The Winchester

01/01/2026

Join us at the Wi******er as we say NO to 2026. Having a new year every 12 months is just a cynical money making ploy designed by Big Calendar to boost their fat cat profits. We don't want a new year, and we certainly don't want to have to flip a page each 30 or so days like a slow countdown to our demise, regardless of it revealing pictures of rural landscapes or kittens, just to put cash in the pockets of the trans global calendar business. Who are they to decide what year it should be? They make each new year worse than the last and we want it to stop. Now. We can all agree that today is not as good as yesterday, and tomorrow will be worse, so it's time for change. The modern world is ghastly and the future doesn't bear thinking about. What we are all searching for through our rose coloured glasses is the glorious, exciting, perfectly happy past. So why blindly follow the herd being conned into 2026? Wake up sheeple. It's time to make a stand and choose a year that we actually want. So The Wi******er is moving forward by going back. From now on, we're going to live in 1984, a year that had it all, from Michael Jackson's hair catching fire whilst making a Pepsi commercial, to the original Apple Mac, via the miner's strike, Zola Budd, Floyd on Fish, and Torvill and Dean’s gold medal winning Bolero. Ronald Reagan was re-elected US president, Roger Moore was still James Bond and Band Aid had the Christmas number one. The average house cost around £26k and a lovely pint of Watneys Red Barrel in the pub cost 72p. You could get a Ford Fiesta for under £4k, the Dukes of Hazard was on TV and Tom Baker was Dr Who. You could rent a copy of The Terminator on VHS and buy a tube of Spangles. Think about all that, and then think about now. In fact, 1984 (the year) was a lot less like 1984 (the book) than 2025 was. And when we're done with 1984 we'll choose another one. One that we like, and it won't be 2026.
Happy Old Year everyone.

09/11/2025

On November 7th, 1920, in strictest secrecy, four unidentified British bodies were exhumed from temporary battlefield cemeteries at Ypres, Arras, the Asine and the Somme.

None of the soldiers who did the digging were told why.

The bodies were taken by field ambulance to GHQ at St-Pol-Sur-Ter Noise. Once there, the bodies were draped with the union flag.

Sentries were posted and Brigadier-General Wyatt and a Colonel Gell selected one body at random. The other three were reburied.

A French Honour Guard was selected and stood by the coffin overnight of the chosen soldier overnight.

On the morning of the 8th November, a specially designed coffin made of oak from the grounds of Hampton Court arrived and the Unknown Warrior was placed inside.

On top was placed a crusaders sword and a shield on which was inscribed:

"A British Warrior who fell in the GREAT WAR 1914-1918 for King and Country".

On the 9th of November, the Unknown Warrior was taken by horse-drawn carriage through Guards of Honour and the sound of tolling bells and bugle calls to the quayside.

There, he was saluted by Marechal Foche and loaded onto HMS Verdun bound for Dover.

The coffin stood on the deck covered in wreaths, surrounded by the French Honour Guard.

Upon arrival at Dover, the Unknown Warrior was met with a nineteen gun salute - something that was normally only reserved for Field Marshals.

A special train had been arranged and he was then conveyed to Victoria Station, London.

He remained there overnight, and, on the morning of the 11th of November, he was finally taken to Westminster Abbey.

The idea of the unknown warrior was thought of by a Padre called David Railton who had served on the front line during the Great War.

The union flag he had used as an altar cloth whilst at the front, was the one that had been draped over the coffin.

It was his intention that all of the relatives of the 517,773 combatants whose bodies had not been identified could believe that the Unknown Warrior could very well be their lost husband, father, brother or son...

THIS is the reason we wear poppies.

We do not glorify war.

We remember - with humility - the great and the ultimate sacrifices that were made, not just in this war, but in every war and conflict where our service personnel have fought - to ensure the liberty and freedoms that we now take for granted.

Every year, on the 11th of November, we remember the Unknown Warrior.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them.

Source: RBL.

His name will be on one of our village crosses somewhere, but no one will ever know where.

21/06/2025

So, today is the longest day of the year. That means we open later. Or earlier. Who cares when the beer is free. 🍺

23/12/2024

Please don't drink and drive over Christmas and the new year. If you want to enjoy the festivities safely, we can help for free*. Just call or inbox us two days in advance to book one of our experienced team. We will come and drink for you so you can drive home safely.
*Free means you pay for the drinks and give me a lift home.

09/11/2024

You want some, do ya?

23/07/2024

You'll take my pint but I'll take yours too...(with apologies to Steve Harris)

05/07/2024

Vote beer

23/04/2024

10/06/2023

Late night with two of my favourites

25/10/2022

This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

21/05/2022

Not sure about the new barmaid