Lyndhurst Through The Beer Glass Pt 1 - The Mailman’s Arms

The New Forest town of Lyndhurst has a few claims to fame, for example...

Alice...

It is the resting place of Mrs Reginald Hargreaves, the woman/girl who Lewis Carroll based his ‘Alice’ on, in 'Alice in Wonderland'...

It has one of the worst (and probably most unsolvable), traffic bottlenecks in the New Forest...even in 1950, John Betjeman picked up on the effect of early traffic when featuring Lyndhurst in the second of his Coast and Country radio programmes on the West of England Home Service (4th August 1950). For example:
‘But on a warm night you can smell it [the New Forest] between the wafts of petrol and scent that linger on tarmac....’
and,
‘But I can imagine that before motors came into existence, before the ‘caffs’ and the ‘kiosks’ and the guest houses..., before the petrol pumps, wires, poles and signs that follow the motor car - before all these things, Lyndhurst, lost in the forest and its nearest railway station three miles away, must have been a paradise to stay in.’

Tesla - quality traffic in Lyndhurst

...and, for a small country town, rather remarkably, it has seven pubs, in the locality.

Perhaps not so bad a place then, for a Saturday afternoon beer walk on a pleasant autumn day...accompanied by my son, Martin.

“Begin at the beginning," the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” (Alice In Wonderland)

So we did, and the starting point, at the bottom of Lyndhurst’s High Street, was the Greene King’s The Mailman’s Arms...

Mailmans Arms - ‘green’ King

This is a lovely little oldey worldey, flower bedecked kind of pub, which, according to the sign on the wall, once upon at time sold Burton’s finest beers...

...but not any more...

Resigned to the prospect of a Greene King IPA, it was a relief to see that the house beer was in fact Bolton’s Bench Forest Bitter, named after the local landmark, commemorating an 18th century New Forest Master Keeper, the Duke of Bolton...

Not IPA (possibly)...

...while it has to be said that the pint looked remarkably like a GK IPA in it’s appropriately branded glass - it was in fact a good pint, which just shows that re-naming a 3.9% IPA, can make all the difference.

I’d like to tell you more about the pub's quaint interior but, as it was a nice day, we decided to sit outside in the front beer garden...

Beer garden.... 

Though Lyndhurst suffers greatly from the excesses of the motor car, ironically, right next door to the pub is the Ferrari and Maserati dealer, ensuring that the bankers and stockbrokers returning to their weekend homes in the New Forest, have suitably powerful vehicles to cruise around the 40mph speed limited Forest roads.  

So at least they are ‘quality’ motor cars, if you can afford one...

....with views of stunning supercars...

Coincidentally, while we sat there drinking our beers and pondering what it must be like to drive a quarter of a million pounds worth of Italian super car, the Glory Boys (Mods for Life) turned up, as if to remind us that not all classic Italian motoring needs to cost an arm and a leg...

Affordable Italian motoring...(not the black one)

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'
'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat. (Alice in Wonderland)

So we set off up the High Street to the next pub...

A Summery Summary...

Yes - with the last (Pontus Fractus...) post I’m bang up to date again...so like Hector one of our Leonbergers, I can relax...

He’s not dead - he’s sleeping....

...although to be honest Pontus Fractus was April 2019...So what I have been doing for the rest of the summer? You might ask (or you might not)...

Well - not visiting many pubs sadly - but nevertheless I did get out of the hermitage now and then to do a bit of carousing* (like you do...)

GH - preparing to emerge from the hermitage and carouse...

In a vain attempt to retain (or recover) any pub blogging kudos I had, here’s a quick summary...

Happy Vibrant Foresters...

First up, the Vibrant Forest had its final bash at its Lymington brewery before moving to new premises.  It was well attended, in fact they were bussing them in...

...and the sun shone and the excellent beer flowed (as always)...

April also saw the publication of my first book....courtesy of my son Andy...

...needless to say it’s not on the Sunday Times Best Seller list - but it is an epic...

After that I had a break with a beer in the greenhouse (no not a pub - the greenhouse in my garden)...

Of course it’s not all about beer (is it?) - so Mrs GH and I managed to fit in a cream tea at a posh hotel in Bournemouth...

Oooh cakes....look at his happy little face...

...not just any hotel mind...this one was the house that a certain member of royalty (Edward, Prince of Wales) bought for his mistress (one Lillie Langtry)...

Just a small pad for the mistress...

...and a beautiful place it was...

Forsaking the beer at Lillie’s old place (not sure if there was was any real ale anyway) the next item on the agenda was the Southampton Beer Festival, as usual in the ‘cave' under the stand at St Mary’s,  home of Southampton FC...

Naturally I would have taken more photographs if I had not been too busy sampling some of the 70 beers on offer.

Then a chance visit to Downton Brewery for one of their ‘Firsty Friday’ evening sessions, which was really good with an excellent range of their beers on cask and at around £3 a pint, extremely good value....

Beer brewing in action at Downton Brewery

Beer drinking in action at Downton Brewery

And then - to top it all - Vibrant Forest opened their new brewery at Hardley, near Southampton - only a mile away from my house (bliss)...

It goes without saying that this is now my 'go-to’ watering hole...

Hi-brow beer and reading material...

...and they had their first beer festival - the ‘Vibrant Forest Gathering’ in August...

...large and vibrant gathering ...

...and again - the sun shone, people turned up in their droves, and there were some cracking home and guest beers.... 

Look at all those beers....note murky glass of beer used as paperweight to stop  programme blowing away...

So that was it really - I suppose I better get down the pub now...

* see ‘About Garden Hermit' page for an explanation (sort of)

Pontus Fractus and all that...

Another visit to distant West Yorkshire...back to Pontefract in fact...

All that I see is mine - as Ilbert De Lacy must have said of the view from Pontefract Castle.

...not to tick the latest entry in the 2019 Good Beer Guide, but rather for a visit to my son, Andy and his fiancé Leah.

On Saturday the three of us had a wander around Pontefract in search of a good beer or two.

Originally fearsome but now a bit fallen down...

We had a look round the remains of what was reputedly England’s most fearsome castle.  Still a large and quite impressive ruin on a steep hill overlooking the town and miles of surrounding countryside.

...and what better after all that castle history stuff than to partake in a little Weatherspoons history at their town centre pub, The Broken Bridge.

Though the premises looks like it has all the history of a disused Poundland store, Weatherspoons have established that there was once an old historic house on the site.  They have also established that the name Pontefract comes from Pontus Fractus which is Latin for 'our bridge is broken' (or something like that).  Another triumph for Spoons' historic researchers....

Inside it looks like...

...well...

...a Weatherspoons...yes that same old successful formula...

...and even though Weatherspoons are expert purveyors of the ridiculously cheap pint of real ale,  the mind boggles as to how the Chinese manage to get their casks over here for the price  (unless there’s a secret pipeline)...

....no hang on...I’ve just read the pump clip 'small print' and it seems it was brewed in Wolverhampton (aren’t they all...?).

As this visit was also before the  'phone crash and factory-reset’ event (see last post) once again I cannot remember which beer I had (and alcohol induced memory loss had nothing to do with it).

But these are the only two pump clip photos I have - so it was probably one of them and Andy would have had the other.

I also have two 'beer in glass' photos...this looks like the ‘Chinese’ pale ale from Wolverhampton...

...and this must be the ‘Monkey Wrench’.  CAMRA experts may be able to tell whether either or both were good...

After this things could only get better and it wasn’t just the Pontefract architecture...

Tim would have preferred these premises for his Spoons (probably)...

...we also found a proper pub...

I had visited the Robin Hood on my last visit - and though it was still serving the same excellent beers from its own ‘Henry Smith’ brewery, it also had a bit of a cosmetic facelift inside.  There was a great atmosphere to the place, bar staff and landlord really friendly ...

The Henry Smiths bitter was excellent.  The landlord explained that since there were a number of other Smiths who had historically set up breweries in Yorkshire, there might as well be a Henry Smith’s as well - what better reason...!

Proper Yorkshire beer...

In fact it was so very good, I had to have another one...

There were other (perfectly good) beers too...

An absolutely top notch pub and beer - well worth a visit...

Cars possibly all just off shot - waiting to run me over when I cross the road...

...though expect to take your life in your hands crossing the busy road junction....(don’t ask me how I managed to get a photo of it with no cars - I’ve no idea...  :)

Give It Some Welly...

...which is hardly what I've been doing these last few weeks as far as my pub blogging is concerned...

...but never mind, all good things come to those who wait (well here's another blog post anyway....)

Well...are you...?

This intriguing Greene King poster caught my eye, though I have to admit it might not have been during this latest pub visit (it could have been the last pub visited? See 'factory reset' issue below).  I tried to find out a little bit more about the Black Baron and Greene King's website suggested that I click on their Seasonal Ale Calendar to find out more.  When I did I got a white page with a bit of computer programming text that said 'Access Denied' - so I'm none the wiser...

Street Corner Character...

This visit was to the Wellington Arms, 56 Park Road, Southampton.  Whatpub says that it's a Star (Heineken) owned pub and dates from the 1860s.  Though it's earlier name of The Swan has changed, the pub certainly retains its traditional residential street corner location and pub character.

Symphony in lilac...

They don't make window frames, glazing and tiled friezes like that anymore.  Though the paintwork, which appeared to be possibly deep purple, or even brownish, on the previous photos - seems now to be lilac on closer inspection...

Proper darts cabinet...

The traditional character continues inside with two rooms (to the right and left) off the doorway entrance area, and the central double sided bar opening into both rooms.  Bench seating, proper tables and chairs, beige decor, patterned carpet and dartboard - it's all there...

Noblewomen's toilet door not shown...

 ...and even special toilets for noblemen...

Party Seven in cask (better than trying to open the can and spraying it all over the kitchen ceiling (or is it...?)

Ok - lets get to the bar, and in case you were wondering about the significance of that GK poster, (as I still am) - don't -  it's not GK beer here.  In fact a rather impressive choice is available...though those two spare hand pumps could do with GK IPA and Abbott on them (only joking...)

Other bar beers...

...and there are some more in the other room on the other side of the bar.

Happy beer...

I'd like to tell you what beer I had but, in the ensuing weeks of blogging inactivity since this visit, my phone crashed and needed a factory reset so I lost my notes and can only rely on an unreliable memory and the set of photos in the 'Wellington Arms' album on Google photos (that'll teach me).  

It definitely wasn't the Party Seven (anyone who experienced that beer in the 70s would be put off just by the name, even if the beer is different), but it might have been the Dartmoor Legend.  Anyway, my son Martin looks happy - so it must have been good.

...or door to the cellar...?

...and look at that bit of quality upcycling of an old door....

The Wellington Arms is an excellent  traditional pub - still full of old pubby character with plenty of beer choice... to boot (see what I did there...)

...definitely worth giving it a visit (if not some welly)...


Beer Mat Moment

Titanic Brewery Stout - A side.

Titanic Brewery Stout - B side