Garden Hermit Goes...To The Turf Cutters.

Turf (peat) cutting is now largely a thing of the past, except in Ireland, and for a few specific activities elsewhere, such as for distilling peated single malt whiskies.

However once upon a time turf cutting was a common practice to provide fuel for rural homes. 

 

East Boldre on lower left (pub shown with pint pot symbol) - Bing maps.

 The Turfcutters Arms is the only pub in the small New Forest hamlet of East Boldre, which sits between heath land to the west, and cultivated/pasture land down to the shallow valley of the Beaulieu River to the east.  It's name harks back to ancient times when New Forest locals cut turf on the New Forest heathland, for fuel.  

Certain New Forest folk (known as commoners), still have various rights on the New Forest,  the main one still in use is the right to allow their ponies, donkeys, cows and occasionally pigs to graze on forest land.  The list of 'Commoner's Rights' still includes the Right of Turbary' - the right to cut peat for fuel.  However the New Forest National Park leaflet I was reading says: 'Now no longer practiced'.  

Anyhow there's a little bit of history, but now back to the Turfcutters Arms. 

 This is a lovely old pub, comprising a small right-angled bar, and several interconnecting small rooms, with old wooden or stone floors, and various nooks and crannies.

 Classic old pub furniture, tables, chairs, bar stools and bench seats abound, and the walls are covered with old black and white photos of local New Forest life...

New Ransomes threshing machine 1929

 ...there is even an 'East Boldre Oral History Listening Station'...

Listen to local history with a pint!

 Whilst the pub is well used by tourists and people outside the village, this is clearly also a typical village community pub.

I was here with Mrs GH for lunch, but first a beer...

Hedge Hop, Double Drop and Scrumdown

 ... and there was a nice choice of 3 real ales on the pumps.  I went for the Greene King Scrumdown Golden Ale (4.1%), apparently 'perfect to enjoy with the rugby'.  A very pleasant ale, which certainly seemed to have a golden glow...

Glowing...

The pub food was excellent, but once again I forgot the 'before' photo, but here's the 'after' photo...

Guess the meals

 

The pint of Flack Manor Hedge Hop (4.9%) premium ale was also very good, with its strong malty taste.

Hedge Hop premium ale

This pub is full of character and oozes local history and on a weekday lunchtime, it was fairly busy, but it is still one of those fairly quiet, calm pubs where I could have sat for hours with a pint soaking up the atmosphere. 

Atmospheric history

 

Garden Hermit Goes ...North Pt III...To The Brown Cow.

 

 

The final pub visit on this short excursion north to Pontefract, was to The Brown Cow, Ackworth, West Yorkshire.

The Brown Cow. (Image - Google street view)

 

Ackworth, just happens to be the birth place of one of Yorkshire's great cricketing heroes, Yorkshire and England fast bowler Graham Stevenson.

This is a 'traditional pub and dining' establishment, and myself, son Andy and daughter-in-law, Leah, went along early on a Saturday evening for a meal.

The Brown Cow is a large pub with double gable frontage, and was once a hotel. Inside it is generally one large open space, with tables and chairs around the walls and plenty of standing space near the large bar.  

 It appears that this is a local community pub as well as pulling in diners from further away, and they have Quiz nights, and themed food nights, e.g steak nights, Italian menu nights, happy hour, England Euro matches on the TV, etc.

Tables and plenty of space for standing punters near the bar

 

 Staff were present to wait on the tables, though the first job was to go to the bar and have a look what real ales were available.

 

A fine pair...

 

Timmy Taylor's BoltMaker (4%) and Yorkshire Blonde (3.9%) by Ossett Brewery were on the pumps, and during the evening I tried them both (not at the same time).  Both beers were as excellent as they look in the photo.

Let's see those again...

Pale, delicate and crystal clear

 

 

Classic Yorkshire bitter

 

 Needless to say, early Saturday evening custom was building up with drinkers and especially diners steadily arriving.

The food was really good pub fare, but unfortunately I ate it without remembering to take a photo (must have been hungry).  Luckily I remembered to take photos of the puddings...

...the cheesecake and ice cream was just right...

Perfectly proportioned and delicious pudding

...Andy, never having been one to refuse a culinary challenge, had the towering Knickerbocker Glory (top photo), the biggest pudding on the menu, by far, and we could tell that the waitress was keen (nay...amused) to see whether he would be able to finish it all. We even had a sneaking suspicion that they had oversized it slightly on purpose.

Happily he did finish, with (apparently) a tad of gastronomic discomfort as the prize. 

The Brown Cow is a good, friendly pub, with real ale and good food at decent prices.

And so Garden Hermit goes south again...

 Garden Hermit Goes...North Pt II...Back To 1903

After arriving at Pontefract on Friday teatime and a quick 'Thai Fusion' takeaway meal - don't ask me - but it tasted ok...

... I went with my son Andy to his badminton club meeting, and while I was there even spent a few minutes trying to beat all the feathers off the shuttlecock with the metal edge of the racket (long, long time since I've played!).

 The important part of the evening though was the trip to the pub after badminton club, the 1903 at Hooton Pagnell,, which is a 'bar and kitchen'.

I had visions of a room full of worktops, a sink, fridge/freezer etc etc with a bar, but no - it's just a trendy modern name, and it actually looked remarkably like a pub inside, which was reassuring.  Let's call it a pub...

Looks like a pub...

 Inside, the first thing to catch my attention was a large plaque on the wall with the name of the pub and, underneath, a piece from Hilaire Beloc's essay 'On Inns' (see top photo).  Probably as relevant (or more so) now than it was in the early 1900s, and surely a clarion cry for that great pub and real ale campaign group CAMRA.  Beloc was clearly well ahead of the game in worrying about pubs.

Anyway the 1903 Session Blonde 3.9% (Chin Chin Brewing Co) was bang on after a strenuous evening watching people play badminton, cool, light and refreshing....

The second thing to grab (everyone's) attention, was a women with a group of people, who had a very loud laugh that was uncannily similar to a neighing horse. Unnerving...

I needed a half of the Cow Whisperer Milk Stout 4.6% (Chin Chin Brewing Co) after that, which was smooth and perfect for calming the nerves.

Time passing quickly...

Time passed quickly, as discussion amongst club members inevitably focused on their unbeaten top of league performance, and the possibility of staying unbeaten and winning the league (which they subsequently did),...

... with the occasional interjection of nearby 'neighing'.

The 1903 is a nice bar/kitchen/pub/inn* and the beer was excellent ( this is Yorkshire after all)!

* delete as appropriate.

Garden Hermit Goes...North Pt 1 - Stop For A Bass

 

 While planning a journey north for a weekend with my son and daughter-in-law in Pontefract, (West) Yorkshire it occurred to me that I may be passing close to Bass country, as covered extensively in the adventures of Britain's Beermat in his blog 'Life After Football'.

After a bit of research on the internet it became clear that I could...

1)  Call in at one of two pubs selling Draught Bass, just off  J23 M1, or,

2)  Stop for my usual 'comfort break' at the Roadchef services at J15a.

It wasn't the most difficult decision I have ever made, and I arrived at The Horse, free house pub and restaurant, at about lunchtime on a Friday.  The pub is at the side of the busy A512, just a mile off the M1 on the outskirts of Shepshed, Leicestershire.  

The Horse pub

Ordering a pint of Draught Bass felt almost surreal, like I had come across some kind of oasis.  

"A pint of Bass please" said a voice that didn't to be mine, and I watched the pour and the mist of bubbles slowly rising to the top of the glass sporting its iconic gold edged red triangle...was it a mirage?...

 

Blurred - but not a mirage

 No...just another rubbish blurry photo - it was real.

Stop me if you think I'm getting a bit emotional here, but I can't remember when I last had a proper pint of Bass in my hand! *

Absolute nectar...

 

Bass and flat cap - what a pairing!

.. I thought I'd better have a quick bite to eat too...

Lunch

There was a steady stream of Friday lunchtime diners arriving while I was there, and a few regulars at the bar engaged in typical bar banter - whatever that is.

Locals grappling with the 'free pie' issue

At one point in the banter the landlord seemed to offer one of the regulars a free pie, and whilst the general consensus at the bar seemed to be 'you can't go wrong with a free pie', the offer is turned down with a mumbled 'my freezer is full'.  Mystifying...

 

When you wish lunch could have lasted longer.. Proper Bass lacings though.

The Horse is a really nice little pub and perfectly placed to break that journey north with a Bass.  

Just a fleeting glimpse of Britain's Beermat's world of Bass pubs - 

- but I won't miss the Roadchef services.

* I've remembered - it was at the Peg and Parrot, Totton (no longer serving Bass as far as I am aware) - see my old blog post on Wordpress - 'There Be Treasure'

...Back For Another Pint At A Wierd Weatherspoons

Quiet stillness...St Thomas' graveyard, Lymington.

In the quiet stillness of the graveyard of my long past blogs, rests one entitled 'Summoned By Bells',  an epitaph to my fist visit to JDW's 'The Six Bells, Lymington, SO41 9ND back in March 2018.

In it,  I focussed mainly on cheap beer,  the name of the pub being linked to an old pub on the site and the beer drinking bell ringers from St Thomas' church next door., and... oh yes, virtually all my photos were out of focus.

On a more recent visit with my son, Martin, I realised that there was still some interesting, if not downright wierd, stuff about this pub that I had missed last time, and so here we go again...

google maps

The more recent history of The Six Bells premises is that it was an old home furnishing and linen store, a local family enterprise, which traded on the site for 150 years, as C. Ford & Co.  It is situated at the top of Lymington High Street.  

 The old shop front lettering is now displayed inside the pub...

Still on display, the name for household furnishing in Lymington for 150 years.

A photo frame inside the pub records what happened next....

The slightly bizarre tale of a furniture shop

 ....in a nutshell, it was purchased in 1997 by two blokes,  Terry and Geoff.  They sold gifts and similar household stuff to C. Ford & Co. , and even left the old shopfront name in place.  

Their claim to fame according to the newspaper article shown in the above photo, was that it was Britain's rudest shop, with the owners 'putting straight' any customers who didn't behave well in the shop.  For example: 'if you can't leave those books tidy, then leave them alone'.

When Terry and Geoff decided to call it a day, they sold to JDW, and the story hit the national media (just google 'Britains Rudest Shop').  In their last few weeks of trading they put a sign in the window which said:  

'Britain's Rudest Shop is Closing Down

After 170 years only a few weeks left to be insulted, don't miss the experience!!'

...and when it closed, a new sign took it's place...

'**** OFF!

WE'RE CLOSED'

It should be said however that the insults were (mainly) delivered, and received, in good humour.

How to follow a story like that?  

 Well I suppose I'd better ask for a pint of cask...

Just ask for any of these 3 top cask ales...

....I was tempted by the three headliners (and the Ruddles Best), but in the end opted for a Goddard's Wight Squirrel 4.3% ...

Price rises may have occurred since this photo was taken

  ...a rich, russet colour, not unlike the island's red (not white) squirrels it refers to.  Definitely a NBSS 3.

Russet - just like an Isle of Wight squirrel

Spurning the cask, like an insulted furniture store customer, Martin had some some craft and foreign beers...

Craft

Foreign

...but we buried our differences and shared the crisps...

Two flavour crisps - made for sharing

The other slightly wierd thing in this pub, is on the first floor balcony area, where a set of mirrors are placed to give an kaleidoscopic view of St Thomas' church next door.

St Thomas - creatively reflected.

The rudest shop back story of The Six Bells must be one of the quirkiest for  a Weatherspoons pub...

 ....and all the photos are in focus this time, win-win!

There goes the bell, drink up!

...Up The Masthead In The Bosun's Chair

 Well I did once, when I was a lad.  If I recall correctly, it was at one of those sailing regatta events, on the Hamble River.   I was invited to the event by a guy who I used to sail with - if you can call it sailing  (bear with me there's a tenuous link here somewhere).

He had a fast racing dingy called a Merlin Rocket, and was desperate for a crew.  I was the only volunteer,  I might have even been press-ganged. 

Ahoy, me hearties...

Our sailing sessions usually ended abruptly with a capsized dinghy and both of us swimming in Southampton Water.  Usually it was my fault because I wasn't fast enough to get from one side of the dinghy to the other and balance it, when he changed direction ('tacking' - I believe is the nautical term).  

Anyhow, enough of my short, and very wet, sailing career.  

The Bosun's Chair, Lymington SO41 3BA, in this case is (fortunately) a pub, not a flimsey fabric seat in which you're hauled to the top of a yacht's mast, to admire the view, with your legs trembling.

Bosun's Chair - old coaching house (and sailor's rest?)

The pub is in the old quay area of Lymington which positively oozes naval history (as well as estuarial mud).  Historically Lymington was a haven for smugglers, but was less popular with the French, who attacked and burned the town three times, in the 14th and 16th centuries.

Today, the quay is quieter and no longer under threat from French pyromaniacs.  Sailing types loiter, and daytrippers wander the narrow streets...

Smuggler-free zone

 ...where pretty fisherman's cottages jostle for position.

Cottages jostling....

The Bosun’s Chair is a Wadworth pub and must have, at one time, been a cosy multiroomed establishment, but now, as is the fashion, is mainly one open space decorated in a contempory style, which gives the impression that the pub industry has been invaded by kitchen designers...

Kitchen styled...

Despite this, it is a pleasant pub, which still retains some semblance of cosy-ness.  Needless to say there are plenty of decorative nautical references (but you've probably had enough of those already in this post).

On the bar is a trio of cask Wadworth beers...

Wadworth's finest...

The Henry’s IPA 3.6%, is a pleasant session beer although, with such a modest abv, it is never going to make the BJCP standard for an IPA in a month of Sundays.  The artistically branded glass makes up for it...

Artistic script

...and it is a very drinkable - NBSS 2

In the back yard, there is a large canopy which I guess could be 'sail'-like in keeping with a nautical theme, though I couldn't help thinking it looked like a Bedouin tent.  Very practical though, and it will keep you dry in the coastal mists and rain.

Beer tent

As I left the pub I wandered down the street to admire the impressive railway station (built 1860), while my son, Martin made a detour to the pub toilet.  

Lymington Town station

Martin emerged from the pub and looked about for me. I yelled at him from down the street...

... but it was the landlord (who had followed him out) who spotted me first, and helpfully pointed Martin in the right direction.  Now that's looking after your customers…

The End...