Tuesday 29 November: THE WHITE HART, HERTFORD (Chris Haden, Mike Horsman, Elvis Pile, Andrew Swift, John Westwood)
COMMENT: I really like the White Hart. Its an obviously ancient pub, in an attractive central square in Hertford, Salisbury Square. The earliest reference to it I know is on 6 March 1802 when John Carrington, the Hertfordshire diarist, went there to pay for "3 Lds peas" and bought four more- another indication of the role pubs and inns played as a venue for commercial transactions in past times. But the pub is clearly much older than this. A bit puzzlingly, its described in earlier times as being in "Market Square"- whether this means it changed venue or whether Market Square was merely renamed Salisbury Square, I don't know.
However, although ancient, the White Hart has been well modernised by McMullens as a sports pub with three large screens to which I quite often cycle down to watch the football on Sky. This is a very nice experience. The pub is frequented by large numbers of Arsenal and Spurs supporters. I remember a lovely Saturday lunchtime with a game between these two north London giants, the fans, noisy and partisan, but friendly, sitting down in family groups to have lunch and watch the game. Their kids dressed in Van Persie and Gareth Bale football outfits were running around the pub in severe danger of kneecapping the the bar staff as they brought out the food. (Incidentally, not only Arsenal and Spurs. Last Sunday, Liverpool v Manchester City, there were a couple of little Luis Suarezes running about.) The staff are good fun too, friendly and helpful in my experience, on the Odyssians' visit bringing out the drinks as well as the food to our table thus saving us lazy geriatrics from even having to walk to the bar to get our beer.
Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Thursday, 24 November 2011
Pub Odyssey 46
Tuesday 22 November: THE NORTH STAR, near Oaklands (Chris Haden, Mike Horsman, Elvis Pile, Andrew Swift, Jeff Tipper, John Westwood)
COMMENT: There is something a bit mysterious about the name of this pub The "North Star" was a famous railway engine, the first and last "Broad Gauge" engine on Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Western Railway. But the GWR operated many miles from Hertfordshire, why name a pub here after one of its engines? The pub itself is clearly a between-the-wars construction, built like so many then to resemble a very large commuterland house, in this case in "stockbroker Tudor" style. It would have been designed to catch either, or both, of road and rail traffic on the major arteries going north. As usual, McMullens provide very little information about the pub, but unusually for them they did provide an information gem on one of their beers, an excellent dark beer called "Pope's Porter".
This beer, according to a McMullens card beside the handpump, celebrated the only English pope, Adrian IV (ruled 1154-59). Adrian was born in Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire, with the name of Nicholas Breakspear, became a monk and eventually a successful cardinal and diplomat before being elected pope.
McMullen commented
"Adrian IV often had to deal with the troublesome Normans and reputedly sent for Hertfordshire ale to quell any uprisings. He died in 1159 choking on a fly in his wine. Should've stuck with the beer!"
It's a good story but the spoilsport Wikipedia suggests that Adrian probably died of quinsy (a complication of tonsillitis). I've also seen suggestions Adrian was poisoned, quite a likely explanation; medieval cardinals and popes were often as lethal in their political methods as medieval kings. Perhaps the tradition persists; conspiracy theories abound about the sudden death in 1977, after a reign of 33 days, of Pope John Paul I.
In all this historical guff I should have said the food and beer were good and as usual we had a good time!
COMMENT: There is something a bit mysterious about the name of this pub The "North Star" was a famous railway engine, the first and last "Broad Gauge" engine on Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Western Railway. But the GWR operated many miles from Hertfordshire, why name a pub here after one of its engines? The pub itself is clearly a between-the-wars construction, built like so many then to resemble a very large commuterland house, in this case in "stockbroker Tudor" style. It would have been designed to catch either, or both, of road and rail traffic on the major arteries going north. As usual, McMullens provide very little information about the pub, but unusually for them they did provide an information gem on one of their beers, an excellent dark beer called "Pope's Porter".
This beer, according to a McMullens card beside the handpump, celebrated the only English pope, Adrian IV (ruled 1154-59). Adrian was born in Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire, with the name of Nicholas Breakspear, became a monk and eventually a successful cardinal and diplomat before being elected pope.
McMullen commented
"Adrian IV often had to deal with the troublesome Normans and reputedly sent for Hertfordshire ale to quell any uprisings. He died in 1159 choking on a fly in his wine. Should've stuck with the beer!"
It's a good story but the spoilsport Wikipedia suggests that Adrian probably died of quinsy (a complication of tonsillitis). I've also seen suggestions Adrian was poisoned, quite a likely explanation; medieval cardinals and popes were often as lethal in their political methods as medieval kings. Perhaps the tradition persists; conspiracy theories abound about the sudden death in 1977, after a reign of 33 days, of Pope John Paul I.
In all this historical guff I should have said the food and beer were good and as usual we had a good time!
Wednesday, 16 November 2011
Pub Odyssey 45
Tuesday 15 November; THE BULL, WATTON AT STONE (Malcolm Allen, Chris Haden, Mike Horsman, Elvis Pile, Bob Polydorou, David Room, Rupert Stanley, Andrew Swift, Jeff Tipper, John Westwood)
COMMENT: A big turnout for a recently renovated pub; in fact a much bigger turnout than I had expected and booked for but the pub coped well and the food and beer were good (Woodforde Wherry available, first time I had seen it on the Odyssey I think).
"The Bull" sounds the most English and agricultural of pub names but it isn't necessarily so. In fact it very likely relates to that very un-English institution, the papacy. The first "Bull" pubs, in the Middle Ages, were apparently referring to a papal bull, the lead seal attached to papal edicts (Latin bulla). Nor was this the only pub name which referred to the Pope. Any pub called the "Cross Keys" is showing a papal symbol. St Peter, the first Pope, is often shown holding the keys to the Kingdom of God. For some reason "Bulls" and "Cross Keys" survived the Protestant Reformation in England whereas a lot of pubs called "The Pope's Head" or "The Cardinal's Head" hastily changed their names to "The Kings Head" or "The Bishop's Head" to avoid unpleasant questions from the authorities.
I don't know if the "Bull" at Watton refers to religion or agriculture but my bet would be religion. The pub is another Grade II listed building which goes back to the mid-16th century and has a "priests hole" hidden behind the large fireplace (a priest's hole was a hiding place for Catholic priests in the period in the sixteenth and seventeenth century when they had to move and preach in secret in England because persecuted and indeed often tortured and executed by the Protestant government.)
COMMENT: A big turnout for a recently renovated pub; in fact a much bigger turnout than I had expected and booked for but the pub coped well and the food and beer were good (Woodforde Wherry available, first time I had seen it on the Odyssey I think).
"The Bull" sounds the most English and agricultural of pub names but it isn't necessarily so. In fact it very likely relates to that very un-English institution, the papacy. The first "Bull" pubs, in the Middle Ages, were apparently referring to a papal bull, the lead seal attached to papal edicts (Latin bulla). Nor was this the only pub name which referred to the Pope. Any pub called the "Cross Keys" is showing a papal symbol. St Peter, the first Pope, is often shown holding the keys to the Kingdom of God. For some reason "Bulls" and "Cross Keys" survived the Protestant Reformation in England whereas a lot of pubs called "The Pope's Head" or "The Cardinal's Head" hastily changed their names to "The Kings Head" or "The Bishop's Head" to avoid unpleasant questions from the authorities.
I don't know if the "Bull" at Watton refers to religion or agriculture but my bet would be religion. The pub is another Grade II listed building which goes back to the mid-16th century and has a "priests hole" hidden behind the large fireplace (a priest's hole was a hiding place for Catholic priests in the period in the sixteenth and seventeenth century when they had to move and preach in secret in England because persecuted and indeed often tortured and executed by the Protestant government.)
Pub Odyssey 44
Tuesday 8 November: THE SIX TEMPLARS, HERTFORD (Malcolm Allen, Chris Haden, Mike Horsman, Elvis Pile, David Room, Andrew Swift, Jeff Tipper)
COMMENT: I travel fairly frequently into London so J D Wetherspoon pubs are familiar to me. I remember a few years ago, before the financial meltdown, sitting in a JDW near Liverpool Street station watching as young versions of Attila the Stockbroker (they looked about 17) came in and slapped huge wads of banknotes on the bar; the one with the smallest wad had to buy the drinks. Probably all the teenage Attilas are struggling to hang on to their jobs now. Going back to that JDW would tell me more about the progress of the recession than any number of speeches by Mr Osborne.
The Attilas may not have been very lovable (they made Lord Sugar's apprentices look like a set of Albert Schweitzers) but they certainly gave central London JDWs an atmosphere. Atmosphere was a bit lacking the the Six Templars. The food was OK, the selection of beers first class, the service good and prompt- no complaints at all really; but it was a bit like having a pub lunch in a bank. We made our own atmosphere, there being seven of us, and had a good time, but I wouldn't have called it cosy or intimate. A Wetherspoons looks its best crammed to the gunnels with people, loud, cheerful, even raucous, but in Hertford it probably doesn't get like that very often.
These are not criticisms, I think J D Wetherspoon is a Good Thing. They are great supporters of real beer and have done a lot to bring the product into the modern world. Also, for someone like me who loves the oddities and eccentricities of British life J D Wetherspoon has made a big contribution. What could be more eccentric than a pub chain founded by Tim Martin, a 6 foot 6inch Irishman-New Zealander (went to 11 schools in Ulster and New Zealand) who sports a mullet haircut and called his pub chain J D Wetherspoon after one of his teachers who couldn't control his class and told Mr Martin he would never be a success in business? You couldn't make it up. But Wetherspoons is on the side of the angels, promoting cask beer, low prices, long opening hours and no music. In 2011 they hit the £1 billion sales mark; long may it continue.
COMMENT: I travel fairly frequently into London so J D Wetherspoon pubs are familiar to me. I remember a few years ago, before the financial meltdown, sitting in a JDW near Liverpool Street station watching as young versions of Attila the Stockbroker (they looked about 17) came in and slapped huge wads of banknotes on the bar; the one with the smallest wad had to buy the drinks. Probably all the teenage Attilas are struggling to hang on to their jobs now. Going back to that JDW would tell me more about the progress of the recession than any number of speeches by Mr Osborne.
The Attilas may not have been very lovable (they made Lord Sugar's apprentices look like a set of Albert Schweitzers) but they certainly gave central London JDWs an atmosphere. Atmosphere was a bit lacking the the Six Templars. The food was OK, the selection of beers first class, the service good and prompt- no complaints at all really; but it was a bit like having a pub lunch in a bank. We made our own atmosphere, there being seven of us, and had a good time, but I wouldn't have called it cosy or intimate. A Wetherspoons looks its best crammed to the gunnels with people, loud, cheerful, even raucous, but in Hertford it probably doesn't get like that very often.
These are not criticisms, I think J D Wetherspoon is a Good Thing. They are great supporters of real beer and have done a lot to bring the product into the modern world. Also, for someone like me who loves the oddities and eccentricities of British life J D Wetherspoon has made a big contribution. What could be more eccentric than a pub chain founded by Tim Martin, a 6 foot 6inch Irishman-New Zealander (went to 11 schools in Ulster and New Zealand) who sports a mullet haircut and called his pub chain J D Wetherspoon after one of his teachers who couldn't control his class and told Mr Martin he would never be a success in business? You couldn't make it up. But Wetherspoons is on the side of the angels, promoting cask beer, low prices, long opening hours and no music. In 2011 they hit the £1 billion sales mark; long may it continue.
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
Pub Odyssey 43
Tuesday, 1 November: OLD CROSS, HERTFORD (Mike Horsman, Elvis Pile, Steve Stott, Andrew Swift, JohnWestwood)
COMMENT: This super pub provided a really nice, and really cheap, occasion. £9 each for a total of two pints each plus as many sandwiches as anyone could want to eat! Normally the Old Cross doesn't provide food, at Tuesday lunchtime anyway, but through the good offices of John Westwood the landlord provided the sandwiches.
I thought the Old Cross was terrific. It represents one branch of the great real beer movement, beginning in the 1970s when the British public rose in revolt against crap like Double Diamond and Watneys Red Barrel and demanded proper beer, made in the correct way and properly presented. The success of this movement, fronted of course by CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale), has been amazing. Nowadays "real beer" is defined pretty much as CAMRA wants (the ultimate marketing triumph, all other not-approved products are by definition non-real or inferior); The total number of breweries is four times what it was when CAMRA was founded in 1971 and more since any time since the 1940s. Although pubs face tremendous challenges in the recession and are faced by predatory government taxation, real beer sales have held up much better than other forms of alcoholic purchases. The strength of the real beer movement is demonstrated in many ways; craft-type pubs like the Old Cross; big commercial operations like J D Wetherspoons (our next week visit); huge festivals, attended by tens of thousands, like the Great British Beer Festival or the Cambridge Beer Festival; but above all by the fact that nearly all pubs seem to have real ale on offer. There is a lot about CAMRA I don't go for, although I have been a member for decades, my reservations being succinctly summed up by the beer writer Pete Brown when he said that stereotypical CAMRA activists were "bearded, beer-bellied, wear chunky sweaters or tight,stained T-shirts, are pedantic, Luddite and have difficulties relating to girls". Having said all that, we owe them a lot.
And the Old Cross was great. As I stood watching them brewing their own beer in a back room before stepping back into the bare but pleasant parlour to drink it at £2.20 a pint I knew I was in the right place.
COMMENT: This super pub provided a really nice, and really cheap, occasion. £9 each for a total of two pints each plus as many sandwiches as anyone could want to eat! Normally the Old Cross doesn't provide food, at Tuesday lunchtime anyway, but through the good offices of John Westwood the landlord provided the sandwiches.
I thought the Old Cross was terrific. It represents one branch of the great real beer movement, beginning in the 1970s when the British public rose in revolt against crap like Double Diamond and Watneys Red Barrel and demanded proper beer, made in the correct way and properly presented. The success of this movement, fronted of course by CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale), has been amazing. Nowadays "real beer" is defined pretty much as CAMRA wants (the ultimate marketing triumph, all other not-approved products are by definition non-real or inferior); The total number of breweries is four times what it was when CAMRA was founded in 1971 and more since any time since the 1940s. Although pubs face tremendous challenges in the recession and are faced by predatory government taxation, real beer sales have held up much better than other forms of alcoholic purchases. The strength of the real beer movement is demonstrated in many ways; craft-type pubs like the Old Cross; big commercial operations like J D Wetherspoons (our next week visit); huge festivals, attended by tens of thousands, like the Great British Beer Festival or the Cambridge Beer Festival; but above all by the fact that nearly all pubs seem to have real ale on offer. There is a lot about CAMRA I don't go for, although I have been a member for decades, my reservations being succinctly summed up by the beer writer Pete Brown when he said that stereotypical CAMRA activists were "bearded, beer-bellied, wear chunky sweaters or tight,stained T-shirts, are pedantic, Luddite and have difficulties relating to girls". Having said all that, we owe them a lot.
And the Old Cross was great. As I stood watching them brewing their own beer in a back room before stepping back into the bare but pleasant parlour to drink it at £2.20 a pint I knew I was in the right place.
Pub Odyssey 42
Tuesday 25 October: THE MILLSTREAM, HERTFORD (Chris Haden, Mike Horsman, Elvis Pile, Rupert Stanley, John Westwood)
COMMENT: The Millstream was a real find, a nice little pub with an attractive conservatory and a well-kept garden behind it, friendly helpful staff and good food and drink. It's a bit of a surprise because in an obscure blocked-off road in the Hertford suburbs you might think it might struggle for custom, but the landlandy said that in summer the attractions of the conservatory, garden, food and drink meant that it was safer to book if you were coming at lunchtime. That's good news, but it might not square with the fact that when we were there, admittedly in late October, I saw only one other customer, a somewhat somnolent Dormouse-type character (I'm still reading Alice in Wonderland) at the other end of the bar. We had a good time anyway.
The Millsteam, sometimes called the Old Millstream, is another pub about which it's difficult to get any historical information. McMullens seem less good than many other operators in providing this. It's probably a nineteenth-century pub, which seems to have changed both its name and location in Port Vale in the 1880s and 1890s (for a while it may have been called the Old Windmill). The names given to the pub are a clear indication of the rural nature of the area at that time.
COMMENT: The Millstream was a real find, a nice little pub with an attractive conservatory and a well-kept garden behind it, friendly helpful staff and good food and drink. It's a bit of a surprise because in an obscure blocked-off road in the Hertford suburbs you might think it might struggle for custom, but the landlandy said that in summer the attractions of the conservatory, garden, food and drink meant that it was safer to book if you were coming at lunchtime. That's good news, but it might not square with the fact that when we were there, admittedly in late October, I saw only one other customer, a somewhat somnolent Dormouse-type character (I'm still reading Alice in Wonderland) at the other end of the bar. We had a good time anyway.
The Millsteam, sometimes called the Old Millstream, is another pub about which it's difficult to get any historical information. McMullens seem less good than many other operators in providing this. It's probably a nineteenth-century pub, which seems to have changed both its name and location in Port Vale in the 1880s and 1890s (for a while it may have been called the Old Windmill). The names given to the pub are a clear indication of the rural nature of the area at that time.
Pub Odyssey 41
Tuesday 18 October: THE CHEQUERS, BRAGBURY END (Elvis Pile, Andrew Swift, and a Ferrari)
COMMENT: The usual suspects were in the USA, Crete, Cyprus, etc, etc, and this meeting was the smallest yet- in fact it couldn't have been any smaller and still been a meeting. However, it was in a way a historic occasion because Andrew gave Elvis a lift there in his Ferrari, more than 25 years after Elvis won the right to a lift at a function at Tewin Cowper School. Does it seem in character for Andrew to forget and Elvis to remember over a quarter of a century?
Elvis said the ride was quite an experience and I know what he means, many years ago I had a ride in the Ferrari myself. I happen at the moment to be reading "Alice in Wonderland" and it struck me that reading the book was a bit like a ride in the Ferrari, an experience combining in about equal quantities surreal humour, wonder and terror. The original working title for "Alice in Wonderland" was "Alice's Adventures Underground" and you felt that the Ferrari, seeming one inch above the ground, and miles below the hedgerows, might have been an ideal travel vehicle for Alice. The only travel experience in Tewin that compares with Andrew's Ferrari is Rupert's balloon where instead of being propelled semi-underground at terrific speeds you are launched into the atmosphere in a luncheon basket. You never thought living in commuterland could be so stimulating
The Chequers at Bragbury End dates back to 1774 when it was a farmhouse on a 40 acre farm which included a slaughterhouse. The farm was taken over by a St Albans brewer in 1820 but the Chequers was only granted a full licence in 1919. It's another grade II listed building.
COMMENT: The usual suspects were in the USA, Crete, Cyprus, etc, etc, and this meeting was the smallest yet- in fact it couldn't have been any smaller and still been a meeting. However, it was in a way a historic occasion because Andrew gave Elvis a lift there in his Ferrari, more than 25 years after Elvis won the right to a lift at a function at Tewin Cowper School. Does it seem in character for Andrew to forget and Elvis to remember over a quarter of a century?
Elvis said the ride was quite an experience and I know what he means, many years ago I had a ride in the Ferrari myself. I happen at the moment to be reading "Alice in Wonderland" and it struck me that reading the book was a bit like a ride in the Ferrari, an experience combining in about equal quantities surreal humour, wonder and terror. The original working title for "Alice in Wonderland" was "Alice's Adventures Underground" and you felt that the Ferrari, seeming one inch above the ground, and miles below the hedgerows, might have been an ideal travel vehicle for Alice. The only travel experience in Tewin that compares with Andrew's Ferrari is Rupert's balloon where instead of being propelled semi-underground at terrific speeds you are launched into the atmosphere in a luncheon basket. You never thought living in commuterland could be so stimulating
The Chequers at Bragbury End dates back to 1774 when it was a farmhouse on a 40 acre farm which included a slaughterhouse. The farm was taken over by a St Albans brewer in 1820 but the Chequers was only granted a full licence in 1919. It's another grade II listed building.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)