morning!

The Cobweb Inn, Boscastle

The last pub in Matson.

I would like to begin my blog, with the inclusion of a photo of The Three Oaks, which is in Matson Gloucester. There were two other pubs in Matson, The Musket Inn and The Robinswood Inn. The Musket Inn, was demolished to make way for a housing development, The Robinswood Inn was badly damaged in a fire in 2018. It is unlikely that it will ever reopen. That leaves the only remaining pub in Matson - The Three Oaks, which is a brick built modern estate pub. We really need to cherish our remaining estate pubs, they are disappearing fast.