Our local is the Dolphin, and a very fine pub it is too, how lucky we are to have it in our village. It has everything a good pub needs, chiefly people and pints, both of the best. Much as we love the Dolphin we also love exploring and getting to know other pubs, and recently the other pub we have been getting to know is the New Inn in the small village of Kewstoke.
Our town of Weston-super-Mare is built round Weston Bay, originally Glentworth bay. To the north and to the south is high land, Uphill where we live to the south, Worlebury to the north. If you drive round the headland of Worlebury Hill, along the coast road on the north side of the hill, you drop down to Sand Bay, and tucked in the corner of Sand Bay, beneath the hill is Kewstoke. People must have been living in Kewstoke for hundreds of years, and the local church of St Paul dates back to the thirteenth century. At the other end of Sand Bay is Woodspring Priory, founded in 1210 by the grandson of one of the knights who murdered St Thomas á Becket
The village pub in Kewstoke is the New Inn; I’ve written before of how we used to visit when the children were young. There was a magic hour each week when they were both at their clubs, one at karate, one at sea cadets. We used to dash to the new Inn, have a lovely pint, then dash back to collect children. We only visited the pub early in he evening and didn’t really get to know anyone, friendly though the locals were.
Now my husband’s sea shanty group meet there each Sunday evening to rehearse and every other Sunday as there is a quiz we go along to take part, along with our usual team quizzer from the Dolphin. What a nice pub, very welcoming landlord and landlady, good beer, a pleasant place to sit, lots of interesting old photos of local places all around the walls. It is much neater and much cleaner than when we used to go, tastefully – yet pubbily decorated. The other people in the quiz are mostly local, but all friendly and there’s plenty of laughs and jokes as the evening progresses.
I haven’ yet found anything about the history of the place… but I hope I will! … oh, and as it’s St Patrick’s Day here’s a picture of Guinness!
Lois Elsden 