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...