A larger than expected group met at North Station at the silly time of 7am on Saturday 16th October for the trip to The Watercress Line in Hampshire.

The usual suspects were present, i.e. Myself, Peter, Dave Nunn, Jules, Nigel, Liz and Keith, plus we had trip virgins from Harwich and two from Clacton (sorry I cannot remember the names!!)

After the usual nonsense at the ticket office negotiating the 500 different fare options to get to Alton the 7.20am train was caught. We arrived at Waterloo with no problems and caught the train to Alton, the starting point for the Watercress line. We had plenty of time to spare before the first train left at 11.00, so amused ourselves by observing a lady trying to negotiate a 4 for the price of 2 deal to London at the ticket office. The man behind the counter was assuring her no such ticket was available, whereas the lady said she had been told on the phone that she could get one. We decided to help her out by pointing out we had purchased said tickets from London, and there was a big poster on the wall advertising 4 for 2 to London!!

We left the clerk on the phone to somewhere, looking and sounding increasingly unhappy. The steam train arrived, the spotters went into seventh heaven, and we boarded a lovely old train for the half hour trip to Alresford, through some lovely countryside.

On arrival at Alresford, we had a twenty minute walk to the Itchen Valley brewery, a typical small brewery on a small industrial estate. We were met by Malcolm, one of the directors as the brewer could not be there.

An interesting discussion on the brewery history followed as we tucked into the 3 beers on offer which were; Pure Gold - a lovely light beer similar to Brewers Gold; Fagin's - a nice hoppier bitter and something labeled War. Nobody seemed to know what it was, but it was the tastiest beer of the three (later found out to be Warrior!)

The brewery supplies 3 outlets in the town and is looking to move to larger premises soon. Lastly some bottled beers were purchased at very good prices, notably Watt Tyler, a bottle conditioned winter warmer which was when Julian took centre stage (later than usual!) deciding to throw his bottles onto the floor, and breaking one of them.

We departed the brewery to walk into town for lunch and a beer. No GBG's in Alresford so we took the brewery advice and went to the Horse and Groome, which had Itchen's Gold and Fagin's on offer, with Taylor's Landlord, 6X and Pride also present.

Naturally we stuck to the local beers, nice to see local breweries being supported. Peter had his first (of many!) moans of the day, about the beer temperature. I will not bore you with any more of them. Nice steak and chips before moving on to get the train back. Julian decided to leave his beers behind, so we picked them up and waited to see if Julian would notice. Alresford looked quite nice, worth a closer look at sometime.

On getting the next train we were delighted to see the Ale carriage, with 3 barrels from the Cheriton Brewery on offer. I believe Pots Ale and Best were on offer with one other, but brain was starting to shut down by now. The one I had was very nice. Unfortunately we got off at Medstead/4 Marks to visit a "recommended" pub called the Windmill.  The other option, The Flower Pots Inn (home of Cheriton Brewery) was just too far to get to). A selection of bland beers was on offer, and dreadful wallpaper, so I went for an orange juice, which seemed a good move having smelt the Hobgoblin Dave had.

In a rare moment of lucidity Julian now discovered he had lost his bottles. Unfortunately Liz could not keep the charade up and informed Jules we had them. Obviously the sight of a grown man close to tears at the thought of having wasted a fiver was too much for her. A swift exit back to the steam Train for the trip back to Alton.

On arrival at Alton the two Harwich lads departed (very sensible) and we made our way to the Railway Arms. This stocked a range of Triple F beers with some guests. I have marked down on my increasingly illegible notes Trotney's Red barrel and Red Rooster, both Triple F beers I think, which I am sure were very nice. The brewer enjoys naming his beers after rock songs, Dazed & Confused and Snowblind being examples.

After much debate it was decided to move on, some people in the "we are settled, can't be bothered to move" mode protesting. Well it was certainly worth it, we visited the 8 Bells, a lovely free house on the edge of town. I have noted Hogs Back Tea as being superb and Ballards, unfortunately no other info. It was a lovely friendly pub and I remember slumping into some old sofas to enjoy my beer.

Unfortunately it was time to leave, and so myself and Dave decided to get lost on the way back to the station, so we missed the train and had to return to the Railway Arms for another. Most of the others kindly waited....a good excuse for another pint!!

My notes now totally fall down, I have references to Dave hallucinating about the sea (!!) and Julian demolishing some thing outside the pub, but my memory fails me I'm afraid, so people can make up there own stories!!

I do know that Alton seemed a really nice place, well worth another trip as we only did 2 of the 5 GBG's.

The next train was caught, I promptly fell asleep and woke in London. A swift one at Hamilton Hall before the train back to Colchester. A most enjoyable day. Well organised Jules.

Mark Whybrow