{"id":324427,"date":"2025-11-30T09:15:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T09:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/recipes\/category-a-b\/beer\/topshams-bridge-inn-at-last\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T09:15:30","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T09:15:30","slug":"topshams-bridge-inn-at-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=324427","title":{"rendered":"Topsham’s Bridge Inn, at last"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
<\/a><\/div>\n

In the previous post, you left me at the Lighter Inn,<\/b> the
\nrather posh Hall & Woodhouse<\/b> establishment, overlooking the Quayside,<\/b> in Topsham. <\/b>I was
\nabout to head off, through the town, up the hill, and past the station, before
\nturning right at the top, and along a road lined with a mix of rather ordinary
\nlooking suburban bungalows and houses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

After turning left, into Bridge Hill<\/b>, it
\nwasn\u2019t long before the pink-painted, Bridge Inn<\/a><\/u><\/b> came into view, just a short
\ndistance away at a point where the houses thin out, and the road takes a turn
\nto the left. The bridge that gives both the road and the pub its name, over the
\nRiver Clyst,<\/b> comes into view, as does the more open countryside overlooked by
\nthe hills in the distance. There, overlooking the river, stood the pub I had
\ntravelled through several southern English<\/b> counties, in order to visit. <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

There\u2019s always a palpable sense of excitement when
\napproaching a new pub for the first time, especially when it\u2019s one like the
\nBridge<\/b> that I\u2019d been wanting to visit for some time. There\u2019s a danger that the
\nexcitement can be dissipated when you discover that the place isn\u2019t quite what
\nyou were expecting, despite the description and photos you may have seen
\nbeforehand. The other side of the coin is the place is much better than you\u2019d thought
\nit would be OR, it is just different. Usually, the place you\u2019ve been looking
\nforward to visiting, is a combination of all these actions and emotions.\u00a0I\u2019ve been thinking about this a lot, recently, even to the
\nextent of writing a separate post on the subject, but after teasing and
\ntempting you all over recent posts, let\u2019s launch straight in to the Bridge Inn,<\/b>
\nat Topsham.<\/b>\u00a0As I descended the hill, towards the pub, there was a decorator painting
\nthe window frames – an unenviable task given the cold, outdoor temperatures. Unsure
\nfor a moment, which door was the entrance, I asked this painter which was the
\nway in. Once inside, it still took me a while to get my bearings and spy out
\nthe lay of the land.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

A long corridor ran towards the rear of the building, with a
\ndoor marked private. There were various rooms leading off from both sides, and
\nas I discovered, the middle one on the right, was private, and was where the
\nbeer was kept, and the food prepared. Even now, I\u2019m still a little confused,
\nbut I think there was a room at the front, again to the right. The room I
\nwanted to be in was at the far end of the corridor, and this is where orders for
\nbeer and food were taken and paid for. It was packed, and there weren\u2019t any spare
\nchairs, or indeed tables there, but I did order a pint of Golden Fiddle,<\/b> a
\nhighly quaffable, 4.0%<\/b> golden ale from Branscombe Brewery.<\/b> Served in a dimple,
\npint mug, as are all the beers at the Bridge, it was both pleasant and
\nrefreshing. It was also another tick on Untappd.<\/b><\/p>\n

I ordered one of the Bridge\u2019s<\/b> legendary homemade pasties,
\nand after giving my name to the lady behind the bar, made my way to the front of
\nthe pub, where I managed to squeeze onto the end of a table, in the room on the
\nleft. With windows on two sides, this room was bright and spacious, with a friendly
\nand welcoming feel. It was a while before my pasty arrived, but this large, and
\nfreshly warmed, homemade delicacy, was worth the wait. It was brought in by the
\nsame person who took the order, and from what others in the room referred to
\nher by, I gather her name was Caroline. <\/b><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

Her name, linked to the Bridge Inn,<\/b> crops up in the acknowledgements
\nat the end of Adrian\u2019s<\/b> book, where she receives a very special thanks, from the
\nauthor, and as I\u2019ve noticed other, online references to this lady, I\u2019m of the
\nopinion that she\u2019s a member of the family who own, and run the Bridge.<\/b> That aside, I didn\u2019t feel inclined to introduce
\nmyself, as I\u2019m just another beer writer and pun enthusiast, and I\u2019m sure that the
\npub receives plenty of visitors, throughout the year, drawn from various parts
\nof the country, and all eager to experience the atmosphere and ambience of this
\nclassic, English pub.\u00a0<\/b>My pasty arrived, piping hot and served with a simple garnish
\nof tomato and pickle onion, both of which were sliced. It was an excellent pub
\nsnack, but after watching other peoples\u2019 lunch arrive, the bowl of warming,
\nhomemade vegetable soup, with crusty bread and butter, looked equally inviting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

Perhaps I should have pushed the boat out, and gone for the soup as well?
\nAnother beer was called for, and this time I went for Darkness \u2013 The Prince of
\nAles<\/b> from Exeter Brewery. <\/b>This 5.1%,<\/b> smooth chocolate stout,<\/b> wasn\u2019t as
\nimpressive as my first pint, but was still another beer for Untappd.\u00a0<\/b>It was time to make tracks back to Exeter,<\/b> although I\u2019m
\nstill kicking myself for not visiting the Passage House Inn<\/b>, back in Topsham.
\n<\/b>The train journey to Exeter,<\/b> is along the mainly single-track line, that runs
\nup from the coast, at Exmouth.<\/b> Its noisy, diesel-powered DMU\u2019s,<\/b> brought back memories
\nof the Tonbridge-Redhill<\/b> line, prior to electrification, as well as the lines
\nout to Romiley<\/b>\u00a0from Manchester Piccadilly<\/b>, back in my student days. <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

You will already be familiar with the ending of my day-out,
\nin the welcoming warmth of the Imperial,<\/b> close to Exeter St Davids,<\/b> as well as
\nthe broken-down train on my journey back to London. <\/b>Leaving that incident
\naside, it had been a most enjoyable day out, visiting a part of the country
\nthat I hadn\u2019t been to before. One or two work colleagues questioned my sanity,
\nas did Mrs PBT\u2019s,<\/b> but in the general scheme of things it wasn\u2019t that lengthy a
\njourney \u2013 I\u2019ve done Tonbridge-Edinburgh<\/b> in a day, and found time to visit a local
\nbrewery. The only question that needs answering, is where to next?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the previous post, you left me at the Lighter Inn, the rather posh Hall & Woodhouse establishment, overlooking the Quayside, in Topsham. 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