...Caravanning To (R)ookesbury Park

 

'ookesbury Park - didn't quite get the R in...

Rookesbury Park is a private estate near Wickham in Hampshire, and on it, hidden away in the woods, is Rookesbury Park Caravan & Motorhome Club site, which is where I and Mrs GH spent a long weekend for our second trip out in 'Hector'...

Hector with his top - popped

...our recently acquired Eriba Troll caravan. Technically owners of Eriba caravans don't go caravanning, they go 'Eriba-ing'.. It's a niche thing...  If you are compelled to know more about Eribas - this blog is a very informative and amusing read.

Sunset over Rookesbury Park

Rookesbury Park is a really nice woodland site with excellent facilities (toilest/showers etc) and the reception area sports a nice display of tyre planters...

Hippie Minion?

 ...and other garden art....

Not an Eriba

  Even the dog walk area had some garden art...

Brambil - sit!

 Another nice little touch (attached to the front of the toilet/shower block), was a collection of 'pick your own' herbs - great for your caravan culinary adventures...

Vertical herb gardening

 Having arrived on the Thursday afternoon and pitched our little 'des res' comprising Hector and his awning, we relaxed for the rest of the day, beer and wine etc.   On the Friday morning, we ventured out to the small hamlet of Southwick, which, you may recall, I have blogged before - covering the village's two 'lion' pubs.  

No pub visits there this time though, just a wander round the village and a chat with a friendly group of Dutch motorcyclists who had been on a touring holiday of the Sout/Southwest.  

However I did need to visit the Southwick Brewhouse. 

Southwick Brewhouse

The Southwick Brewhouse is situated in the back yard of the Golden Lion pub.  It is an old Victorian brewhouse, and upstairs there is now a museum, showing the old brewing equipment.  The head brewer was called Dick Olden - he brewed at the brewhouse for some 50 years from the early 1900's to the 1950s, and is celebrated by 'Old Dick' bitter, one of a colelction of Suthwyck beers brewed at a local farm specially for the brewhouse.

On the lower floor of the brewhouse there is a beer shop selling a range of real ales from different breweries, some local, some further afield, as well as the range of Suthwyck Ales.  This site has more on the history of the brewhouse...https://www.southwickbrewhouse.co.uk/history/

So having stocked up with beers it was back to the caravan to try some out...

Proper craft lager - al fresco

...the Ammonite beer is a lager, and is part of the 'Jurassic Coast range' from Piddle Brewery in Dorset, 'a traditional European lager' they say, and as it is not 'brewed' at a factory in Wolverhampton - it is full of flavour and tastes really very good.  

 A 10p donation is made to the Jurassic Coast Trust  (www.jurassiccoast.org) from every bottle of beer sold.  I like a good beer with a good cause.

 The following morning we went for a look around Wickham, a large village that looks like a mini-market town, with it's traditional square. Henry was first in the car as usual, not wanting to be left behind...

Dog loaded and ready to go...

Wickham was once a centre of railway activity with it's own reasonable sized station and goods facilities on the Meon Valley Line.  We parked in the car park on the site of the old station...

...the trackbed of some of the railway line still exists, and forms the picturesque Meon Valley walking trail out from Wickham over the River Meon and through the countryside to Meonstoke....

Trail - on the old railway bridge over the River Meon

We, however, walked the other way into the centre of Wickham to have a look round the old square...

Wickham Square - it's more of a rectangle really - but I'm just splitting hairs

 After a bit of shopping for lunch at the butchers and bakery, we came to the far end of the square...

...wait a minute aren't those two guys sat outside a pub drinking beer?...(too shocked to take photo)....

...checks watch...

10:30am...and the pub is open (no it's not Weatherspoons).

Well, when in Rome Wickham...

... a pint of Bowman's Swift One please - lovely cask pint - most unexpected at that time of the morning and very good.  The staff kindly gave Henry a drink too...

Little bowl/big dog - think he'll need another!

So this wonderful pub, open at 10:30 on a Saturday morning was The Square Cow (I wonder if it was ever the 'The Cow in the Square'?).  

  A lovely old pub, and the building dates back to the 16th century, still with old stone flag floor.  The staff explained that there is an original part of the 16th century wall decorations in the meeting room upstairs and kindly allowed me to go and have a look...

 So, up the Mooseum of Fame stairs...

 

 

 ...and here it is, behind a protective glass frame...

...pretty impressive eh?!  (sorry for the glass reflections).

16th century decor...not Laura Ashley...

I'd definitely recommend a visit to Wickham, and to The Square Cow, but for us, back to the caravan for a nice cheese and ham roll and bit of pork pie for lunch...

...and more holiday relaxation...

Bye for now.

...To Roll Out The (Dusty) Barrel.

GH 'basking in the limelight of his dog' (BRAPA quote*)

I sarted writing this post 10 months ago...

...it's had a long gestation period...

...I haven't blogged since before the pandemic...

...maybe I've just been useless at doing my blog...

...or it could even be 'bloggers block'.

I've now decided to change the blog title, by removing the '...To The Pub' bit, just in case I go somewhere else worth blogging about other than a pub (you never know!).  I suppose the downside of this is that all my previous posts will also have the new heading, and look wrong (possibly).

Anyway back to the post.  Consider it a compilation post as I've visited this place a number of times since it opened  a couple of years ago (warning...there may be some continuity issues with the photos).

The Dusty Barrel, Pylewell Precinct, Hythe, Hants is the newest addition to Hythe's pub scene and the first real micropub.  When I say 'real micropub' I'm not alluding to any CAMRA definition, simply that it occupies a retail premises, formerly the home of 'Goody Buys' discount goods store.  So, while I can no longer buy a birthday card for under 50p, I can now buy a great range of cask and keg beers.

Proper mobility scooter outside.

The Dusty Barrel is a two storey micropub, with bar (and some seating) downstairs and further seating upstairs.  The stairs to the first floor are quite steep and it is best to bear this in mind and review your post-drinking stairs negotiation skills before deciding whether to sit up or downstairs.

Downstairs bar, WC on right and stairs round to left.

 Regardless of the risks - we went upstairs...

 The pub has 4 cask ales and 8 keg beers available most (if not all) of the time, and the cask Barton Bitter from Steamtown Brewery was very good,

Barton Bitter - very good/ lager glass - average.

The seating and tables are a functional tube and plank design,  though the upstairs area also has retro chairs and a sofa, for additional nostalgia and comfort demanded by older customers.  It is what the Dusty Barrel calls a 'stripped back industrial/retro setting' - nothing wrong with that!

On the rear wall are double DJ decks, (not in use at the time of our visit)....

Lime green retro and brewing diagrams for CAMRA members

...however, when the DJ does arrive, the vinyl is handily attached to the wall...

Boney M, Jackson 5, Bruce S, Focus and other great sounds...

Of course being upstairs, there isn't a bar, which is downstairs.  For persons of a mature age this could pose problems as normally it is difficult to remember what day it is, never mind what the 4 cask, and 8 keg beers are.  Fear not - The Dusty Barrel, has a beer menu, and thanks to the wonders of CCTV the bar staff will (hopefully) clock you looking at said menu and be up the stairs to serve you, before you can say...

Upstairs table service menu

....I'll have a half of Mangolicious (Laine Brew Co) please (very good).

Mangolicious!

One of the strangest things about The Dusty Barrel is the audio loop playing in the toilet, which, in an American drawl, bombards you with trivia facts on various themes, while you are answering your call of nature.  Very educational - maybe schools and colleges will take it up! 

Of course the WC is also a good place to study some additional brewing equipment diagrams, especially for the technically minded drinkers.

Toilet training - Important diagrams about brewing

Hythe's first proper micropub is a winner, plenty of regularly changing beers, good atmosphere and about 15 minutes walk from my home - what's not to like!

Beermat moment...Laine Brew Co., Brighton

 

* Trivia Quiz - Name the title of the BRAPA post in which he used the quote.

Cast in Sway

 

Here is an interesting map for you. The New Forest on the west (left) side, Portsmouth and Southampton conurbations, centre and right, and bottom right a small diamond shaped island, which, remains largely undiscovered by pub bloggers.  Though there was a brief expedition by the Famous Five (Four Old Farts and a Friend) in October 2018 (https://ghpub.blogspot.com/2018/10/five-find-lost-island-pt-1-ferry-to.html )  this failed to make much progress beyond the landing point.  On a positive note however Retired Martin has discovered a new island in Sheffield...

 

 

Today's expedition however, in pre-Lockdown2 August 2020, was along the blue line on the map from Hythe to the village of Sway in the New Forest.  Long before 'Concrete Bob' McAlpine got to grips with the stuff, and built the Glenfinnan Viaduct for the Harry Potter movies, Sway found its claim to fame with mass concrete.  The Sway Tower (photo above from Wiki) was built as a folly soon after the material was invented.  There's a fascinating little account of it here...  http://engineering-timelines.com/scripts/engineeringItem.asp?id=125

There are apparently a number of early mass concrete buildings in the Sway area, and one of the least mentioned is the mass concrete former piggery, now the premises of New Forest Koi, where we popped in for a bit of ornamental fish retail therapy (well at least we bought some fish food). (Image Google Maps)

Naturally, as a retired Civil Engineer, I’d be happy to talk concrete all day, but you wouldn't appreciate it.  However Sway also has a couple of pubs - so we couldn't pass by without stopping for a quick drink at the Hare and Hounds, a family owned hostelry.  As the photo shows it's quite a big sprawling pub, but nevertheless as non-bookers we were informed on this lunchtime that there was no socially distanced room inside the Inn - but plenty of room in the rear garden.

So - fully sanitised, we found a table in the garden and very efficient staff armed with smart pad computer thingies, quickly took our drinks order, while we relaxed and watched the pub garden world go by...

In classic Hampshire dining pub tradition there was nothing much going on, just peace and quiet, with one or two families dining outside...

...the distant sound of children in the play area, and a firmly grounded Granny fretting at Freddy frolicking fearlessly, far up on the climbing frame ...

...and tree stump art...

....and the gravity served cask house beverage specially for dogs.

The waitress brought the drinks to the table and the Badger Best bitter was perfect for a sunny summer afternoon,  (GHBSS 3). 

As the lacings slid slowly down the glass it was almost paradise.... in fact the only thing that even slightly dented the calm perfection that is Hampshire dining pubbing, was when a little boy dashed back from the play area to his parents table, to announce loudly and urgently, with appropriate trouser holding gesture, that he needed a wee...

But will it be the same post Lockdown2?...  

Soon, I may have to come out from behind the sofa and have a look....😁

A Window on Hythe History...

 

Last August the second wave/lockdown of the pandemic and Retired Martin's move to Sheffield were still events that were unimaginable* when, with both excitement and apprehension,  I set off to visit one of the oldest pubs in Hythe, and amazingly one which has kept (more or less) the same name since first being opened in 1851.

According to the authoritative source of Hythe history, Graham Parkes, in his book ‘Hythe A Waterside Village’, the site of the pub has been associated with beer and brewing for over 250 years, when a malthouse and possibly a brewery existed from around 1750. 

The Malt, as it is now known, started out life in the 19th century as the Malt and Hops Tavern.  Though the brick building itself is not a historical attention grabber, it still sits on a street of pretty terraced cottages of similar vintage, though some shades of their exterior decor may be more modern.

 

 

Inside The Malt there is now little sense of the pub's history and it is laid out as a 'homely' pub. Sofas, well spaced tables and chairs, vases of flowers, clock over the mantelpiece and the TV playing the afternoon quiz shows...

 

...and the cosy little bar, definitely make it feel like you could be in someone's front room.  The most striking (and probably the main remaining historical) feature is definitely the front bay window (top photo) which lets the sunlight stream into the bright and airy front lounge bar.  There's a rear bar/games room too and out back there is a pleasant secluded garden (I should have been an estate agent).

I mentioned being apprehensive about this visit because I had heard that there was no cask ale here.  Indeed there wasn't, but I needn't have worried, as the keg John Smith's Smoothflow was drinking well (as Retired Martin would say)....and little did I know that post Lockdown2 this might become the pub bloggers 'drink of choice' across the land.

...and it was pleasant just to sit, sipping my classic ale and listen to the other two locals having a go at answering quiz show questions when prompted by the TV.

The sign on the wall said it all really and though this historic pub may be firmly in the modern age, it is still doing a good job of being a great place where locals can relax and socialise over a drink or two.....what more can you ask for?....

 

hmmm...a keg of top craft ale like Greene King West Coast IPA wouldn't go amiss...!

* though of course the threat of Russ' apostrophe check was ever present... (did I get that one right Russ?)

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...