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Whatever the opposite of ‘getting out a lot’ is, that is what I have spent the vast majority of the last two years doing. I am sure I almost became fused to my sofa at one point. There were hundreds of weekends lost to Judge Judy marathons, long Aldi trips and (my new favourite) mould time-lapses on YouTube. Yup, they’re a thing…
I have a real bone to pick with the pandemonium-that-shall-not-be-named because it took up two years of my twenties. Those were years that I feel should have been filled with travel, adventure and new experiences. So now the world has finally started to open up again, I’m grabbing life by the balls and am determined to make up for lost time. I’ve already been on holiday to Dubrovnik, Croatia and spent a fabulous weekend in London. But today’s blog post is all about my day-trip to explore the beautiful village of Pensford and visit Britain’s Best Beer Garden at The Rising Sun.
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I’ve lived in Bristol for a year and a half at this point, but still haven’t made a point of getting out into the surrounding area. The South-West is such a beautiful part of the UK, though, and has so many picturesque towns and countryside. It’s pretty affluent and can be a bit posh in places - which lets me live my blogger fantasy - and in the summer there are so many things you can find to do here.
I’d never heard of Pensford before, but I was scrolling on Facebook one evening and noticed an article about this beautiful village and the beer garden of dreams. If you know me, you’ll know a fairy-tale-looking village and a *+*beer garden*+* are basically my love language, so I was immediately inspired to (shock) have a shower and (shooketh) plan a day trip our for the following day to Pensford. Pensford is *aaaalmost* local to me, being only about 30 minutes outside of Bristol by bus.
The Rising Sun pub is a deep blue, very traditional looking pub with gold lettering, chalkboards and an easily-recognisable swinging sign on the front. It’s pretty unassuming from the outside, but you can see the viaduct…the pièce de résistance, if you will, poking out from behind the building as you walk up to it. It’s pretty teeny in terms of indoor pub space, maybe 6 or 7 tables inside. But when the weather is gorgeous, you wouldn’t even want to sit inside. You can find the garden by walking through the pub, or around the outside and through a farm-style gate. The garden has some picnic tables on a concreted area, then many more on a beautiful grassy lawn alongside the river.
It is honestly one of the most picturesque and pretty places I’ve ever sat and drank a glass (or three) of wine. There’s barely anything around for miles. Aside from the (closed) Post Office and the bus stop, it was super peaceful. I couldn’t stop taking photos and commenting on the views of the cottages, the amazing viaduct and had such fun watching the dogs going in and out of the brook. The garden was well-equipped with an outside bar, plenty of seating and additional deck-chairs for people who couldn’t snag a table. We definitely made a good call in turning up earlier in the afternoon.
A couple of things I should note are that the drinks weren’t particularly cheap and it came in at over £12 for a pint of ale and a large wine. I half-expected it to be cheaper considering it felt a bit ‘out in the sticks’ but fair play, we’ve all got a pandemic to recover from! I’m also not the biggest fan of kids at the pub, and the place was absolutely teeming with families with children and babies. I appreciate this isn’t the end of the world and, I bet the pub is one of the very social activities you can do locally in Pensford on a sunny weekend. I just like a glass of wine without screaming babies in my near vicinity - sue me! Having said that, we spent at least a few hours there and none of the above was bad enough to take away from the stunning scenery, perfect weather and delicious selection of drinks.
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After we decided we’d spent quite enough time drinking in the sun, we took a stroll around the village of Pensford before getting our bus back to Bristol. We didn’t get to walk around the whole village, but we loved what we saw; a beautiful church, stone bridges and the brook running through the centre of the town. Everything was green and the spring flowers were blooming. It had a really sleepy feel as literally every single shop that we saw was closed as it was a Sunday afternoon. We didn’t see many cars either. It is a great little spot for a quiet Sunday date. What a pretty little place!
We had such a lovely day and I’m already scouring the map for new places we can visit for the day, or even a weekend mini-break. We’re lucky enough to live right near the Cotswolds which are super beautiful. And the gorgeous city of Bath is only 10 minutes away by train. The time for sitting on the sofa in my week-old joggers is over! The time for forcing my boyfriend out on little trips, day drinking and taking outfit pictures for me is here! Huzzah!
Lots of love,
Jasmine x
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