One of my favourite
excursions in Gloucestershire, is to The
Forest Of Dean. The area covers 42 square miles and takes in parts of
Herefordshire (notice that I am using imperial measurements instead
of metric, I can be difficult like that!) One of the aspects I enjoy about the Forest is the natural beauty. There are several bus
routes into many parts of the Forest, but some of them are infrequent
and stop after a certain time. It has been several months since I
have visited, and I believe some of the bus numbers have changed. A
good place to begin an exploration into the Forest, is Newnham on
Severn – well it is as good a place as any!
Newnham on Severn
Most of the buses to
the Forest can be caught from Gloucester bus station, the bus to
Newnham takes in Westbury-On-Severn, Blakeney and Lydney amongst other
places. Just before you arrive in Newnham, is Broadoak and The White
Hart Inn. The pub benefits from having some spectacular views of the
River Severn. When I first visited this pub in 2014, it was a little
on the shabby side and painted a rather unflattering mustard colour.
The interior was dated, but quite cosy, an unusual fixture is a well inside the pub,
and the times for the Severn Bore were listed on a notice board. I have
never seen the Severn Bore, I hope to one day. The pub is now under
new management and has undergone an extensive refurbishment, and has
been painted grey.
The White Hart Inn, Broadoak Newnham On Severn 2014
The White Hart Inn 2017
The village of Newnham is
just a short bus ride from Broadoak, it is a very distinctive place, and has lots of character. There are businesses and amenities in the village, but the bus
service stops before 7pm, or at least it did when I attempted to stay
at a B&B once. That was an adventure in itself, quite a quirky
place with eclectic furnishings and bric-a-brac – which is typical
of Newnham. The next pub on the itinerary is the Railway Inn, which
can be found along Station Road which is just off the High Street.
The Railway is a good old fashioned pub, with friendly talkative
locals. They have a beer garden, which is useful in the current
circumstances. They did have an Indian restaurant on the premises, I
am unsure if this is the case at the moment. The pub did close for a
while last year, but has thankfully reopened.
The Railway Inn, Newnham On Severn 2015
There is a rather good
Micro pub in Newnham called The Black Pig Ale Bar, it is situated in the beer garden, at
the back of The Ship Inn pub which has now closed, and is to be converted
to a shop, coffee shop and cafe. A similar conversion was done on the
George Hotel in Newnham, which is now a cafe and community hub. It is
a sympathetic conversion of a former pub, if only other
conversions could be the same. I wonder what they will do with the
former Victoria Hotel, which has been closed for many years, work
seems to have started on some sort of development.
The Ship Inn, Newnham On Severn 2015
The George Hotel, Newnham On Severn
Just like many areas in
Britain, Newnham has lost a fair few of it's pubs, in fact The Forest
of Dean seems to be a more vulnerable area than other parts of
Gloucestershire. Maybe it is because some of them are not on a
bus route, and are difficult to get to. Many of the Forest pubs have
limited opening hours, some of them don't open till the evening. I am really concerned for the future of these pubs
