We headed off so excitedly mid morning to attend the Rose and Crown “second” annual Beer and Cider Festival.

After spending a few hours there we both wondered if there will be a third!

The Rose and Crown is certainly a very cute English pub and it did have more than 20 ales to try, but it was the least friendly pub so far. Michael and I were the youngest there during our stay bar one couple in their late forties. That might explain it!

There were not many of us there between 12-2pm, but they certainly did not go out of their way to make us feel welcome or to explain the whole weekend.

We had five rounds of half pints, trying ales in alcohol content from 3.6 to 5.8%. The chocolate and chilli beer did taste like chilli but you could not have more than one. Most of them had no head at all and were a chore to drink.

For lunch Michael wisely chose the fish and chips and mushy peas for £5, while I chose the Ploughman’s Lunch at £7.50. It was supposed to be a pork pie, cheese and bread, but there were no pork pies so I just got ….more cheese. The bread was the worst we have tried so far in the UK.

The surprise of the day was the pickled egg for 50p. I had never tried one before but it was delicious.

We do plan to go back for the final day tomorrow…..not to taste the other 15 beers/ ciders on offer, but to listen to the entertainment which will included some Morris Men. We last saw some Morris dancers in Husband’s Bosworth in 2010 when we were with my sister Suzanne and my brother-in- law Chris on our narrow boat trip. We are hoping it will be the same ones!

We will eat somewhere else tomorrow before we get to the Rose and Crown!

What a disappointment !