Thursday 13 October 2016


The Rising Sun Swanmore 29th September 2016


We had visited this pub on two previous occasions but as there had recently been a change of management we felt obliged to revisit, particularly as we were getting good reports about the pies on offer. So six of us set off on the short walk from Bishops Waltham to  Swanmore, meeting the other three members at the pub.

We received a warm welcome from Amy and Ben and were interested to see that one of the beers on offer was Wayfarer (4%) from a new brewery in Swanmore just around the corner from the pub.This was the obvious choice for our first beer as none of us had sampled this beer before. Unfortunately there were only 2 pints left in the barrel and a replacement barrel was not ready to be tapped - so we will have to keep our eyes open for beers from this new brewery!
The other beers on offer were:
Ringwood Red Boar 3.9% and Goodens Gold 4.8%. We all decided on the Red Boar which was a good supping ale. Goodens Gold is an excellent beer but a bit too strong for us at a lunchtime.
We were all getting quite excited about the pie as Ben was producing a homemade rabbit pie which would be a new experience for some of us. Indeed the pie was excellent, with a lovely shortcrust pastry filled generously with succulent rabbit and served traditionally with huge portions of chips and peas with gravy on the side, just as we like it!
Plates were cleared so it was surprising to see that a number of the group elected to have a pudding. Maybe not so surprising when we looked at the selection of puddings available.


As the pub closed at 2.30pm we drank up and started out on the return walk to Bishops Waltham, stopping off at the Brickmakers to quench our thirst.
Scores (max. 5 in each category, 25 overall)
  • Pastry  4.64
  • Filling  4.77
  • Beer      3.86
  • Ambience 4.13
  • Value      4.13
  • Overall  21.53
Our thanks to Amy and Ben for their hospitality and for providing us with such an excellent homemade pie. We know that Ben produces a range of homemade pies so we will be back!