The Good Pub Guide 2009 published this week highlights as always some Thames pubs.
The Baskerville Arms at Shiplake is in the Oxford chapter along with, much further upstream, The Trout at Godstow. This has become expensive and rather too upmarket inrecent years although it is very good to see that bar food is available all day.
In Gloucestershire it is depressing to read that anyone dining outside at Ewen’s Wild Duck must leave their credit card behind the bar.
The best pub is at the end of the Thames Path. This is the Tunnel House at Coates near the source which is described as an “eccentric bow-fronted stone house”. It sounds unchanged and as good as ever and deserves its mention.
The Good Pub Guide 2009, edited by Alisdair Aird and Fiona Stapley, is published by Ebury (£15.99).