Pub Transport in Surrey and Poetry in Cambridge

This handsome sedan chair has great historic significance in the pub ticking world.  It can be found in the Crown, Chiddingfold, Surrey, a grade 2 listed, 14th century timber framed building.  It’s restoration is depicted in the lobby. And the significance?  Well in those days trying to complete the Good Beer Guide was even harder……

Worthing’s Originals

The next leg of our coastal tour took us to Worthing in Sussex. Like a 1970’s Radio One Roadshow schedule with Peter Powell and er, one of the others since convicted of sexual offences, we had gone from Great Yarmouth to Folkestone and now to Worthing. Instead of Radio One goodie bags we handed out……

The Regeneration Game goes to…Folkestone

Having survived Great Yarmouth more or less unscathed, our route took us round the Kent coast, ending up in Folkestone for the night. The Grand Burstin (the ‘G’ must have fallen off) Hotel has 550 rooms, so many that even the busloads on day trips to France can’t fill it. The November offer was an……

Grit Yarmouth

After a well earned chronology break, it’s back to Norfolk and Great Yarmouth. A whopping three new Guide entries merited an overnight stay at a bargain bed and breakfast run by a charming young couple from Hong Kong. The pubs were spread out, one in the north, one in the centre and one in the……

Hats off to Roger Protz and Taylor’s Taxis

No one has exerted greater influence on the British beer scene over the last 40 years than Roger Protz. So it was an enormous pleasure to meet him and his hat which, disappointingly, had nothing underneath it (I checked). Our merry band of beer enthusiasts and bloggers embarked on a tour of St Albans led……

Holt. Who Goes There?

Concise read: Holt is in Norfolk and has an owl trail. There’s more. The Christmas Lights had been switched on the night before and the place twinkled. That was November 14th- any advance on the earliest switch on? Like several towns in north Norfolk it is extremely prosperous, leaving Great Yarmouth to absorb those less……

Antique Beer Bottles in Alston

Alston, in Cumbria, is said to be the highest market town in England.  It has a population of over 1,000 and found national fame in 2005 for having the largest gender imbalance in the UK.  At that time there were ten men for every woman. It was once very well pubbed indeed and today still……