My Winchester wander continued, past another vacant pub...
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| Pink pub... |
...and Handy Villas....
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| Handy for something.... |
...to the Winnall Industrial Estate and a visit to the Red Cat Brewing Co. where I did my CAMRA Brewery Liaison Officer bit, catching up with recent developments etc. The day’s winter beer theme continued with a half of their award winning Mr M’s Porter, which was very good.
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| Top Winter Beer Award.... |
And that’s as good as it got today - I should have stayed there and sampled some more ’never boring' Red Cat beers, but a pub blogger's job just isn’t that easy, and there were other pubs to visit.
It was a nice sunny day and back in the centre of Winchester, I looked for somewhere to eat my ‘homemade’ lunch. Thinking the quadrangle area in front of the Cathedral would be a nice peaceful and aesthetic location, I was disappointed to find it had been turned into a building site as the contractors were in the process of dismantling the temporary Christmas ice skating rink.
Finally I found a bench in Abbey Gardens, and within a few strides of the entrance to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage fine dining restaurant, I ate my (considerably cheaper) home-made sandwich, which I thought was nice.
Just outside Abbey Gardens, is the statue of King Alfred the Great - wielding his sword and shield but unable to hold back the hords of invading motorists around him on the main thoroughfare. When I did finally manage to cross the road, there in King Alfred’s shadow was the next pub, funnily enough also owned by a King, a Greene one...
The Crown and Anchor looked a welcoming sort of pub, and according to a 2015 article by the Daily Echo’s roving pub reporter, it’s a favourite watering hole for pensioners, who apparently ‘go wild’ for the food...
Sure enough the few customers in the pub did seem to be of pensionable age, though fortunately there were no signs of any of them going wild...
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| Pensioners - resisting the urge to go wild over their food... |
...in fact the pub was very quiet, and you would have hardly believed the bustling centre of Winchester was outside. the pub had a nice atmosphere with the old bar and bar shelving worthy of particular note...
...and the sun streaming in through the front bay windows...
...but less so the Greene King ‘house’ wallpaper...
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| Symbolic?... |
At the bar there were the regular Greene King family of cask beers, Speckled Hen and Abbott Ale but there was also Belhaven Old Smoke Stack Stout. Perfect I thought...I’ve never tried that before and it will keep the winter beer theme going for the day...
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| Looking for all the world like a still from a Guinness advert... |
Unfortunately the stout wasn’t ‘smoking'...it was more like dying embers, and was definitely on the turn, with that tell tale acetic ‘zing' all too evident, a pretty poor drink.
As I did my best with the below par half of stout, I listened to a couple of old blokes on the next table chatting away to the young barman (who’d been foolish enough to come near enough to them). They were telling him tales of Liverpool such as how they actually play 'Ferry Cross the Mersey’ when you’re on the ferry across the Mersey, and other interesting stuff. To his credit the barman was very polite and stuck with it for 5 minutes or so.
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| Accessories for wild diners... |
Tales of Liverpool (almost) exhausted the two old blokes got up and left, and allowing a few minutes to make sure I didn’t get drawn in by any stray Liverpool anecdotes, I followed them out...
Beer Mat Moment
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| Greene King - Abbot Ale - A side |
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| Greene King - Abbot Ale - B side |
"I should have stayed there and sampled some more ’never boring' Red Cat beers, but a pub blogger's job just isn’t that easy, "
ReplyDeleteThat lament has been said by many a blogger to be sure.
"and within a few strides of the entrance to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage fine dining restaurant"
I thought that was a send up but see it's a real thing.
(but your home-made sandwich is indeed cheaper) :)
"is the statue of King Alfred the Great"
Funnily enough we just recently finished watching a Netflix show around his time (The Last Kingdom) and I just finished reading a book around his time (The Last Light of the Sun).
"funnily enough also owned by a King, a Greene one..."
(slow golf clap) :)
"though fortunately there were no signs of any of them going wild..."
You'll come to realise that if they're not asleep then by inference they are going wild. ;)
"I’ve never tried that before and it will keep the winter beer theme going for the day..."
My sentiments exactly.
"Looking for all the world like a still from a Guinness advert..."
I'm half surprised they haven't tried to trademark the colour of stout yet. :)
"a pretty poor drink."
Ugh. :(
"such as how they actually play 'Ferry Cross the Mersey’ when you’re on the ferry across the Mersey,"
Back in my backpacking days in the winter of '80/'81 I never failed to check in to a YMCA without said song playing. (kidding!)
"and allowing a few minutes to make sure I didn’t get drawn in by any stray Liverpool anecdotes, I followed them out..."
Getting wise in your (old) age. :)
"Greene King - Abbot Ale - B side"
I can see a B side song in that. Something to take the mickey out of Fuller's, combined with the Canadian band Rush. :P
Cheers
PS - "the pub had a nice atmosphere "
It sounds... capital. ;)
Excellent observation on the beer mat Russ - I go so far as to say it ought to be a B side too - nothing wrong with Rush - but the Fullers theme would drag it down.. ;)
ReplyDeleteDidn’t realise you were such an intrepid explorer in your younger days - backing packing in Liverpool eh?
As you probably noticed - I didn’t come up with a wizard reference as previously suggested - but it occurred to me that King Alfred might have had one - and the Witan were (apparently) mentioned in The Last Kingdom. The Witan were, I believe, wise men who advised the king. In Harry Potter JK Rowling went a little further and mis-appropriated the word Witenagemot (council of wise men) to ‘Wizengamot’ to refer to the council of wizards headed by Dumbledore. Bit of a tenuous link, but it will have to do for know..
:)
No errant apostrophe's - woo-hoo - could I have turned over a new leaf after all...?
Oooops :(
LOL, that errant one was deliberate. :)
DeleteSorry I meant ‘now' not ‘know'....
ReplyDeleteYou were overcome with joy at not having an errant apostrophe. :)
DeleteI 've enjoyed my last couple of trips to Winchester, both on Friday nights in the campervan.
ReplyDeleteDisappointed you didn't tell us what was in the sandwich, though ! Detail, detail...
Good point Martin - though I’m struggling to remember now - probably Marmite :)
DeleteWinchester certainly is an interesting place and I enjoy it too - but as always it becomes a bit more of a challenge when you get a couple of duff beers in a row.