Pubs in the Welsh town of Newport serve the best pints of real ale in the country, according to Cask Marque, an independent body that assesses the quality of beer in pubs across the UK.

They have put together a list of the best and worst places to get a pint, based on more than 15,000 pub visits made by Cask Marque quality inspectors over the past year.

If you listen to anyone from north of Watford, they'll tell you that beer's better up north, and this research has added some ammunition to this argument.

Pubs in southern England were found to be the worst in the country, with the five worst towns for beer all being south of the Midlands.

The pubs in the survey were visited unannounced by an independent assessor on two occasions.

The assessor checked all cask ales on sale for temperature, appearance, aroma and taste.

Now, it's a few years since I've been to Newport, and I confess that it doesn't feature amongst my top five 'must visit' places in the UK.

There's nothing anti-Welsh in this -- it's just that I can't think off hand of one great pub in Newport, although I'm sure there are some, and neither would it be my first choice of destination if I were planning a beer-orientated weekend break.

The worst place for beer, according to the survey, is Salisbury in Wiltshire. Second worst is Reading, and third, Brighton.

By pure chance, I have been drinking in all three of these cities in the past six months, and it's because of this that I would question the accuracy of Cask Marque's findings.

All three places boast a good selection of pubs -- from the historic to the contemporary -- and I couldn't fault the choice and quality of the beer when I was in town.

On this basis, perhaps a trip to South Wales should be pencilled into my diary sometime.

If Salisbury really is the worst place for real ale in the country, then Newport must be one hell of a place to drink!