Eyes from the streets of Salisbury UK
The Abbey Stores empire is expanding with a new branch at Coombe Bissett Stores. From Saturday 12 January 2008 expect to see new stock and over time a new look and feel to this well-loved village shop in Coombe Bissett.
For more information and updates see, for now, the Abbey Stores blog and watch this space for an announcement regarding a website for Coombe Bissett Stores.
Salisbury District Council have recently introduced a number of RSS feeds. This means that you can subscribe to the latest events being organised or overseen by the Council, for example.
We might look into incorporating relevant links into the Salisbury Scrutineer during the coming weeks.
Well done to The Hidden Brewery for taking over The Chough, just before Christmas. This large and imposing building, on the corner of Castle Street and Blue Boar Row, first entered my drinking conciousness as a BeefEater. Since then it has taken on the guise as “Alchemey at the Chough” an enthusiastic but ultimately doomed venture complete with live music but disgusting beer.
So, as of the 11 December 2007 we now have The Hidden Brewery in charge, with a range of 6 of their real ales. Chatting to the manager last night he told us to expect refurbishment works in the New Year (I hope the gents receive some attention) and the restaurant to re-open upstairs in March.
Beer availability should also increase, with two extra pumps being installed for micro-brewery guest ales. It was also pleasing to see taps for Palm and Grolch Wheat Beer, although there were also taps for Carling and Guinness. Luckily for all of us there is no provision of keg bitter - a customer last night who asked for John Smith’s Smooth was politely told to either buy proper beer or drink something else. After a taster of Quest he bought a pint of that.
Salisbury is crying out for a pub that is not owned by Enterprise Inns, and therefore not subject to their restrictive pricing and buying policies. We are obviously lucky to have free houses like Deacons, The Village and The Rai D’or, but for us Market Square types the free house pub choices are pretty thin on the ground.
I look forward to becoming a regular in the Chough and supporting this ambitious brewery turn this pub so full of potential into a great boozer.
There is a very real concern that the current 7000 litre duty limit is to be revoked by the EU. Basically if you are a small cider or perry producer you can make up to 6999 litres of cider or perry and not pay duty on any of them. This keeps prices down and encourages small producers to start up and sell their products. (If you make 7000 litres or more though you must then pay duty on every litre).
The EU believe that the duty exemption is an unfair subsidy for producers in this country and want to revoke it.
If this happens then the current and future range of ciders and perries from the likes of Cider by Rosie will either not be financially viable to sell at current prices or will become a large-scale commercial product which sometimes is just not the same.
If you would like to show your support for the smaller producers, and fight the loss of the 7000 litre limit, please sign the petition here.
If you would like to learn more about the UK craft cider and perry scene, please have a look at the UK Cider website. You could also join the email list for up to date news and discussion.
The annual Fine Food Fair, held in the Market Square, is nearly upon us once more. The date for your diary is Sunday 23rd September 2007, although there will be events elsewhere in the city throughout the weekend.
Abbey Stores are once again organising the beer, cider and wine tent and if you find your way to their homepage there is a free beer offer that you can take advantage of.
For more information about the Market Square event, and confirmed stall holders, please visit this page.
Believe it or not, but Salisbury has it’s own internet based community TV channel. Found by chance whilst researching an article for the Scrutineer, Vision News says that it provides “local news with a personal touch”.
The videos on Vision News cover all aspects of Salisbury, from politics to local commerce. The video quality is superb, but you do need a very fast internet connection to be able to watch them ‘live’ - i.e. without having to wait ages for the whole thing to download. The style of each episode is that of an on-location local news feature, with a reported who smiles a lot, and leads the feature. They’re filmed in widescreen, and are generally quite watchable.
The beauty of delivering very local news in this way means that things that would never make TV can be covered just as well via the web. You can watch a video that follows a walk around “Haunted Salisbury”, find out about the latest excavations at Woodhenge and Durrington Walls, or see what went on at the Wilton Sheep Fair.
The website itself is clearly designed, and I hope that it becomes a success. It’s a shame that it’s so obscure though - I’m not sure where they advertise themselves.
So - if you live in, or are visiting Salisbury, head over to Vision News and take your pick of video reports to watch.
