2nd. August 2022 | Overnight stay in Chagford

Chagford is a great place to visit at any time of the year, with excellent pubs, each a very different character and each with a good selection of cask beer. Because of the opportunity to imbibe in such good surroundings I usually visit by bus from Newton Abbot. The trouble is, there is only one bus a day, which leaves the town centre at about 9am and arrives in Chagford at about 10am.

Now, I am not normally a fan of drinking at 10am but the bus timetable leaves very little choice. That same bus leaves Chagford – having carried on to Okehampton and back – at 14:40. Miss that and an overnight stay is pretty much obligatory.

So, four hours of drinking time and four excellent pubs. Not a bad day out. Having recently become a pensioner, and having to hand my car back to the dealer before the end of August, I decided I really must make the effort to visit at a more civilised time – at least from the perspective of enjoying the food and drink on offer.

So, I drove to Chagford and stayed at the Three Crowns, which was comfortable but, if I’m honest, not as plush as I imagined. Perhaps I have an over-active imagination. The meal was very poor indeed; in fact, I could eat only about a third of it then wished there was a takeaway open. I feel sure this was an aberration: I simply picked the wrong thing from the menu. Either that or the chef was off and one of the bar staff was frog-marched into the kitchen and told to get on with it.

Don’t get me wrong, I would recommend a stay at the Three Crowns – it is good. However, a word to the management: if you are going to provide a Nespresso machine (major bonus), 1. make sure it works and 2. provide real Nespresso pods so you have a clue what you are drinking. I had both the blue coffee and the yellow coffee but neither was much cop. And yes, I am fussy about coffee.

It was very pleasant to sit in a pub for over an hour with my good friend Keith and not worry about starting towards the door every time I heard a diesel that sounded a bit like a bus. A truly great and enjoyable evening and, after a late (and unexpectedly light) dinner, I was sober enough to fish out my Sony camera and take a few snaps, which you can see at the top of the page. It was, of course, night-time and – in case you were wondering – I was going for a ‘Dartmoor’ grey-granite look but with a welcoming warmth in the windows and doorways.