Description

Long time collaborators Roy Baker and Simon Rhodes have been trying to pull together a stable line-up of musicians under the DOWN AND DIRTY banner for some years. Plenty of players coming and going but the band never settling; Never quite becoming 'a band'.

Eventually, Simon made contact with Ken Wynne, a local prog' rock bassist (but keep that to yourself - prog' rock is evil, you know), who it turned out lived just around the corner and shortly after, Simon stumbled upon guitarist/guitar synthesist Brian Barnes, both guys in short succession. Suddenly there was the stability the two originators were after.

The four are now busily and rapidly pulling songs together for a set of fun and hopefully unusual songs; trying to find those popular but rarely heard tracks mixed in with a few of the more commonly heard fare by a varied array of artists drawn from the last forty years.

Time will tell, but the plan is to have a selection of songs that isn't dominated by the same old staples that you can hear any night of the week, in any pub in any town. And the list is starting to get extensive!!!

Description

'The Bakers' celebrated a century of ownership by Arkell's in 1996, but it was built back in 1847 by William Slade of Moredon. He also owned The Red Lion (now renamed The Boundary House) even though by trade he was a butcher!

The butcher sold it to a baker and in 1866 the proprietor was William Perrin. He - like many Victoria bakers - offered a valuable service to the local community who would take along their own bread to bake in his oven.

Unfortunately, Mr Perrin also sold them beer to drink with their Sunday dinners which landed him with a hefty fine. The local constable solved the crime when he discovered beer mugs hidden in the oven! It is not recorded when The Bakers finally stopped making bread.

It was surely only a matter of time before John Arkell bought the pub as only the Kingsdown Inn is closer to the brewery and Arkell's also own a row of cottages adjacent to the pub.

A major renovation in 1956 and an extension in 1984 & 2013 have brought the Bakers Arms up-to-date - but not too up-to-date. This is a no-frills pub and as such belongs to a rare breed of traditional British locals that you will find nowhere else in the world.

121 Beechcroft Road,

Upper Straton,

Swindon,

Wiltshire,

England,

SN2 7RE.

01793 832 227