retiredmartin

I can’t really imagine why you’d visit Thame, unless you were using the Travelodge as a base to visit Oxford and Waddesdon, or doing something bizarre like visiting the Beer Guide pubs.

Haddenham makes a much better rural pub crawl, and Long Crendon is the quintessential “lil Ol’ England” that I once heard an elderly American visitor describe it as.

It does have a decent Indian restaurant we stopped at once on one of several trips along the A41 back to Hitchin, but I didn’t remember its long high street as any  different to a dozen other middle England towns, and it’s not really in prime walking country.

But it has these;

That’s just one of a cluster of buildings that would appeal to any visitor with a couple of hours to spare. A church walk across the fields to the church and round to the High Street was another highlight.

The High Street was busier and smarter than Chesham had been, with a younger, upmarket crowd in the James Figg, new to the Guide.

This is a problematic pub. It’s expertly run by a gem of a young landlord, balances a quality food trade with some bar-room drinking, and has enough lived in character to appeal to a mix of visitors.  The beer (Vale) is very dull though (NBSS 2) and expensive.

I could have taken a half-drunk half back but I knew it would take longer to resolve what would seem a minor complaint than it would to drink it. So I left it.  Nice beer range, not enough real ale drinkers again.

At the eastern edge of the High Street is the Cross Keys, which I was keen to revisit as it left no impression whatsoever first time around.  I’ve commented on the creeping erosion of lunchtime weekday opening, but 12-2 isn’t much better, and I just missed that.

So a minor architectural gem of a  town, but for a pub lunch head for the Eight Bells at Long Crendon or the Pointer at Brill, from where you can also see a famous windmill.