Date: January 2019
Last weekend, I decided to visit some relatives who live just outside of London. As well as an opportunity to catch up with family, having not seen them since Christmas, I thought I’d make the trip even more worthwhile and see if they make their lime and sodas any differently outside of the capital. The Swan is in a village called Ash Vale, located in the Surrey/Hampshire borderlands. I’ll be honest and admit I don’t know which county it belongs to. Not much of an issue really but given that I’ve been coming here for over two decades and have even had several stints living with my relatives when in between places in the city, I probably should have taken the time to look more closely at the map. The postal town is Aldershot (in Hampshire) but the postcode is Guildford (in Surrey), making it all very confusing for this city boy to get a sense of where he is. Once you take me outside of the land of Underground roundels, I lose my bearings a bit.
My local geography is so sorely lacking that during one of the spells I lived here, I got very lost on an evening run around, ended up in Aldershot town centre, had to jump the ticket barriers at the train station without paying and get on the next service to Ash Vale because I had no idea how to get back. Still over 6 years and many more visits back here later, I have absolutely no idea where I got lost.
What I do know is that my relatives live about a ten minute walk down the road from this pub. Thanks to other local pubs closing down, it’s the only establishment within a reasonable walking distance. Ash Vale is an unremarkable place best noted for its two trains an hour commuter service up to London Waterloo and its reasonably sized Budgens-turned-Co-op on the main road through the village. To be fair to it it also has the Basingstoke Canal and a large British Army firing range that is open to the public when the rounds are not going off. An evening jog through its trees with the sun setting on the munitions huts, mounds of earth and big shooting targets makes for a surreal experience.
As for The Swan itself, it has gone through many changes of clothes since I’ve been going. It is clearly an old building but has attempted to opt a modern feel inside. Pubhistory suggests its origins lie in the 1911 White Swan Hotel, whose publican was Edwin Tupper, licensed victualler, and you get that sense as you enter. It has large fireplaces at either end of the building and wooden beams a plenty. GetSurrey says it was once a military tavern, which would also make sense given the area its located in.
It occupies a pleasant spot right on the canal and is good for drinking outside in the summer. In spite of that, I remember this place being a lot nicer when I was a kid. I don’t know whether it's the seemingly frequent changes of management that have contributed to the different atmosphere or whether the closure of other pubs in the local area has led to a ‘diversification’ of the pub’s clientele (read: more rough people go here now) but the place just doesn’t feel the same. Given that you’re also paying South Eastern prices at the bar (something which my born and bred Northern grandfather never fails to point out when he’s down here) you wished it would get it’s act together a bit.
Still, as it’s the local (and only) pub that you can walk to from my relatives house, I was left with little choice as to where to meet them as I stepped off the crowded South Western Railways train on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
As on many of my visits to this part of the world, I arrived in Ash Vale with a promise to myself not to drink any alcohol. It might be coincidence or it might be a subconscious reaction against the fact that, like many middle class white collar commuters, my relatives spend many weekends numbing thoughts of early morning train rides via consumption of the vast quantities of beer and wine stored in their garage. I suppose if Armageddon should come you do need to have the basics in stock.
To clarify, they’re not getting hammered in a way you might see on a typical English high street on a Friday night - that’s us millennials who, along with the many other things we’ve destroyed, have ruined casual drinking to the extent that it's no longer really acceptable to make headway into that stash of good red wine over Tuesday night's dinner. Still, I'd be fucked if I consumed two bottles of wine or 6 bottles of strong lager, weekend night or otherwise, and yet they seem to take it all in stride. Practice I suppose. Drinking for the baby boomers is a fine art and one they've perfected through years of experience.
So for whatever reason, I wasn't drinking on the occasion of this visit either, meaning I had only one real option for a good time down the pub.
Appearance:
This was a good looking pint of lime and soda. It just looked refreshing. The glass was wet with condensation from the cold liquid and the cordial was a crisp, vibrant green as it mingled with the bubbles from the soda water. The fresh lime quarters floating on the surface were both literally and figuratively buoyant, almost attractive in their voluptuousness. If this had appeared on Tinder, I'd have swiped right.
Taste:
The initial sip was a hydrating burst of bubbles with just the right hint of lime flavour for the top of a lime and soda. Second sip was just as good and showed just how well this drink was mixed. The soda water actually tasted like as it should, namely fresh water with carbon dioxide gas added to it, as opposed to something from a plastic bottle that was used as a mixer for a party, discarded when the party finished and then left to deflate alone in a cupboard for several months after the hangovers had subsided. The cordial too was good quality. It tasted like lime without any of the dodgy chemicals that are palatable in other lime cordials. Whatever different chemical they used to stop the bleach cupboard aftertaste of many other coridals definitely works. Maybe I'm still buzzing of whatever the mystery substance is but it was top notch stuff.
Price:
I have to confess that this was paid for by a family member, so I can’t really comment on the price but, given the quality demonstrated in the other judging criteria, I bet it was very reasonable, in fact too cheap if anything. Having said that, if a family member is going to buy you a drink with your Sunday lunch you should probably get something alcoholic. Even if that does mean a Greene King IPA.
All I can say is that maybe the rumours are true and quality of life is better outside of the Big Smoke.
Sources
Pubhistory: https://pubshistory.com/SurreyPubs/Ash/Swan.shtml
GetSurrey: https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/warm-up-ash-vales-swan-10450638
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