Three men went to mow

Thursday 5th June 2008

Saved from redevelopment by the Bristol Beer Factory, The Barley Mow reopened its doors last week following a refurbishment. Mark Taylor talks to Simon Bartlett about its new lease of life.

Most news stories about pubs are depressing enough to make drinkers cry into their beer, so the news that a popular Bristol local has reopened under ambitious new owners is sure to be met with a clinking of glasses and cheers all round.

Tucked away in a part of Bristol known locally as The Dings, just by Barton Hill Trading Estate, The Barley Mow closed at the beginning of the year when owners Wadworth decided that it was no longer financially viable and it was time to sell the building.

Freehold pubs such as this rarely come up in the city, but the award- winning Ashton-based brewery Bristol Beer Factory heard about it through the local Campaign For Real Ale (Camra) which alerted them to the fact the pub was for sale.

Camra is the guardian of our pub and beer heritage and it has an ongoing campaign to save local pubs such as The Barley Mow, which dates back to 1828.

One prominent local supporter of the campaign is architect George Ferguson, the man behind the Tobacco Factory in Southville.

Ferguson also owns the Bristol Beer Factory and as soon as he discovered The Barley Mow was for sale, he was quick off the mark to check out its potential.

“George saw the email from Camra and he drove down to look at the place immediately,” says Simon Bartlett, production manager of the Bristol Beer Factory.

“He said we had to go for it because of the amount of redevelopment going on in that area. He thought the potential was fantastic.”

The Barley Mow is the second opening for the Bristol Beer Factory in a year, the first being The Grain Barge, a floating bar in Hotwells.

Situated in an area of huge redevelopment, The Barley Mow is surrounded by a mixture of old terraced houses and new apartments.

Five minutes from Temple Meads and Old Market, it’s an area with a fast-changing demographic, as scrap metal yards and warehouses are replaced by smart offices and hotels.

It’s also an area that has seen many of its pubs disappear over the past few years. I can think of half a dozen which have gone forever – either turned into flats, massage parlours or simply demolished.

A splendid double-fronted old pub with plenty of original features and character, The Barley Mow feels like a proper local as soon as you walk through the door. It has original floorboards and fireplaces, a simple bar with a line of real ale handpulls (including two dating from 1936) and settles.

It feels both original and new at the same time and this is reflected in the huge cross- section of customers since it opened its doors last week.

“This is a very interesting area with a diverse cross- section of people living and working around here,” says Simon.

“Because of all the redevelopment, we’ve got builders around here for four or five years, we’ve got the old Dings residents, we’ve got the new residents, the office workers from Temple Quay five minutes away and then there’s the new Ibis hotel. That’s five very strong markets.”

When the Bristol Beer Factory took over the pub, it was in a sorry state and needed a complete makeover, including a new roof and toilets. One wall was so damp that you could put your finger through it.

“They hadn’t spent any money on it for years. When it was a bikers’ pub it was very well used but then it was run into the ground.

“Two weeks before we refurbished it, a few thousand pounds’ worth of lead was stolen from the roof so we also got a discount from Wadworth for that.”

As with most old pubs, it comes with all sorts of stories and anecdotes, as well as rumours of its own ghost.

Until the late Seventies, when Wadworth took over, it was called The Duke Of York, but its current name apparently came about by accident.

“It was supposed to be called The Barley Fields because that’s what the school was called, but apparently somebody in the admin department at Wadworth got it wrong and called it The Barley Mow, and the name stuck.”

The Barley Mow stocks the full range of draught real ales from the Bristol Beer Factory – Red, No.7, Sunrise and Exhibition – as well as its bottled beers and Thatcher‘s Heritage cider on draught. There’s also a well chosen wine list.

The Bristol Beer Factory was set up in the old Ashton Gate Brewery in 2003 and using locally grown malt and hops, it set about producing real ales in the same buildings that were producing the Ashton Gate “Sunrise Brand” beer in the Thirties.

The beers have gained quite a following in Bristol, with a number of pubs selling it.

Bristol Beer Factory fans from The Grain Barge and The Windmill in Windmill Hill have already made the pilgrimage to the brewery’s new pub in The Dings.

With plans to start serving food in the next month, as well as a quiz night and even talk of starting a mini-shop selling local produce, it looks like The Barley Mow is in very safe hands.

Says Simon: “Our two places are very different. The Grain Barge is a destination venue and quite weather dependent because people like to sit on the upper deck in the sun.

“This is more of a local with a traditional pub atmosphere. A lot of the people from the old part of The Dings have said they lost their local a long time before the pub actually closed. A lot of them were walking to Old Market or towards Temple Meads for a drink.

“We want to make it a nice, friendly pub serving good real ale and local cider. We want it to be the place where the locals can come for a pint after work or on the weekend.”

The Barley Mow, 39 Barton Road, St Philip’s, Bristol.