I had to ring Wadworth brewery in Devizes the other day.

Wadworth must be the quaintest company in Britain. It has the air of Grace Brothers about it, but not in a bad way.

It has none of the corporate facelessness of, say Wiltshire Police, where trying to speak to the person you want involves overcoming a series of verbal obstacles more complex than the Da Vinci Code.

Once you have remembered the 'easy' to remember 0845 number, the robot voice at the other end asks you if you know the seven-digit number of the person you want to speak to. It might as well ask you if you know their blood group and the name of their budgie.

The experience is about as warm as an encounter with a seaside speak your weight machine.

Not so at Wadworth where the switchboard operator is as friendly and welcoming as your nan and, when they put you on hold, the switchboard still has one of those plinky plonk versions of Vivavldi's Four Seasons that sounds like someone is playing it with their teeth on a metal comb.

There are no messages warning you that your conversation will be recorded for training purposes (who do they ever train? When does anyone ever get more helpful?)and there are no banal jingles trying to sell you extra stuff.


There is something reassuring about Wadworth's approach. To me it says 'we haven't got time to waste money on the flash stuff, we're just getting on with brewing all that 6X'.

That air of mateyness extends throughout the company and everyone you speak to there is a delight. And that isn't me trying to wangle a free case of their excellent 6X either...

I must say our own head office is just as bad. If you ever ring Newsquest's office in Swindon and have the misfortune to be put on hold your ears will be assaulted with the kind of grating jingle Radio One rejected as being too cheesy about 20 years ago. It makes GWR sound like Radio Three.