Tuesday 11 October: THE WOODHALL ARMS PAPILLON, STAPLEFORD (Malcolm Allen, Chris Haden, Mike Horsman,Elvis Pile, David Room, Rupert Stanley, Andrew Swift)
COMMENT: This was a nice meal in a pub which managed more successfully than many to combine restaurant and pub, and did this by keeping them physically separate. The pub side really felt like a pub. The beer was good too. It is, however, a difficult place to say anything about historically because nothing much is recorded. Stapleford is little more than a hamlet and all I can find out about the Woodhall Arms is the fact, hardly surprising, that it had a recorded nineteenth century existence. However, by complete coincidence I had lunch the next day with a lady who was brought up in Stapleford before and during the Second World War. She said, again unsurprisingly, that Stapleford was even smaller then but she added what was to me a genuinely surprising fact. This was that in those days the Beane River which flows past Stapleford was a famous salmon river with access much sought after. Now, of course, the Beane is barely more than a ditch, the reason being the pumping of water to supply the needs of (she thought) Stevenage and Harlow. Its another story which emphasises how agricultural a county Hertfordshire was even up to the Second World War, and how much the new towns changed all that.
The Woodhall Arms is obviously named after the Woodhall estate,owned by the Abel Smith family for many generations, and still at the same size, 7,000 acres, it has been for many years. The Woodhall estate like everywhere else of substance in England reflects some facets of England's astonishing history. The big house, now Heath Mount School, was built by Indian nabobs (that is English merchants who made it big in the early years of British rule in India), the park landscaping is a classic 18th century effort, the walled garden was built by prisoners of war in the Napoleonic Wars, and the great Victorian architect and gardener, Sir Joseph Paxton, builder of the Crystal Palace, got his start working in the kitchen gardens of the Woodhall Estate.
Thursday, 13 October 2011
Thursday, 6 October 2011
Pub Odyssey 39
Thursday 6 October: THE WELLINGTON, WELWYN VILLAGE (Chris Haden, Mike Horsman, Elvis Pile, David Room, Andrew Swift)
COMMENT: "The Wellington is not a pub" said Elvis, and as usual the Sage of Tewin was quite right. The food was fine, the beer was fine- though neither of them was cheap- so it met the requirement and obviously the Wellington's formula works; it was quite busy on a midweek lunchtime with a mixed clientele of all ages from pram-propelled to zimmer-propelled. Anything that does the business and provides proper beer decently presented is fine by me, so I have no complaints, but the Wellington does seem to me to have a very bad case of split personality.
The Wellington is keen to emphasise its long pub history. Outside, painted on the wall, is the following
INN
WELLINGTON
VILLAGE PUB DINING
AD 1352
and there is also a plaque informing you that such famous English types as Samuel Peyps (1633-1703, diarist and omni-shagger), Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-1784, lexicographer and Tory) and David Garrick (1717-1779, actor) stayed there. The plaque also gives you the information that until 1816 it was called the White Swan; obviously the name was changed to celebrate the Duke of Wellington's defeat of the snail-chewing French rascal Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
So far so English, but the split personality arises when you go inside.You might get the impression the snail-chewers had actually won at Waterloo because the place much more closely resembles a French wine bar than an English pub; hence Elvis's point. Well, the beer and food were OK.
However, the fact that the pub/wine bar is named after Wellington (and his boot hangs outside as well) gives me a chance to pay tribute to this very great man who not only put the frogs in their place but also played a big role in the promotion of English beer. This happened as follows. Not everyone knows that the hero of Waterloo later served as a generally unpopular Prime Minister (1828-30) but one whose administration nonetheless had important achievements including the creation of the Metropolitan Police, Catholic Emancipation, and the Beer Act. The Beer Act was the product of the ruthless logic which had made the Iron Duke such a formidable opponent on the battlefield. England was suffering from an epidemic of gin-drinking, very destructive of health prosperity and even life. ("Drunk for a penny, dead drunk for twopence"). The Iron Duke reasoned that banning gin wouldn't work; you had to provide people with a healthier alcoholic alternative. So the Beer Act allowed anybody to brew and sell beer on their premises if they got a licence which only cost £2. Ten years after the act had passed, 50,000 new beer houses had opened! And it did do something to reduce the gin problem. So raise your next pint to that unusual phenomenon, a politician who made drinking easier and cheaper. Messrs Cameron and Osborne are, of course, quite the reverse.
COMMENT: "The Wellington is not a pub" said Elvis, and as usual the Sage of Tewin was quite right. The food was fine, the beer was fine- though neither of them was cheap- so it met the requirement and obviously the Wellington's formula works; it was quite busy on a midweek lunchtime with a mixed clientele of all ages from pram-propelled to zimmer-propelled. Anything that does the business and provides proper beer decently presented is fine by me, so I have no complaints, but the Wellington does seem to me to have a very bad case of split personality.
The Wellington is keen to emphasise its long pub history. Outside, painted on the wall, is the following
INN
WELLINGTON
VILLAGE PUB DINING
AD 1352
and there is also a plaque informing you that such famous English types as Samuel Peyps (1633-1703, diarist and omni-shagger), Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-1784, lexicographer and Tory) and David Garrick (1717-1779, actor) stayed there. The plaque also gives you the information that until 1816 it was called the White Swan; obviously the name was changed to celebrate the Duke of Wellington's defeat of the snail-chewing French rascal Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
So far so English, but the split personality arises when you go inside.You might get the impression the snail-chewers had actually won at Waterloo because the place much more closely resembles a French wine bar than an English pub; hence Elvis's point. Well, the beer and food were OK.
However, the fact that the pub/wine bar is named after Wellington (and his boot hangs outside as well) gives me a chance to pay tribute to this very great man who not only put the frogs in their place but also played a big role in the promotion of English beer. This happened as follows. Not everyone knows that the hero of Waterloo later served as a generally unpopular Prime Minister (1828-30) but one whose administration nonetheless had important achievements including the creation of the Metropolitan Police, Catholic Emancipation, and the Beer Act. The Beer Act was the product of the ruthless logic which had made the Iron Duke such a formidable opponent on the battlefield. England was suffering from an epidemic of gin-drinking, very destructive of health prosperity and even life. ("Drunk for a penny, dead drunk for twopence"). The Iron Duke reasoned that banning gin wouldn't work; you had to provide people with a healthier alcoholic alternative. So the Beer Act allowed anybody to brew and sell beer on their premises if they got a licence which only cost £2. Ten years after the act had passed, 50,000 new beer houses had opened! And it did do something to reduce the gin problem. So raise your next pint to that unusual phenomenon, a politician who made drinking easier and cheaper. Messrs Cameron and Osborne are, of course, quite the reverse.
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Pub Odyssey 38
Tuesday 27 September: THE SALISBURY ARMS, HERTFORD (Malcolm Allen, Mike Horsman, Gerry Murphy)
COMMENT: The Salisbury Arms,built in 1570, was known as "The Bell" till 1800 when its name changed to the Salisbury Arms. This information is given in a sign on the outside wall, causing Joanne Allen, when she saw it, to ask who needed to know? One can see Joanne's point, customers last here before 1800 who might be confused by the change of name must now be in short supply. Inside the pub (where the food and beer were as usual fine) the clientele did strike me as elderly, at 62 I felt quite a youngster, but I really don't think any of the other customers were more than 200 years old.
The change of name in 1800 was obviously a bit of forelock-tugging towards the grandest of local grandees, the Marquesses of Salisbury, who lived at Hatfield House but owned Hertford Castle and a lot else besides. They were of course Tories and it's no surprise that in the1832 election, when the Tories fought a futile rearguard battle against Parliamentary Reform, the Salisbury Arms was their HQ (pubs and inns were often election HQs in pre-modern elections). Needless to say the result of the 1832 election in Hertford was declared null and void because of bribery and corruption.
COMMENT: The Salisbury Arms,built in 1570, was known as "The Bell" till 1800 when its name changed to the Salisbury Arms. This information is given in a sign on the outside wall, causing Joanne Allen, when she saw it, to ask who needed to know? One can see Joanne's point, customers last here before 1800 who might be confused by the change of name must now be in short supply. Inside the pub (where the food and beer were as usual fine) the clientele did strike me as elderly, at 62 I felt quite a youngster, but I really don't think any of the other customers were more than 200 years old.
The change of name in 1800 was obviously a bit of forelock-tugging towards the grandest of local grandees, the Marquesses of Salisbury, who lived at Hatfield House but owned Hertford Castle and a lot else besides. They were of course Tories and it's no surprise that in the1832 election, when the Tories fought a futile rearguard battle against Parliamentary Reform, the Salisbury Arms was their HQ (pubs and inns were often election HQs in pre-modern elections). Needless to say the result of the 1832 election in Hertford was declared null and void because of bribery and corruption.
Pub Odyssey 37
Tuesday 20 September: THE FOX, WOOLMER GREEN (Chris Haden, Elvis Pile, Steve Stott, Roger Toms)
COMMENT: I missed this one, cycling with Anne and Andrew in Croatia. A good time was reported to be had by the attendees. I've managed to miss the Fox at Woolmer Green on each of our visits in 2010 and 2011 and am miserably without an idea of what to say about it. However, I can say that while "The Fox" is a pub name that has been in existence since the late fifteenth century its a little unusual to have an unembellished Fox. Embellished foxy pubs includes a Hungry Fox, a Crafty Fox, a Running Fox, a Lazy Fox, a Wily Fox, a Red Fox, a Blue Fox (?), a Fox on the Hill, a Fox and Cubs, a Fox and Rabbit, a Fox and Covert, and, best of all, a Snooty Fox.
PS [added 13 October] We visited this pub too early. If we had gone in October rather than September I could have added new possible variants on the Fox theme: the "Fox and Werritty", the "Hounded Fox", the "Fox Goes to Ground", etc etc. The possibilities are endless. But life is full of missed opportunities.
COMMENT: I missed this one, cycling with Anne and Andrew in Croatia. A good time was reported to be had by the attendees. I've managed to miss the Fox at Woolmer Green on each of our visits in 2010 and 2011 and am miserably without an idea of what to say about it. However, I can say that while "The Fox" is a pub name that has been in existence since the late fifteenth century its a little unusual to have an unembellished Fox. Embellished foxy pubs includes a Hungry Fox, a Crafty Fox, a Running Fox, a Lazy Fox, a Wily Fox, a Red Fox, a Blue Fox (?), a Fox on the Hill, a Fox and Cubs, a Fox and Rabbit, a Fox and Covert, and, best of all, a Snooty Fox.
PS [added 13 October] We visited this pub too early. If we had gone in October rather than September I could have added new possible variants on the Fox theme: the "Fox and Werritty", the "Hounded Fox", the "Fox Goes to Ground", etc etc. The possibilities are endless. But life is full of missed opportunities.
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Pub Odyssey 36
Tuesday 13 September: THE ROEBUCK, STEVENAGE followed by TOBY CARVERY, STEVENAGE (Mike Horsman, Gerry Murphy, Elvis Pile, Steve Stott, Andrew Swift, John Westwood)
COMMENT: A double header! This was due to inefficiency by the leader, initials MH, who omitted to check that lunch was actually served at the Roebuck. It wasn't- only evening meals there. For the first time on the Odyssey I had a definite impression, I hope mistaken, of a pub on its last legs. A lot of the surrounding buildings have been turned into a nursing home and what we saw of a historic inn was a hotel reception which we walked through to get to the bar and a smallish semi-connected pub area. The receptionist saw us come in and dashed across to get us a drink. It's all rather sad for an inn founded in 1691, with sixteenth century buildings, patronised in its day by celebrity highwaymen like Dick Turpin, and described in 1874 as "an old fashioned roadside public house, containing bar, tap, parlour, kitchen, six chambers and attic, with stabling buildings, cow house, skittle alley and wood barn". Not much of all that left now.
We needed lunch so asked the receptionist/barmaid what to do and she recommended the Toby Carvery which is 50 yards away across the road. We all arrived soaking as a cloud helpfully burst at just the wrong moment but once we got into the Toby Carvery things looked up. Although I suspect CAMRA regard such places as instruments of the devil, it was in fact excellent fun. We solemnly queued up for our carvery, which was excellent and cheap, and the beer was good too (mine was London Pride). The place was quite full and everyone was having a good time, kids included. The clientele included a lady who knew me from other activities and who told me when I saw her a few days later that she had seen me in the Carvery with a collection of noisy geriatric delinquents (well, we were talking and laughing quite loudly). I said I only went out with them to rehabilitate them.
COMMENT: A double header! This was due to inefficiency by the leader, initials MH, who omitted to check that lunch was actually served at the Roebuck. It wasn't- only evening meals there. For the first time on the Odyssey I had a definite impression, I hope mistaken, of a pub on its last legs. A lot of the surrounding buildings have been turned into a nursing home and what we saw of a historic inn was a hotel reception which we walked through to get to the bar and a smallish semi-connected pub area. The receptionist saw us come in and dashed across to get us a drink. It's all rather sad for an inn founded in 1691, with sixteenth century buildings, patronised in its day by celebrity highwaymen like Dick Turpin, and described in 1874 as "an old fashioned roadside public house, containing bar, tap, parlour, kitchen, six chambers and attic, with stabling buildings, cow house, skittle alley and wood barn". Not much of all that left now.
We needed lunch so asked the receptionist/barmaid what to do and she recommended the Toby Carvery which is 50 yards away across the road. We all arrived soaking as a cloud helpfully burst at just the wrong moment but once we got into the Toby Carvery things looked up. Although I suspect CAMRA regard such places as instruments of the devil, it was in fact excellent fun. We solemnly queued up for our carvery, which was excellent and cheap, and the beer was good too (mine was London Pride). The place was quite full and everyone was having a good time, kids included. The clientele included a lady who knew me from other activities and who told me when I saw her a few days later that she had seen me in the Carvery with a collection of noisy geriatric delinquents (well, we were talking and laughing quite loudly). I said I only went out with them to rehabilitate them.
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
Pub Odyssey 35
Tuesday 6 September: THE CROOKED CHIMNEY, near Lemsford (Malcolm Allen, Mike Horsman, Elvis Pile, Andrew Swift, Roger Toms)
COMMENT: This is a big rambling pub with low ceilings (Andrew had to watch out) and endless nooks and crannies. We found a nook or cranny (what's the difference between a nook and a cranny?) with very comfortable armchairs in a corner of the pub; the staff were on the ball, someone found us very quickly, hidden though we were, and the food, once again good and very cheap, came along without delay. It was a very wet day and we had all driven there so I was limited to half a pint which was a pity because the beer seemed to me excellent.
The building was originally a farmhouse called Hornbeam Hall. Use as an inn dates back to 1756 when it was called the Chequers. It remained the Chequers till as recently as 1968 when it was renamed the Crooked Chimney after its distinctive L-shaped brick chimney (though apparently the pub had been known informally by that name for many years). Renaming pubs is not just a modern "Slug and Lettuce" type craze; its been done at all eras for all sorts of reasons. There are more pubs named after Lord Nelson than any other person, but they were mostly not "new builds" but old pubs renamed after his great victory at Trafalger in 1805..
COMMENT: This is a big rambling pub with low ceilings (Andrew had to watch out) and endless nooks and crannies. We found a nook or cranny (what's the difference between a nook and a cranny?) with very comfortable armchairs in a corner of the pub; the staff were on the ball, someone found us very quickly, hidden though we were, and the food, once again good and very cheap, came along without delay. It was a very wet day and we had all driven there so I was limited to half a pint which was a pity because the beer seemed to me excellent.
The building was originally a farmhouse called Hornbeam Hall. Use as an inn dates back to 1756 when it was called the Chequers. It remained the Chequers till as recently as 1968 when it was renamed the Crooked Chimney after its distinctive L-shaped brick chimney (though apparently the pub had been known informally by that name for many years). Renaming pubs is not just a modern "Slug and Lettuce" type craze; its been done at all eras for all sorts of reasons. There are more pubs named after Lord Nelson than any other person, but they were mostly not "new builds" but old pubs renamed after his great victory at Trafalger in 1805..
Pub Odyssey 34
Wednesday 31 August: EIGHT BELLS, OLD HATFIELD: (Mike Horsman, Elvis Pile, Steve Stott, Andrew Swift)
COMMENT: This pub is a picturesque place in Old Hatfield. (Old Hatfield retains charm and architectural interest. The more modern part part of Hatfield is a grim example of the horrors of twentieth-century urban planning. If you wanted an example proving that a post-1945 town planner is best defined as a man who can spoil a field, look at Hatfield.) We enjoyed the pub. The food was fine and very cheap, the beer fine, the barmaid nice and interactive. So the visit was a success, which was a relief because the Eight Bells is in literary and historical terms one of the most interesting in Hertfordshire. I wanted the pub to be good!
The "Victorian Web" website says it was built in 1226, which if true makes it the oldest building thus far. The pub is from about 1630, another coaching inn right on the Great North Road which ran along Fore Street, beside the pub, till 1850 when the GNR was re-routed with the arrival of the railway. The pub was associated with the notorious highwayman, Dick Turpin, in the 18th century. It seems to have suffered from "name inflation"; a map of 1760 describes it as the "One Bell"; later it was the "Five Bells"; later still the "Eight Bells" when the gloomy but impressive local church, St Etheldreda, got a peal of eight bells.
But the pub's main claim to fame relates to a man who never existed except in a novel, but is a bandit even more famous than Dick Turpin; the burglar Bill Sikes. Sikes, as everyone knows, is a key character in one of the most famous novels in the English language, "Oliver Twist", by our old friend and drinking companion, Charles Dickens (see Pub Odyssey 14 ). Dickens stayed at the Eight Bells on 27 January 1838 and used it in the novel. After murdering Nancy in London, Sikes, fleeing the authorities, walks the 20 miles to what was then the small village of Hatfield and has an encounter in the pub with a crazy local character who sees bloodstains in Sikes' hat, after which Sikes flees back to London and eventual death. Dickens was good at using local material in his novels. Earlier, in 1835, when he was only 23 and making a living as a reporter, he had visited Hatfield to report on a big fire at Hatfield House in which the Dowager Marchioness of Salisbury, aged 85, burned to death. The Hatfield House fire also features in "Oliver Twist".
COMMENT: This pub is a picturesque place in Old Hatfield. (Old Hatfield retains charm and architectural interest. The more modern part part of Hatfield is a grim example of the horrors of twentieth-century urban planning. If you wanted an example proving that a post-1945 town planner is best defined as a man who can spoil a field, look at Hatfield.) We enjoyed the pub. The food was fine and very cheap, the beer fine, the barmaid nice and interactive. So the visit was a success, which was a relief because the Eight Bells is in literary and historical terms one of the most interesting in Hertfordshire. I wanted the pub to be good!
The "Victorian Web" website says it was built in 1226, which if true makes it the oldest building thus far. The pub is from about 1630, another coaching inn right on the Great North Road which ran along Fore Street, beside the pub, till 1850 when the GNR was re-routed with the arrival of the railway. The pub was associated with the notorious highwayman, Dick Turpin, in the 18th century. It seems to have suffered from "name inflation"; a map of 1760 describes it as the "One Bell"; later it was the "Five Bells"; later still the "Eight Bells" when the gloomy but impressive local church, St Etheldreda, got a peal of eight bells.
But the pub's main claim to fame relates to a man who never existed except in a novel, but is a bandit even more famous than Dick Turpin; the burglar Bill Sikes. Sikes, as everyone knows, is a key character in one of the most famous novels in the English language, "Oliver Twist", by our old friend and drinking companion, Charles Dickens (see Pub Odyssey 14 ). Dickens stayed at the Eight Bells on 27 January 1838 and used it in the novel. After murdering Nancy in London, Sikes, fleeing the authorities, walks the 20 miles to what was then the small village of Hatfield and has an encounter in the pub with a crazy local character who sees bloodstains in Sikes' hat, after which Sikes flees back to London and eventual death. Dickens was good at using local material in his novels. Earlier, in 1835, when he was only 23 and making a living as a reporter, he had visited Hatfield to report on a big fire at Hatfield House in which the Dowager Marchioness of Salisbury, aged 85, burned to death. The Hatfield House fire also features in "Oliver Twist".
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