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| Yes...people of Britain...let’s...... |
....possibly .....they would certainly fit the bill, but no - I am referring to the village’s two pubs - and part I is about the Golden Lion.
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| Golden lion |
Southwick, another little gem of an historic village nestling in the south east Hampshire countryside, calls itself the D - Day village because of its wartime role. The Golden Lion was centre stage in this as the venue for the Churchill-Eisenhower meet.
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| Golden Lion basks in the February sunshine. |
The Golden Lion pub, is a Good Beer Guide pub and a free house. It proudly retains it’s wartime and military associations and the pub is full of wartime posters (top image) and in particular naval memorabilia connected with nearby Portsmouth.
There was even this very decorative poster which was something to do with odd (but friendly) people from Manchester....
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| Odd and friendly fellows of Manchester unite... |
To keep the military connections alive, the Royal Navy are still present in the village in the HMS Dryad base - located in the old Southwick Manor House commandeered during WW2 and never given back. No doubt the ‘top brass’ pop in now and again to make sure everything is ‘ship-shape’.
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| Golden Lion bar with naval crest plaques in profusion... |
As you would expect from GBG pub, there was a good range of real ale comprising Suffolk’s Adnams Broadside and Lighthouse; Southwick’s own Skew Sunshine Ale; Portsmouth’s Urban Island Brewery who had a White Label ‘experimental’ beer and Langham Brewery’s Triple X Dark Mild.
You see mild on cask so rarely in pubs round these parts, that it had to be the dark mild...and it’s a winner too...
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| Dark and mysterious mild...great body...skinny glass.... |
The XXX dark mild certainly lived up to its billing, a lovely pint to set you up for a walk on a sunny winter’s day (very good).....
....as well as this sandwich with ‘melt in the mouth’ hot beef filling and spicy tomato relish...
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| Mmmmmm...melt in the mouth.....you there...stop drooling man! |
This is a great pub with friendly and helpful staff and is deserving of it’s GBG listing.
There is one other historic connection with the Golden Lion that simply has to be mentioned....
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| Steam beer here... |
The old steam brewery is located in the yard behind the pub...
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| Southick’s Brewhouse |
... it was used up until the 1950s when the last brewer retired. Southwick’s Old Dick bitter is named after him. The brew house is now a museum containing the original brewery equipment...
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| Steam engine |
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| ‘Copper’ for boiling wort/hops |
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| Grain masher... |
Now of course you can buy a decent bit of home brewery kit for less than a crate of Cloudwater craft ale and brew beer like Bass in your garage...
The brew house also has a real ale bottle shop selling beers from local micro-breweries including Southwick’s own beers.
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| Brew house real ale shop with posters for Southwick’s Old Dick and Palmerston’s Folly. |
The guy in shop explained that the barley for Southwick’s beers is grown in local fields, but the beer is brewed at Bowman’s Brewery.
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| Book of secrets.... |
So it was time to explore the secretive village of Southwick in the search for the other lion.....
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