The Blue Raddle in Dorchester is the Echo's Pub of the Week

The Blue Raddle in Church Street, Dorchester has scooped West Dorset CAMRA pub of the year in 1996, 2007 and 2009 and was a Wessex and Channel Islands CAMRA regional pub of the year finalist in 2009. It has enjoyed uninterrupted inclusion in CAMRA’s The Good Beer Guide since 2005 and features in the newly published 2020 guide.

The Blue Raddle in Church Street, Dorchester

Here, landlord and landlady Rick and Chris Townsend, who’ve been at the helm of the pub for 16 years, tell us what makes this proud, independent free house so special.

Rick and Chris accompanied by the pub mascot Sheila The Sheep who is currently furloughed as her part in the pub meat draw is temporarily suspended, along with the Friday evening draw itself

Why did you decide to run a pub?

We enjoy people, had owned a small group of pubs previously and wanted to slow down from other business life and to run one pub largely on our own.

Bar staff names

Julie Williams, Kate PyrkeKardas , Neil Gatehouse, Rory Major and Nick Wimberley

History of the pub (that you know of)

The Raddle was a private residence being converted to a pub in 1850 and named The Dolphin. In the later part of the 20th century it was renamed several times to the Gun Room and then the Country Gentleman until eventually being named The Blue Raddle, as it is today, in the early 1990s. The name The Blue Raddle makes reference to ‘raddling’. In its basic form ‘raddle’, a coloured slop, is applied to the ‘tup’s’ brisket. The tup being a ram amongst ewes!

In his efforts to tup or mate with a ewe raddle is left as evidence, thus assisting the shepherd in the management of his flock through to lambing.

Is food served and if so, what’s on the menu?

The menu consists of a blackboard situated above one of the fireplaces and choice varies from day to day depending on what Chris and Julie have decided to concoct from ingredients available and sourced locally.

The interior of The Blue Raddle

Most popular drink served is: Real ales

Most memorable moment?

There have been many all of which have been very funny and have involved eminent figures of our community so unable to disclose details.

Have you faced any challenges within the industry?

Running a small business in the UK is challenging in itself particularly when the legislative framework for business is almost entirely designed for large business-one size fits all. This has never been so apparent than during the ongoing COVID crisis.

New social distancing measures in the pub

How have you responded to the challenge of the coronavirus lockdown and how do you see the pub adapting to the new situation?

We have had to significantly limit the numbers of customers visiting our pub, rearrange and in part screen the internal configuration and modify our cleaning regime (which hitherto has been vigorous) by introducing anti-viral procedure and materials.

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