THE Goat in Downton, near Salisbury, has been voted into the Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA) Good Beer Guide just three years after it was taken over.

The pub is one of 19 pubs from south west Wiltshire and Salisbury to feature in the 2025 edition of the guide, which has been published today (September 26).

The Goat normally has four real ales available, including one from one of the Downton breweries and The Goat Ale, which is brewed by Piddle Brewery in Dorset.

Darren Jones and his wife Karolina, who is from Poland, took over the pub, formerly known as the White Horse, just as the Covid pandemic struck.

They finally opened in July 2021 when Government restrictions were lifted.

CAMRA Good Beer Guide co-ordinator Keith Foster (right) presents Darren Jones
with his Guide certificate Picture: Salisbury and south wilts CAMRA

“We are really happy to be in the Good Beer Guide,” Mr Jones said. “We work very hard to keep the beer in the pub in good condition.

“We try to keep it has local as possible and we have two excellent breweries – Hop Back and Downton Brewery – in the village.”

Keith Foster, oversees the two-part process by which South Wiltshire’s Good Beer Guide pubs are chosen.

Firstly they have to be nominated by CAMRA members and, once that shortlist has been drawn up, the membership then votes for the branch quota of six Salisbury city pubs and 13 rural ones.

The split reflects the fact that most pubs in South Wiltshire are in the countryside.

“It is a great honour to get into the Good Beer Guide and only the very best pubs are chosen,” he said.