Tuesday 29 March: BAKER ARMS, BAYFORD ( Malcolm Allen, Chris Haden, Mike Horsman, Gerry Murphy, Elvis Pile, Bob Polydorou, Andrew Swift, Roger Toms, John Westwood).
COMMENT: Six (idle but shrewd) drove to this pub, three (mentally challenged) cycled there. It's uphill all the way, and if it is less than five miles from Tewin, even as the crow flies, I will eat my bicycle. I am not a crow and all I know is that I did eight miles in all and spent the last two behind Andrew's rear wheel climbing pretty steeply from the Lower Hatfield Road to the pub. When I got there the first pint barely touched my sides on the way down. The heat was on for me in other ways too. Call me sensitive, but I got the impression that some of our gallant band were becoming unnecessarily obsessed with the implications of going out to lunch with sweaty men in tights.
The Baker Arms turned out to be a McMullans pub with, yet again, decent pub food and a nice barmaid/waitress who was not fazed by our bizarre behaviour as we paid the bill. Andrew Swift's personalised cashback system may not have puzzled her, but it certainly baffled me at the other end of the table.
The Baker Arms has nothing to do with baking, despite the fancy baker's hat embossed on the polo shirts of the barpersons. It's named for the Baker family who were the local landowners, and built the row of cottages which includes the pub in the mid 19th century. A little surprisingly, the pub is a grade 2 listed building. I looked the Bakers up and they seemed an uninteresting bunch. There most prominent member was Sir William Baker, a wealthy merchant who in the 18th century attended Parliament for a few years and didn't do much there except hang around the Kit-Cat Club. What they did at the Club I don't know, except that it didn't have to do with chocolate. (It also didn't go in for uninhibited all round sexual intercourse and kinky dressing as does the Kit-Cat Club of Berlin today.) This lack of pzazz is very disappointing; surely the Bakers could have produced something better than a mere malingering fop given the cast list of homicidal monarchs, crazy politician's wives, mad bad poets, insane walking champions, and juvenile architects connected with previous pubs on the Odyssey. Still, you can't win them all.
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Thursday, 17 March 2011
Pub Odyssey 11
Tuesday 15 March: LYTTON ARMS, Old Knebworth (Malcolm Allen, Chris Haden, Mike Horsman, Elvis Pile, Bob Polydorou, Steve Stott, Andrew Swift, Roger Toms, John Westwood)
COMMENT: A good turnout for this attractive free house, famous for its range of real ales. It's also the first pub on the Odyssey allegedly designed by a famous architect. This was Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) who created New Delhi, many English country houses, the Cenotaph in Whitehall, the rather creepy Monument to the Fallen at Thiepval in Flanders, etc etc. I say "allegedly" because although its superficially quite plausible that Lutyens did the work (he married a member of the Lytton family of Knebworth House and designed other buildings in Knebworth including one of the churches) the dates don't seem right. The Lytton Arms website states the pub was built around 1877 (replacing another that is now a private house next door). However, in 1877 Lutyens was only eight years old and talented though he was I think designing a pub while still in junior school is a bit precocious. Probably Lutyens did a later makeover for the pub. However, whoever was responsible, they did a good job.
The Lytton Arms is in the "lucky dip" section of the Good Pub Guide as is the Waggoners at Ayot Green. Of the eleven pubs so far visited on the Odyssey, only the Old Barge (Hertford) gets into CAMRA's Good Beer Guide. Its interesting that eight of the eleven don't get into either of my two bibles for pub going yet I would say that everywhere we have had good honest pub food and good beer. And although we are an ill-disciplined crew given to turning up in the wrong numbers and never on time, everywhere we have met only friendliness, good humour, courteous efficient and quick service. Makes you proud to be British!
COMMENT: A good turnout for this attractive free house, famous for its range of real ales. It's also the first pub on the Odyssey allegedly designed by a famous architect. This was Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) who created New Delhi, many English country houses, the Cenotaph in Whitehall, the rather creepy Monument to the Fallen at Thiepval in Flanders, etc etc. I say "allegedly" because although its superficially quite plausible that Lutyens did the work (he married a member of the Lytton family of Knebworth House and designed other buildings in Knebworth including one of the churches) the dates don't seem right. The Lytton Arms website states the pub was built around 1877 (replacing another that is now a private house next door). However, in 1877 Lutyens was only eight years old and talented though he was I think designing a pub while still in junior school is a bit precocious. Probably Lutyens did a later makeover for the pub. However, whoever was responsible, they did a good job.
The Lytton Arms is in the "lucky dip" section of the Good Pub Guide as is the Waggoners at Ayot Green. Of the eleven pubs so far visited on the Odyssey, only the Old Barge (Hertford) gets into CAMRA's Good Beer Guide. Its interesting that eight of the eleven don't get into either of my two bibles for pub going yet I would say that everywhere we have had good honest pub food and good beer. And although we are an ill-disciplined crew given to turning up in the wrong numbers and never on time, everywhere we have met only friendliness, good humour, courteous efficient and quick service. Makes you proud to be British!
Pub Odyssey 10
Wednesday 9 March: BRIDGE HOUSE, HERTFORD (Chris Haden, Elvis Pile, Roger Toms)
COMMENT: An attenuated turnout this time with a lot of us away; three (Malcolm, David, Jeff) on a bike maintenance course; myself in Malta; and Steve in Bangladesh (where England collapsed before the cricketing power that is Ireland: later England bowed down before the invincible machine that is Bangladesh). The bike maintenance crew have, I regret to say, suffered a lot of ragging from uncouth non-cyclists who do not realise, as I do, that cyclists represent all that is best and finest in Britain today. Forget the mocking riff-raff! They only sound like Jeremy Clarkson, a fate too terrible to contemplate.
Anyway, getting back to the Bridge House, formerly known as the Sele Arms, the reports were of good and not expensive food, and a good time had by the small turnout. But the pub is interesting in other ways. So far on the Odyssey we have seen 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th century pubs and a couple of modern ones (post 1975). The Bridge House is clearly a "between the wars" pub. The invaluable web source, deadpubs.co.uk, states tersely that this pub "may not have been established till the 1930s". To me the Bridge House, seen from the outside, screams "1920-1939". The inter-war years were hard for pubs and breweries with rising taxes and an economic depression (sound familiar?) and the brewers reacted by trying to create new-style pubs which imitated then popular architectural styles, so you get "arts and crafts" pubs, stockbroker tudor pubs, even art deco pubs. The Bridge House is clearly stockbroker tudor; seen from the outside it could be a large inter-war house in Brookmans Park or somewhere similar. These pubs were often called "road houses" because they were situated at strategic points on the new highways to catch the hugely increasing car traffic (few seemed to worry about drink driving in those days). However, in the case of the Bridge House, I suspect it might better be called a "railway house"; it must surely have been set up to catch the punters emerging from Hertford North railway station opposite, opened in 1924.
COMMENT: An attenuated turnout this time with a lot of us away; three (Malcolm, David, Jeff) on a bike maintenance course; myself in Malta; and Steve in Bangladesh (where England collapsed before the cricketing power that is Ireland: later England bowed down before the invincible machine that is Bangladesh). The bike maintenance crew have, I regret to say, suffered a lot of ragging from uncouth non-cyclists who do not realise, as I do, that cyclists represent all that is best and finest in Britain today. Forget the mocking riff-raff! They only sound like Jeremy Clarkson, a fate too terrible to contemplate.
Anyway, getting back to the Bridge House, formerly known as the Sele Arms, the reports were of good and not expensive food, and a good time had by the small turnout. But the pub is interesting in other ways. So far on the Odyssey we have seen 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th century pubs and a couple of modern ones (post 1975). The Bridge House is clearly a "between the wars" pub. The invaluable web source, deadpubs.co.uk, states tersely that this pub "may not have been established till the 1930s". To me the Bridge House, seen from the outside, screams "1920-1939". The inter-war years were hard for pubs and breweries with rising taxes and an economic depression (sound familiar?) and the brewers reacted by trying to create new-style pubs which imitated then popular architectural styles, so you get "arts and crafts" pubs, stockbroker tudor pubs, even art deco pubs. The Bridge House is clearly stockbroker tudor; seen from the outside it could be a large inter-war house in Brookmans Park or somewhere similar. These pubs were often called "road houses" because they were situated at strategic points on the new highways to catch the hugely increasing car traffic (few seemed to worry about drink driving in those days). However, in the case of the Bridge House, I suspect it might better be called a "railway house"; it must surely have been set up to catch the punters emerging from Hertford North railway station opposite, opened in 1924.
Thursday, 3 March 2011
Pub Odyssey 9
Wednesday 2 March: SUN, LEMSFORD (Chris Haden, Mike Horsman, Gerry Murphy, Elvis Pile, Bob Polydorou, David Room, John Westwood)
COMMENT: For me the epitome of a middle-of-the-road pub with decent food (and lots of it) but nothing particularly unusual. The most unusual things we saw were the implausibly, incredibly youthful photos of Gerry, Chris Parkinson and (yes, its true) Elvis brought along by John Westwood.
The Sun is another stagecoach pub. From the 1600s to 1833 the "Old Great North Road" from London to York passed through Lemsford which was a day's coach ride from London. In those days Lemsford had four coaching inns for the stagecoach traffic, two survive today as the Sun and the Long and Short Arm. Right at the end of these glory days, in 1824, the wife of a future Prime Minister, Lady Caroline Lamb ("mad bad and dangerous to know", so different from Cherie Blair or Mrs Cameron) watched from the Brocket estate as the funeral cortege of her lover Lord Byron (also mad, bad and dangerous to know) passed through Lemsford. But in 1833 a bypass was cut through from Stanborough to Ayot Green and Lemsford lost its pivotal place on the Great North Road.
The Sun is a common pub name, popular perhaps because there's nothing easier than sticking up a pub sign with a big yellow blob on it- easy to do, easy to recognise. But it is also the royal emblem of King Edward IV (1461-83), grandfather of Henry VIII, like him in appearance (though no beard) but also like him in an unfortunate attitude towards women and general bloodthirstiness. Henry scored high in the bloodthirstiness stages by chopping off the heads of two of his six wives (Edward had only one wife who managed to survive, despite his partiality for London tradesmen's wives) but Edward had a bloodthirstiness trump card. Even Henry VIII couldn't match Edward's performance when, dissatisfied with his brother's political conduct, he had him drowned in a butt of Malmesey wine. What a way to go! But both Edward and Henry had to acknowlege top-level bloodthirstiness in the performance of their great ancestor, Roger Mortimer first earl of March, who apparently had King Edward II murdered by having a red hot poker stuck up his anus. Never a dull moment with members of that family. Edward IV and Henry VIII got the reward their fame deserved, remembered in countless "Sun" and "Kings Head" pub signs all over England.
COMMENT: For me the epitome of a middle-of-the-road pub with decent food (and lots of it) but nothing particularly unusual. The most unusual things we saw were the implausibly, incredibly youthful photos of Gerry, Chris Parkinson and (yes, its true) Elvis brought along by John Westwood.
The Sun is another stagecoach pub. From the 1600s to 1833 the "Old Great North Road" from London to York passed through Lemsford which was a day's coach ride from London. In those days Lemsford had four coaching inns for the stagecoach traffic, two survive today as the Sun and the Long and Short Arm. Right at the end of these glory days, in 1824, the wife of a future Prime Minister, Lady Caroline Lamb ("mad bad and dangerous to know", so different from Cherie Blair or Mrs Cameron) watched from the Brocket estate as the funeral cortege of her lover Lord Byron (also mad, bad and dangerous to know) passed through Lemsford. But in 1833 a bypass was cut through from Stanborough to Ayot Green and Lemsford lost its pivotal place on the Great North Road.
The Sun is a common pub name, popular perhaps because there's nothing easier than sticking up a pub sign with a big yellow blob on it- easy to do, easy to recognise. But it is also the royal emblem of King Edward IV (1461-83), grandfather of Henry VIII, like him in appearance (though no beard) but also like him in an unfortunate attitude towards women and general bloodthirstiness. Henry scored high in the bloodthirstiness stages by chopping off the heads of two of his six wives (Edward had only one wife who managed to survive, despite his partiality for London tradesmen's wives) but Edward had a bloodthirstiness trump card. Even Henry VIII couldn't match Edward's performance when, dissatisfied with his brother's political conduct, he had him drowned in a butt of Malmesey wine. What a way to go! But both Edward and Henry had to acknowlege top-level bloodthirstiness in the performance of their great ancestor, Roger Mortimer first earl of March, who apparently had King Edward II murdered by having a red hot poker stuck up his anus. Never a dull moment with members of that family. Edward IV and Henry VIII got the reward their fame deserved, remembered in countless "Sun" and "Kings Head" pub signs all over England.
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