A new pub, well not exactly new, but new to us. It’s in the village of Sandford – not Sandford as features in my favourite film ‘Hot Fuzz’, nor Sandford in Dorset. Sandford in Somerset is a pleasant village and renowned as being home to Thatcher’s Cider, a company founded in 1904 by William Thatcher.
In Sandford is a pub we have never visited before, The Railway Inn – we have passed it so many times on our frequent journeys to Bristol Airport but tonight we thought we might visit. It has recently been refurbished – when I say recently, I mean in the last couple of years and we’ve had very good reports of it. It’s now a place which offers ‘fine dining’ as well as drinks – especially cider of course, especially Thatcher’s cider!
We drove over and parked in the large sensibly arranged car park and walked through an outside seating area (all full) to go into the pub itself. The building is large and cavernous, but beautiful, the old stone walls now stripped of paint and plaster are complemented with wooden features – the bar for example (I have a feeling it is oak but I may have mis-remembered that, it’s a beautiful wood whatever!) There is such a feeling of light and elegance and yet it’s a comfortable place,a pleasant place.
We arrived at the bar and a pleasant, friendly and attentive bar person came over immediately. I really wish I liked cider – I like the idea of cider, I like the history and tradition, the fact that it’s a local brew, I like that it’s grown, collected, processed, produced and available here in Somerset, I just don;t like cider… I had wine. My husband had a rather good beer, Harding’s, to start – he is a beer drinker, after all, and then he had a pint of Stan’s Traditional Dry cider, and lastly Cheddar Valley which was rather orange, I thought… it smelt delicious even though I’m not a cider drinker. My daughter had lemonade, and my son, after a cider, had a cocktail of apple gin, Haze cider sorbet, elder-flower gin, ice and a slice of apple – he said it was very nice but a little too sweet for him.
We had a very pleasant evening, and having studied the menu I think it is quite likely we will return, maybe for a meal as well as cider!
Lois Elsden 