The BlueAnchor Inn

The Stone family's thatched granite pub on Coinagehall Street brews its own Spingo ales out the back. By the house's own telling it began as a monks' rest around 1400 and has brewed more or less ever since — a claim local historians treat with caution — but what nobody disputes is CAMRA's drier version: no other pub in the UK has brewed its own beer continuously since before the campaign formed in 1971. The mash tun dates from the 1920s, the copper from the 1950s, and the brewing water comes up from the pub's own well. Spingo Middle at 5% is the session beer; Special and Extra Special climb to 6.6 and 7.4. Ben Stone brews and runs the pub with Jenine on behalf of his parents, Kim and Simon. Grade II listed, granite-flagged, small rooms off a central corridor with a skittle alley at the rear, and host to the Helstonbury charity music festival every July.