She Sells Seashells on the Seashore....

 

Hythe seashore - more mud than shells...

...don’t try the title if you have dentures, or if you are in a Covid secure environment where spitting could be dangerous.  

Pastel cottage perfection...

Once again I am in my home village of Hythe, Hampshire checking out the pandemic pub scene.   But as the sun always shines on Hythe - as LifeAfterFootball will verify - I couldn’t resist the chance to appreciate the cute fisherman's cottages and soak up the rays in the seafront park.

Is that our cruise liner Edna...?

Of course Hythe is as cosmopolitan as Bournemouth but smaller and without the hordes of weekending Midlanders.  Container ships glide silently by in Southampton Water (as the sea is known in these parts).  Old ladies with wheelie cases sit on a bench by the shore and wonder what they are going to do now that their cruise ship is moored off Bournemouth and isn’t doing cruises, annoying the nimbys who don't want them any more than wind turbines.

Accommodation with sea views...

But tell us more about Hythe’s excellent pub scene, I hear you cry...
...well there's this one, once known as The Drummond Arms after the well known land owning family on this peninsular.  Now sadly an extinct pub and another candidate for Curmudgeon’s ‘Closed Pubs’ blog.

Seashells - through the door in the corner and up the stairs...

So just down the other end of the village precinct we saunter, in search of Seashells (hold on to your teeth).  Some may call it a pub, others a restaurant, but who cares as long as they will sell you a cask ale.  Admittedly - it doesn’t look like a pub, hiding as it does, in the shopping complex that is  aesthetically a carbuncle on the face of a pretty village, but functionally provides a posh Waitrose supermarket, a Superdrug, a newsagents, a bookies and (upstairs) Seashells.

Space - lots of it...and a quality pub sofa...

On a weekday after the August government sponsored cheap food rush and mid afternoon all is quiet...
...Covid precautions aren’t too bad with plenty of yellow and black tape, use of face masks by the bar staff and a quaint homemade ‘engaged’ /‘vacant’ sign on the toilet door.  (Turn it round yourself on entry and exit).

The single cask option from Carlsberg/Marstons is Ringwood Best Bitter - yes the traditional name is used here and not the newer alter ego ‘Razorback’.  It looks well enough but the head is a bit weak and incapable of lacings, and it is slightly lacklustre (GHBSS 2.5).

It’s nice and quiet inside but there isn’t much to see, so I ask the bar staff if I can go out onto the balcony area - no problem...

...no-one there but me....so plenty of table choice...

...and the view is nice...

....Southampton docks far enough across Southampton Water not to be an eyesore...

..with the abandoned cruise liner that may eventually be converted to a floating hotel/casino off Skagway...

...and the gentle curve of the Itchen Bridge, famously crossed by RetiredMartin on his way to his Olafs Tun tick in 2018  (warning: contains images of pre-pandemic socialising in a micro pub).

Clear blue sky punctuated by Martini Ringwood umbrellas...

...families walking by with fishing nets and buckets and spades...

...kids catching Portuguese men o’war crabs on the sea wall...

...the clear blue murky grey sea...

...the seagulls shrieking...

...a glass of (admittedly average) beer on a sunny balcony...

...it’s a bit like being at a Majorca hotel without the worry of quarantine...

 Yes life is truly idyllic here...

Ebenezers Good...

No apostrophe on the sign Russ...

...but only Russ will be able to tell me whether there should be an apostrophe in the title and, if so, where it should be (I’m aiming for a short version of 'Ebenezers is Good', Russ).   As the auto spellcheck didn’t suggest one, and Apple are never wrong...

Satellite image - shadow of a giant GH eclipses UK...?

Anyway the shadowy figure that is Garden Hermit was once again on the move to investigate post-lockdown pub life in the local village....

Bass pipe...?...
...past the mysterious half buried pipeline in the woods, possibly supplying draught Bass direct from Burton to secret storage tanks on the lost Isle of Wight...

Bridge art

...under the bridge carrying the Hythe & Fawley railway line, closed (except for Fawley Refinery traffic) in the 1960s and now no longer used by the Refinery. However it may soon become Hampshire’s newest rescucitated railway...

Pop up squashed flat advertising...

I past the litter still doing its best to advertise the UK's second favourite Australian lager brewed in Manchester, which most Australians have never heard of....

Don’t stare at this if you get migraines...

...and a pointy roofed factory where million pound leisure yachts are built...

Retirement... looming...

...and at last the village centre is near, as yet another new retirement apartment development for Hythe’s ageing population, looms into view. 

Pandemic Pub Life...

The sign at the entrance to Ebenezer’s Free House reminds us all that as well as observing the normal rules, Covid pub life should be fun, as well as a focal point of the community...

...that man Pepys again.

Tardis like space..

Just a few customers dotted around inside (more out on the beer patio though) - so even though this is a quite small one-roomed pub, there was plenty of space.  The bar had order points protected by plastic screens, sign in and sanitiser and the doors were open to blow any virus’ away.

Full line up...(Double Drop and Abbot are the usuals)..

Better still there was the usual good range of cask ales two of which change regularly.

(GHBSS 3.5)
The Butcombe Original was good  and I sat  inside to enjoy it...

Helpful table labels...

...at a table which seemed just right for a single household person.

Costa del Hythe...

I’ve always liked ‘Ebs' - it's a nice place to be.  So I had another beer and this time went to sit out on the beer patio, which has enough palm trees to make it feel a little bit Mediterranean..

Pale perfection (GHBSS 4)...

... and the beer fitted the situation perfectly.  Hopback’s Crop Circle was very good.  Cool, crisp, with a delicate floral hop flavour and as pale as a quarantine-beating holidaymaker abandoning a European holiday.

a good sign...

Much as the first time I posted about Ebenezers, in the post lockdown pandemic world, on a beautiful August afternoon, pandemic fears seem to fade away and pub life at Ebenezers seems to be as relaxed as ever...

...thank goodness and long may it be so...

England Expects...

 

...every man to do his duty, as Nelson famously told his men, using some early messaging system involving flags,  at the re-openeing of pubs post-lockdown Battle of Trafalgar.  

Of course I’ve blogged this Hythe village centre pub before  and I have unashamedly stolen this cropped photo from the previous blog post on that other blogging site that I have now abandoned.  

However in one of my first post lockdown sorties to the local village (yes really) it seemed appropriate to look in at The Lord Nelson and see how the traditional, multi-roomed pub is fairing since the pubs re-openend.

Ok it seems...
First challenge to negotiate the narrow passageway past the two small front rooms, and the Poop Deck snug, to the large rear room without encountering anyone coming the other way.  Mission accomplished, I arrived in the rear bar, squirted the sanitiser (on my hands of course) and approached the heavily fortified well screened bar.  

It was difficult to see the cask ale pump clips past the screen so I asked the barmaid...

...Doom Bar or Ringwood Forty-niner - no brainer (not Doom beer).  Name and number provided for track and trace and contactless payment made,  all very organised.

There were at least a couple of dozen customers inside and out, but I opted for the lovely sunny afternoon in the promenade beer garden...

...where whispy clouds drifted by.... 

and a breeze whispered through the huge Eucalyptus tree.  Just nice...

Hanging baskets of brightly coloured flowers festooned one of the beer garden walls - (useless fact warning)  which is in fact the back of the Hythe Pier railway workshop...

...and I watched as the electric narrow gauge pier train departed the pier head for the incoming ferry as it has done since 1922. In this frightening world of changes, such constants are strangely reassuring.

Less reassuring for it’s owners was the cruise liner sitting unloved and unused in Southampton Docks - waiting for it’s elderly clientele to re-book their post lockdown cruises..

The Ringwood Forty-niner was good  and as a bonus my beer glass explained that another sort of beer called Doom Bar is named after a sandbank (where many cask ales have foundered).  Apparently this is in Cornwall, which is near Doom Bar’s home...well about as near as you can imagine a chemical plant brewery in Wolverhampton being anyway.  

I listened to the conversation from nearby tables which seemed to be in an East End or Essex dialect - suggesting that perhaps Hythe is the new Southend on Sea for stay-cationers from the south east.

I thought I might try another pub in the village, so I wandered past the Pier entrance to Ebenesers, which had closed at 2:30pm and would not be open until early evening...

...so I thought I’d try Hythe’s oldest pub...closed...opening at 4pm...

...giving up for the day on Hythe pubs' post lockdown opening hours, I walked the mile back to the Travellers Rest and had a pint of Abbott Ale (GK not Dartmoor).  It was OK for GK (average - good)...

...and the flamingo looked on unperturbed...

Traveller's Tale

From the hermitage, a walk down a neighbouring cul de sac is the quickest route to the nearest proper pub..

...not a long walk, in fact Ordnance Survey say it’s a mere 0.5km, taking all of 6 minutes

At the end of the cul de sac, a path leads through woodland full of dappled sunlight...

...and out through the gates which were once part of an old long lost country mansion...

...just in time to wonder why the local peacock crossed the road.  Could it be because it’s too posh for chickens round here...?

.

Not far now...just the quaint little time tunnel to pre-covid Britain path....

...and there it is...The Travellers Rest... fitting after such a tough walk.
The sanitiser bottle on the table by the side gate was empty but not to worry, I pushed open the door and went inside where there was another table with sanitiser, instructions for social distancing and a laptop for entering track and trace details.
The landlord must have spotted my puzzled expression as I looked at the laptop screen and came over to help me enter my details...
“Are you going to sit outside?“
“Yes”
“You don’t need this then...”
So I was in...(or out as the case may be) and I couldn’t help thinking of the line in the Monty Python Secret Service sketch...
Can you keep a secret?
Yes.
Good...well you’re in then.

I asked if there was any real ale so I didn’t have to go round the bar where I would have been at an anti-socially close distance to another bloke.  “Hobgoblin” the landlord said, so I had a pint of that (not Jail Ale). 

Behind the pub, in the beer garden, the view across the fields and woodland is lovely...

The quintessential English countryside is no Jamaica beach scene but still not a bad view at all for Stevie T while he is rustling up his BBQ fare.  It looks like there’ll be good BBQ business with the forecast for decent weather this weekend...

The well travelled pub bloggers will have no trouble in naming this island...unless it’s just a blob of paint on a sheet...or a stingray...

There were a few people at the garden tables, and with the couple of blokes inside ...custom wasn’t bad for 4pm on a Thursday.  

The pint of Hobgoblin was good and initially the lacings seemed to be pushing for promotion to the 'Midlands Lacings Premiership’, but faded late in the game as the sun dried them up... 

As I left to walk back home for tea, I noticed that the blackboard near the pub entrance promised live music in the beer garden for Saturday and Sunday afternoon, which should bring more much needed customers.  Though for a small single room pub like this it’s a perilous balance between much needed custom and lack of covid secure space.