At the Ferry Inn Wednesday 22nd February 2023 dawned sunny and bright so a good day to visit Salcombe and Kingsbridge in The South Hams. So it was that a select band of South Devon and Exeter CAMRA met at Totnes station and after some had fortified themselves with the excellent breakfast in The Signal Box café, the 164 bus to Salcombe was boarded and the day’s adventures began. At Kingsbridge where we were joined by several others who had travelled from other parts of The South Hams and the Tally Ho single Decker bus, by now occupied in the majority by CAMRA members crawled its way towards Salcombe.
First beer stop in Salcombe was the Victoria, which is now under new management and had four St Austell cask beers on handpump. This included two of St Austell’s small batch beers brewed for the Rugby World Cup (Conversion and Anthem) as well as the more regular Proper Job and Tribute. All were in good condition.
On the way to The Victoria we spotted a few other Exeter and East Devon CAMRA members in The Fortescue who then proceeded to follow us and in some cases join us as we proceeded. Next stop was The Ferry Inn, a Palmers pub which had Palmers 2000, Tally Ho and Copper on Handpump. On our visit last year, The Ferry had the most expensive beer in Salcombe and this appeared to still be the case although some prices do seem to have been reduced slightly. Unfortunately, rising beer prices is a sign of the times although it is always an emotive subject among CAMRA members. Again, beer quality was good and we took a group photo before moving on.
Next, on the way back down the hill was The Kings Arms which had a couple of Salcombe beers on and again in good condition. At this point it was realised that the aimed for 2.26 pm bus was not going to be achievable so a decision was made to take the 3.26pm bus to Kingsbridge which gave us the chance to .sample the excellent beers in The Fortescue Inn which again came from the local Salcombe brewery.
The decision to take the later bus was a good one as we were in good time to catch the 164 from Shadycombe Lane and soon enough we were in Kingsbridge. A couple of our group had left early and visited one of the pubs in Malborough before rejoining the bus to Kingsbridge. First stop in Kingsbridge was the Creek End Inn where we sampled Abbot Ale in great condition and spoke with the owner about the state of trade and customer numbers.
After this we made a visit to The Hermitage which had the cheapest beer of the day and two beers on hand pump Dragon Pioneer from Summerskills Brewery and Thirsty Blonde from South Hams brewery. Both these were excellent and we were sorry to leave and catch the 164 bus back to Totnes. We did this without issues this year and several of the South Hams contingent left to return to their homes and a few more departed at Totnes. Three of us decided to finish the day at The Albert where we sampled a couple of the Bridgetown brewery beers before departing homewards.
All in all, a great day out with good company and excellent beers. Here’s to the next one.

Lawrence (Social Secretary)