Monday 4 July: ROSE AND CROWN, TEWIN (Malcolm Allen, Mike Horsman, Elvis Pile, Bob Polydorou, David Room, Andrew Swift, Jeff Tipper, Roger Toms, John Westwood)
COMMENT: The Rose and Crown, our local, is an old and famous Hertfordshire pub which according to the History of Tewin (published 2009) "is thought to have been built in about 1650 on the front of an older building that stood on the site and which now forms part of the present kitchens". The History makes the point that the Rose is probably, even now, about the same size as it was when built in 1650 and also that it was a true village pub, not on a major coaching route and bypassed by the railways. This rural nature is further illustrated by the fact that the landlords often described themselves as "publican and farmer", running a small farm or smallholding in conjunction with the main business of selling alcohol.
The pub's fame relates.to the period of the Napoleonic Wars, when it features almost daily in the remarkable diaries (1798-1810) of John Carrington of Bacon's Farm, Bramfield. Carrington was a great man for food and drink and his son Jack held the tenancy at the Rose and Crown from 1791 to 1833. The elder Carrington was often in the Rose with or without friends, eating enormous meals and drinking impressive amounts for a man in his seventies. Both Carringtons were important local figures and the Rose seems to have been a big operation. In June 1805 a beer engine was installed there; beer engines were very recent inventions and rarely seen at that date outside London. The younger Carrington, the landlord, dealt in big money; for instance he recorded that by 1812 he had lost £3000 (a vast sum in those days) due to the bad behaviour of his brother-in-law. At that stage the Rose was certainly far more important than the Plume of Feathers, laconically described by the older Carrington in 1799 as an "alehouse". Nowadays the boot is very much on the other foot. I don't think many would argue with the proposition that in the last couple of decades the Plume has been very much the more successful pub.
The Rose had just acquired a new landlord when we arrived there and the pub did fine, producing for us good beer and good honest pub food. Let's hope he is a success.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
Monday, 11 July 2011
Pub Odyssey 25
Tuesday 28 June: DUNCOMBE ARMS, HERTFORD (Malcolm Allen, Chris Haden, Mike Horsman, Gerry Murphy, Elvis Pile, Steve Stott, Andrew Swift)
COMMENT: a decent cheap lunch in a town centre pub. The Duncombe Arms is named after a local MP, Thomas Slingsby Duncombe (MP for Hertford 1826-32, afterwards MP for Finsbury 1834-61). Like some more modern MPs, he combined radical politics with snazzy dressing, dubious finances, loose women and a penchant for publicity. Naturally all this endeared him to the electorate. We enjoyed our lunch, with the interviewer in our midst establishing that our very nice and unusually on-the-ball waitress was actually a student waiting to take up her university course. Probably not the first or last time we will meet that on the Odyssey..
COMMENT: a decent cheap lunch in a town centre pub. The Duncombe Arms is named after a local MP, Thomas Slingsby Duncombe (MP for Hertford 1826-32, afterwards MP for Finsbury 1834-61). Like some more modern MPs, he combined radical politics with snazzy dressing, dubious finances, loose women and a penchant for publicity. Naturally all this endeared him to the electorate. We enjoyed our lunch, with the interviewer in our midst establishing that our very nice and unusually on-the-ball waitress was actually a student waiting to take up her university course. Probably not the first or last time we will meet that on the Odyssey..
Wednesday, 6 July 2011
Pub Odyssey 24
Wednesday 22 June: COWPER ARMS, LETTY GREEN (Chris Haden, Gerry Murphy, Elvis Pile, David Room, Geoff Searle (plus dog), Steve Stott, John Westwood)
COMMENT: I missed this one, being in Poland that day, but because or in spite of that an excellent time was had by all.
The Cowper Arms, the second Cowper Arms to have been visited on the Odyssey, is of course named for what was in the 18th and 19th century the most prominent local aristocratic family, the Earls Cowper of Panshanger. Bull-baiting is recorded at the site in 1776 (the rural entertainments in the countryside of Merrie England turn your stomach), but the pub, like the other Cowper Arms at Digswell, was founded around 1850. Both Cowper Arms pubs were closely associated with railway development in the nineteenth century. So much so that the Letty Green pub was for a while called the Railway Arms and the landlord at the time even made bricks to help build the line- a slightly unusual sideline. The pub continued as a railway hotel till the adjacent branch line closed down in the 1960s.
It seems a good moment to say something about the Cowpers of Panshanger Hall. Well, not about them as they were a dull bunch but about their wives, relatives and friends who were anything but dull. The 5th Earl Cowper(died 1837) married a lively lady who was not satisfied with him and took up with Viscount Palmerston (and married Palmerston after Cowper's death). Palmerston was lively enough. He was Prime Minister for most of the time between 1855 and his death just short of 81 in 1865. Earlier in his career, as Foreign Secretary, he had fought wars to force the Chinese to accept British opium. Apart from living in sin with Lady Cowper he was also widely suspected of raping one of Queen Victoria's Maids of Honour. Hard to see him doing well in the modern era of an intrusive press (though when you look at M Strauss-Kahn's alleged behaviour, who knows?). Lady Cowper/Palmerston was also the sister of Lord Melbourne of Brocket Hall, another Prime Minister, who in turn was married to the barking mad Lady Caroline Lamb. Not many dull moments in high society in East Herts in the nineteenth century.
COMMENT: I missed this one, being in Poland that day, but because or in spite of that an excellent time was had by all.
The Cowper Arms, the second Cowper Arms to have been visited on the Odyssey, is of course named for what was in the 18th and 19th century the most prominent local aristocratic family, the Earls Cowper of Panshanger. Bull-baiting is recorded at the site in 1776 (the rural entertainments in the countryside of Merrie England turn your stomach), but the pub, like the other Cowper Arms at Digswell, was founded around 1850. Both Cowper Arms pubs were closely associated with railway development in the nineteenth century. So much so that the Letty Green pub was for a while called the Railway Arms and the landlord at the time even made bricks to help build the line- a slightly unusual sideline. The pub continued as a railway hotel till the adjacent branch line closed down in the 1960s.
It seems a good moment to say something about the Cowpers of Panshanger Hall. Well, not about them as they were a dull bunch but about their wives, relatives and friends who were anything but dull. The 5th Earl Cowper(died 1837) married a lively lady who was not satisfied with him and took up with Viscount Palmerston (and married Palmerston after Cowper's death). Palmerston was lively enough. He was Prime Minister for most of the time between 1855 and his death just short of 81 in 1865. Earlier in his career, as Foreign Secretary, he had fought wars to force the Chinese to accept British opium. Apart from living in sin with Lady Cowper he was also widely suspected of raping one of Queen Victoria's Maids of Honour. Hard to see him doing well in the modern era of an intrusive press (though when you look at M Strauss-Kahn's alleged behaviour, who knows?). Lady Cowper/Palmerston was also the sister of Lord Melbourne of Brocket Hall, another Prime Minister, who in turn was married to the barking mad Lady Caroline Lamb. Not many dull moments in high society in East Herts in the nineteenth century.
Monday, 4 July 2011
Pub Odyssey 23
Wednesday 15 June: LONG ARM AND SHORT ARM, LEMSFORD (Mike Horsman, Chris Haden, Elvis Pile, David Room, Steve Stott)
COMMENT: This was a perfectly good pub with decent food and beer but in no way unusual except for its spectacularly unusual name. Fierce debate rages about where it came from. The most attractive solution (to me) is that it represents a gallows. Inquests used to be held in pubs (see Dickens' novel "Bleak House"), surely they could have hosted hangings as well? All part of the rich tapestry of life in Merrie England. Unfortunately it seems unlikely. More humdrum solutions relate to the configuration of local roads, or to a signal board giving the differing depths of water in the local ford over the River Lea. More amusing is the suggestion that the credit goes to an artist called John Frederick Herring whose early sign showed a coachman extending a long arm to the publican who holds back a glass of ale with a short arm, the message being: "Pay before you drink". But the truth is that no-one really knows where the name came from.
The Long Arm and Short Arm may have had a mysterious name but it was pretty clearly something of a dump in olden times. It was a simple beer shop, the lowest form of pub life, till 1928 when it was one of several pubs in the area which had a licence refused. McMullens had the existing building knocked down and put up the larger building which is still there now.
COMMENT: This was a perfectly good pub with decent food and beer but in no way unusual except for its spectacularly unusual name. Fierce debate rages about where it came from. The most attractive solution (to me) is that it represents a gallows. Inquests used to be held in pubs (see Dickens' novel "Bleak House"), surely they could have hosted hangings as well? All part of the rich tapestry of life in Merrie England. Unfortunately it seems unlikely. More humdrum solutions relate to the configuration of local roads, or to a signal board giving the differing depths of water in the local ford over the River Lea. More amusing is the suggestion that the credit goes to an artist called John Frederick Herring whose early sign showed a coachman extending a long arm to the publican who holds back a glass of ale with a short arm, the message being: "Pay before you drink". But the truth is that no-one really knows where the name came from.
The Long Arm and Short Arm may have had a mysterious name but it was pretty clearly something of a dump in olden times. It was a simple beer shop, the lowest form of pub life, till 1928 when it was one of several pubs in the area which had a licence refused. McMullens had the existing building knocked down and put up the larger building which is still there now.
Friday, 1 July 2011
Pub Odyssey 22
Thursday 2 June: BELMONT, BURNHAM GREEN (Malcolm Allen, Mike Horsman, Andrew Swift)
COMMENT: This was half a visit to what is halfway to being a pub. We had called off this week's original destination, the Cowper Arms at Letty Green, because there wasn't a quorum but Andrew, Malcolm and myself got shot of prior commitments early enough to go to the Belmont for lunch. It's an oddity. In the middle of the Hertfordshire countryside it is essentially a French-style wine bar. It does serve perfectly respectable beer and the food was good, but to me it felt peculiar. I like pubs and this wasn't really a pub. However, any establishment which serves the right kind of beer deserves support and if there is a market for their approach, good luck to them.
Probably it felt odder because most Odyssey participants will remember when it was the Duck, an old fashioned boozer originally built in the 1840s to provide drink for the navvies who built the Digswell Viaduct (a brickfield for the viaduct was set up at Burnham Green). When I knew it, in the 1990s, it was less basic but definitely a community pub in which some Odyssians had many legendary evenings with the then landlord, Mick Bruce. Not for me to tell the stories!
COMMENT: This was half a visit to what is halfway to being a pub. We had called off this week's original destination, the Cowper Arms at Letty Green, because there wasn't a quorum but Andrew, Malcolm and myself got shot of prior commitments early enough to go to the Belmont for lunch. It's an oddity. In the middle of the Hertfordshire countryside it is essentially a French-style wine bar. It does serve perfectly respectable beer and the food was good, but to me it felt peculiar. I like pubs and this wasn't really a pub. However, any establishment which serves the right kind of beer deserves support and if there is a market for their approach, good luck to them.
Probably it felt odder because most Odyssey participants will remember when it was the Duck, an old fashioned boozer originally built in the 1840s to provide drink for the navvies who built the Digswell Viaduct (a brickfield for the viaduct was set up at Burnham Green). When I knew it, in the 1990s, it was less basic but definitely a community pub in which some Odyssians had many legendary evenings with the then landlord, Mick Bruce. Not for me to tell the stories!
Thursday, 2 June 2011
Pub Odyssey 19,20, 21
Thursday 12 May: ROBIN HOOD AND LITTLE JOHN, RABLEY HEATH (Malcolm Allen, Chris Haden, Mike Horsman, Elvis Pile, Andrew Swift)
COMMENT: I've been slow to update the blog because the site has had technical problems, also I have been sunning myself in a beautiful Landmark Trust villa in Northern Italy built in the 1540s by the great architect Andrea Palladio but which lacked internet access. Even Palladio couldn't think of everything. So by the time I'm writing this the Robin Hood and Little John is a bit of a distant memory. However, distance does not fade the memory of Keeley, the fascinating (and very nice) barmaid at the RHLJ who those present were still remembering in the Woolpack a fortnight later. I doubt if Keeley is remembering us! Too old and too boring!
The RHLJ is a name which suggests great antiquity, conjuring up images of medieval men in tights running round Sherwood Forest, or at least of Errol Flynn, but it isn't necessarily so. There are apparently over 100 pubs of this name but many were created in the nineteenth century when sentimental nostalgia for the middle ages was as its height. However, this particular RHLJ is older; it was certainly in existence on 3 August 1801 when John Carrington, amongst other functions the Chief Constable of Hertfordshire, entertained his constables there. Admittedly the Chief Constable was a less grand function then than now, but if such an event happened in 2011 the taxpayer would probably foot the bill; in 1801 it appears Carrington paid for it himself. Progress isn't always a good thing.
The penalties of progress were also shown all too clearly by a framed newspaper cutting on the wall about John Derry, a local resident and RHLJ regular who on 6 September 1948 was the first man to fly faster than sound but who four years later was killed, along with 27 other people, when his plane crashed at the Farnborough Air Show.
Monday, May 16: RED LION, Digswell Hill (Chris Haden, Elvis Pile, Andrew Swift)
COMMENT: I missed this one, being in Italy, so not much to say. This Red Lion seems to have got lost in the crowd of all the other Red Lions (there were around forty of them in Hertfordshire in the nineteenth century!) It's obviously an old coaching inn on the Great North Road as are a remarkable number of the surviving pubs in our part of East Herts, but apart from that not much information.
Friday May 27: WOOLPACK, Hertford (Malcolm Allen, Chris Haden, Mike Horsman, Elvis Pile, Andrew Swift, John Westwood).
COMMENT: Signs of modern life at the Woolpack, an old Hertford pub which is on the site of the second brewery opened by McMullens (in 1832). The pub television screens were showing the test match and the conversation was about solar panels! Food was good standard pub grub and the solar panels must have been fascinating, we stayed there longer than any pub so far.
The Woolpack is a good name for a pub in an agricultural county (in the nineteenth century Hertfordshire ranked as one of the five or six leading agricultural counties in England). A woolpack is a large bale of wool prepared for carriage or sale. It's said to have weighed 240lbs. Hertford in the nineteenth century had an important regular agricultural market and I imagine the Woolpack, like other pubs in Hertford, played an important role for thirsty and hungry buyers and sellers on market day.
COMMENT: I've been slow to update the blog because the site has had technical problems, also I have been sunning myself in a beautiful Landmark Trust villa in Northern Italy built in the 1540s by the great architect Andrea Palladio but which lacked internet access. Even Palladio couldn't think of everything. So by the time I'm writing this the Robin Hood and Little John is a bit of a distant memory. However, distance does not fade the memory of Keeley, the fascinating (and very nice) barmaid at the RHLJ who those present were still remembering in the Woolpack a fortnight later. I doubt if Keeley is remembering us! Too old and too boring!
The RHLJ is a name which suggests great antiquity, conjuring up images of medieval men in tights running round Sherwood Forest, or at least of Errol Flynn, but it isn't necessarily so. There are apparently over 100 pubs of this name but many were created in the nineteenth century when sentimental nostalgia for the middle ages was as its height. However, this particular RHLJ is older; it was certainly in existence on 3 August 1801 when John Carrington, amongst other functions the Chief Constable of Hertfordshire, entertained his constables there. Admittedly the Chief Constable was a less grand function then than now, but if such an event happened in 2011 the taxpayer would probably foot the bill; in 1801 it appears Carrington paid for it himself. Progress isn't always a good thing.
The penalties of progress were also shown all too clearly by a framed newspaper cutting on the wall about John Derry, a local resident and RHLJ regular who on 6 September 1948 was the first man to fly faster than sound but who four years later was killed, along with 27 other people, when his plane crashed at the Farnborough Air Show.
Monday, May 16: RED LION, Digswell Hill (Chris Haden, Elvis Pile, Andrew Swift)
COMMENT: I missed this one, being in Italy, so not much to say. This Red Lion seems to have got lost in the crowd of all the other Red Lions (there were around forty of them in Hertfordshire in the nineteenth century!) It's obviously an old coaching inn on the Great North Road as are a remarkable number of the surviving pubs in our part of East Herts, but apart from that not much information.
Friday May 27: WOOLPACK, Hertford (Malcolm Allen, Chris Haden, Mike Horsman, Elvis Pile, Andrew Swift, John Westwood).
COMMENT: Signs of modern life at the Woolpack, an old Hertford pub which is on the site of the second brewery opened by McMullens (in 1832). The pub television screens were showing the test match and the conversation was about solar panels! Food was good standard pub grub and the solar panels must have been fascinating, we stayed there longer than any pub so far.
The Woolpack is a good name for a pub in an agricultural county (in the nineteenth century Hertfordshire ranked as one of the five or six leading agricultural counties in England). A woolpack is a large bale of wool prepared for carriage or sale. It's said to have weighed 240lbs. Hertford in the nineteenth century had an important regular agricultural market and I imagine the Woolpack, like other pubs in Hertford, played an important role for thirsty and hungry buyers and sellers on market day.
Monday, 9 May 2011
Pub Odyssey 18
Wednesday 4 May: CHEQUERS, WOOLMER GREEN ( Chris Haden, Mike Horsman, Elvis Pile, John Westwood)
COMMENT: The Chequers is a really old pub name, probably brought to Britain by the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago. Evidence from Pompeii suggests it was already in use there (before 79AD) perhaps referring to a game such as draughts played on the premises. In Britain it was associated with a money table, hence the word "exchequer". Some inns used the sign to indicate that they were willing to change money or act as bankers in some way.
There isn't much information about the origins of the Chequers at Woolmer Green, but the website says it was a coaching inn (on the Great North Road) which suggests a 17th or 18th century foundation. The Chequers was certainly in existence in 1807 when it was the scene of a tragedy typical of the harsh penal laws of those days. The story is told in the famous diary of John Carrington of Bacons Farm, Bramfield. The diary entry for 4 June 1807 reads (I have kept Carrington's idiosyncratic grammer and spelling):
"To London on Dunn poney to present a Pittition for Mrs Pellom of Woolmergreen at Checkers their, now in Hartford Geoal under Sentance of 14 years Transportation for buiing 2 Silver tea Spoons [knowing them to be stolen]_ _ Judge Heath_ _sent us to Ld Hauksburys, the Secretaris of Stats office the Treasury for the home Department_ _Delivrd my Pittition to one Mr Copper their, Clerke of the office at the Treasury, was Recved very kindly & he promised to Give it to Ld Hauksbury & his Majesty. Then to Mr Horsmans Sallopin Coffhouse _ _ _"
Who this coffee house owner "Mr Horsman" was I do not know, but generally it seems a good effort by the eighty-one year old Carrington to be taking a petition to the Home Secretary (effectively, though under a different title, what Lord Hawkesbury was). Carrington clearly thought fourteen years transportation a vicious punishment. Did the petition help Mrs Pellom? I don't know, but on December 6 she was still in Hertford gaol and Carrington was still trying to get the local gentry to help her. Things went better for Lord Hawkesbury, as they usually do for people at the top. Under his later title of Lord Liverpool he was Prime Minister from 1812 to 1827, longer than anyone since, even Mrs Thatcher.
Anyway, the Chequers is currently a nice pub with a cage of chipmunks in the garden (an unusual touch), and an admirable attitude towards charities. (While we were there the landlady was in negotiation over the phone about a big charity ride for the Air Ambulance to be organised from the Chequers in July. Six of our wives rode in another charity ride for the Isabel Hospice from the Chequers the Sunday after our visit.) Also, the pub's award winning pies were excellent!
COMMENT: The Chequers is a really old pub name, probably brought to Britain by the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago. Evidence from Pompeii suggests it was already in use there (before 79AD) perhaps referring to a game such as draughts played on the premises. In Britain it was associated with a money table, hence the word "exchequer". Some inns used the sign to indicate that they were willing to change money or act as bankers in some way.
There isn't much information about the origins of the Chequers at Woolmer Green, but the website says it was a coaching inn (on the Great North Road) which suggests a 17th or 18th century foundation. The Chequers was certainly in existence in 1807 when it was the scene of a tragedy typical of the harsh penal laws of those days. The story is told in the famous diary of John Carrington of Bacons Farm, Bramfield. The diary entry for 4 June 1807 reads (I have kept Carrington's idiosyncratic grammer and spelling):
"To London on Dunn poney to present a Pittition for Mrs Pellom of Woolmergreen at Checkers their, now in Hartford Geoal under Sentance of 14 years Transportation for buiing 2 Silver tea Spoons [knowing them to be stolen]_ _ Judge Heath_ _sent us to Ld Hauksburys, the Secretaris of Stats office the Treasury for the home Department_ _Delivrd my Pittition to one Mr Copper their, Clerke of the office at the Treasury, was Recved very kindly & he promised to Give it to Ld Hauksbury & his Majesty. Then to Mr Horsmans Sallopin Coffhouse _ _ _"
Who this coffee house owner "Mr Horsman" was I do not know, but generally it seems a good effort by the eighty-one year old Carrington to be taking a petition to the Home Secretary (effectively, though under a different title, what Lord Hawkesbury was). Carrington clearly thought fourteen years transportation a vicious punishment. Did the petition help Mrs Pellom? I don't know, but on December 6 she was still in Hertford gaol and Carrington was still trying to get the local gentry to help her. Things went better for Lord Hawkesbury, as they usually do for people at the top. Under his later title of Lord Liverpool he was Prime Minister from 1812 to 1827, longer than anyone since, even Mrs Thatcher.
Anyway, the Chequers is currently a nice pub with a cage of chipmunks in the garden (an unusual touch), and an admirable attitude towards charities. (While we were there the landlady was in negotiation over the phone about a big charity ride for the Air Ambulance to be organised from the Chequers in July. Six of our wives rode in another charity ride for the Isabel Hospice from the Chequers the Sunday after our visit.) Also, the pub's award winning pies were excellent!
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