Got the Springtime blues? You need the Salisbury Swingtime!

Where: The Salisbury Guildhall, Market Place, Salisbury

When: March 12th,  2009 (and then on April 15th, May 13th 2009)

What: Dancing, drinking (bar services by Abbey Stores), letting the good times flow

How much: Tickets cost £12.50 and are available from Abbey Stores, Coombe Bissett Stores, Nicholas Wine Shop and the Haunch of Venison. Limited to 200.

What time: 7.30pm to 10.oopm with the band on a 8pm.

Download the flyer (pdf) for more information or phone Graham Dalby, the organiser, on 07973 141492

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.

We might look into incorporating relevant links into the Salisbury Scrutineer during the coming weeks.

Link: Salisbury District Council RSS Feeds

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.

Link to Googlemaps for location.

A quick update after a year has passed: The Chough is going well and many refurbishments have taken place. Generally a range of 6-8 real ales are available – all from the Hidden Brewery but it would be nice to see some guest beers instead of just the Hidden range.

The kitchen is producing excellent meals – so good that I held my staff Christmas dinner at the Chough and had a great time. The 3 course Sunday lunch is simply the best I have found in Salisbury and even better it comes in under £10.

Niggardly points that I think need attention include: there is no quieter, warmer dining area for people who just wish to eat with a degree or privacy, and on occasions the ambitious beer range effects the quality – I would trim the number of ales back to give a better turnover to the remainder.

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.

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.

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.