Pub odyssey 1and 2

Hi folks.  This is a basic blog of progress through 52 pubs in 52 weeks, all within 5 miles of Harwood/Godfries Close.  One day I may be good enough to add photos and other attractions but not yet!

Week 1: Friday 7 January.  FAIRWAY TAVERN, Welwyn Garden City. (Malcolm Allen, Mike Horsman, Elvis Pile, David Room, Roger Spendley, Jeff Tipper.)

Week 2: Tuesday 11 January. ATTIMORE HALL, Welwyn Garden City.   (Mike Horsman, Gerry Murphy, Elvis Pile, Bob Polydorou, Roger Spendley, Andrew Swift, Roger Toms.)

COMMENT:  Hertfordshire is a historic county with loads of ancient pubs and where did we start but with a pub opened in 1975 (Fairway) and one in 1986 (Attimore).  But both illustrate features of modern life.  The Fairway was set up by Welwyn and Hartfield Council in 1975 along with the golf course, at a time when councils were creatively interested in providing services for ratepayers.  Thatcherisation overtook the Fairway in 2004, when it was sold to a private owner. (I know Thatcher was long gone by 2004, but her spectre sure is a long one.)  If the Fairway demonstrates a move from a help-the-citizens culture to a "there is no such thing as society" privatisation approach, then the Attimore demonstrates the creeping urbanisation of Hertfordshire. The Attimore was built as a farm somewhere between 1640 and 1700, originally with 300 acres, but the progressive expansion of Welwyn Garden City ate up the farmland and in 1986 after a survey it was decided to turn it into a pub.
Unless you love Thatcherism and/or are keen to see rural Hertfordshire concreted over these might be regarded as negative developments but at least they gave us two more pubs. And we had a decent pub meal at both.  Another positive is that both serve good beer (Courage Best Bitter and Directors at the Fairway, London Pride and Courage at the Attimore).  For this we have to thank neither Thatcher, Welwyn Hatfield Council, nor pubcos but the unremitting efforts of consumers, particularly the Campaign For Real Ale.  But for them it is a cert we would be drinking shite like Watneys Red Barrel (remember that?) whoever the owners and whatever the history.  For avoiding that fate we must raise a glass in celebration.
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