Bet you’re rushing for your OED right now to find out what Schleppy means, aren’t you ?
Actually, you’re probably looking at your battered Philip Navigator to see where Sheppey is. Just here, north of Sittingbourne (note old and new A249 routes).
I was sure I’d written about Sheppey before, but it seems my exciting June 2015 trip to Park Resorts Warden Springs predated this blog. So here’s the highlight;
And here’s a picture of my little tent on its £4.25 pitch on the top of that hill.
Back then I braved a pre-emptive visit to the new Spoons in Sheerness town; rather disappointingly that has failed to make the Guide. Yet.
Instead we get a rare Sheppey tick in Queensborough, which I guess won’t be going on your “must visit” lists any time soon.
But. Look at this…
A view past Deadmans Island to the oil refineries of the Isle of Grain. Magical/
That’s pretty much all there is to Queenborough, apart from an attractive main street (with a Jag parked next to a Reliant Robin), a railway station and six pubs for 3,000 souls. That ratio probably tells you all you need to know about Sheppey, never mind little Queenborough.
Bucking the trend, there’s a new Marstons’ carvery on the approach, and a micro pub by the harbour. Sheppey is a micro sort of place.
The Admiral’s Arm feels very micro, but packs a lot in.
Including a sign saying “This is our happy place“. Which I like. I also like to find Goachers Mild, a 3.4% marvel (NBSS 3.5).
I would have sat with the locals but the bar was full. And anyway, I didn’t want to make them jealous as I scoffed my pork pie (I missed the pizzas by an hour). A perfect food and beer matching effort by me as I aim for Sommelier status.
I presume the folk here have all emigrated here from Sidcup to avoid their houses being converted into micro pubs. The Admiral feels very pubby; I doubt I’d have been murdered if my phone went off but I took no chances.
Another micro winner, and a further incursion of KeyKeg into the real world. Where will it end ?
Darkness had descended while I was in, and the walk back to the station was a little spooky. But rather lovely. I may pop back in summer, if we ever get one.
retiredmartin 
Schleppy? Dutch defensive midfielder, played for Coventry 1992-94.
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That’s the lad. Always thought he was Irish since he played for Wor Jackie’s Eire team in 94.
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Yup, he’s Tony Cascarino’s cousin.
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Aren’t we all, in a way.
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Noticing the Cask Marque sticker there, do you see many micro pubs with those? I would have thought it an unlikely occurence.
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Good spot. Never noticed it. Cask Marque seems the preserve of pub chains, can’t imagine micros would care, or even welcome the inspections (and they wouldn’t be open when the inspector turned up, anyway !).
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And probably wouldn’t want to pay their charge either.
Unless somebody sets up a chain of micros.
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Do you think ANYONE has ever made a decision to go in a pub (or not) because of a Cask Marque sticker. Me neither.
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Has anybody ever actually looked at the date on them to see if they’re currently valid?
Spoons used to be given them as a matter of course when they opened, made a complete mockery of the entire thing.
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I look at the dates on the mobility scooters outside, not the Cask Marque stickers.
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Are you going round the country offering to service them now?
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I can see it now, every micro with a sticker over the parking bay “Serviced by Martin”.
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Nice tent, but is the little green one your portable equivalent of a proper outside toilet ?
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Mrs RM had a bog in a bag (don’t ask) which required a little side tent bigger than my solo one.
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A bit like the old Vesta curries, which were truly something bogging in a bag.
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“I spy Goachers”
You have better eyes than yours truly. 🙂
“Pie, pickles, pint. Perfect”
Concur. (thumbs up)
And those views of the oil refineries are indeed magical.
Cheers
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Glad you like the oil refineries. Difficult to capture on an I-Phone.
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Pretty darn good photos for a phone. Amazing what technology can do these days.
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I think I remember the photo of the tent from a previous post. I’m pretty sure I have seen the tent before. The twitter post predates your convincing me twitter is a good place to be.
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I’m sure I used it as well, possibly in a 2015 highlights post, but I certainly didn’t review Sheppey. The old-fashioned Indian restaurant near the Spoons is quite something, a throwback to the ’60s (with similar prices).
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Other than Maidenhead you rarely describe a place as schleppy. I think Sheppey would be one we would recall. I know I don’t recall it.
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I only used the word because it rhymed and I heard Streisand use it once, it wasn’t derogatory. Was it ?
You might find a walk round the docks there interesting, though it would take a couple of hours out of schedule. The lively pub in Blue Town (Red Lion) used to be a GBG regular but beer is average.
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“I only used the word because it rhymed and I heard Streisand use it once, it wasn’t derogatory. Was it ?”
Schleppy is Yidish based (schlep), meaning dull or dingy, I think.
But we know you were only using it for its alliterative qualities. 🙂
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Awkward or clumsy, I see, which describes me well.
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Not derogatory really. Not a compliment though. We all learned a new term I am guessing. My recollection is this area or nearby is used in Great Expectations. Kind of a haunting quality to me.
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Yes, very Dickens.
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Beer mats 👍 are you watching Kent Gastro!!!
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Is he a new TV chef?
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Great name for one 👍
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That growler looks awful, too much artificial colouring and the pastry looks biscuity , cakey almost. Pork pies, like fish and chips are best left alone anywhere south of Dronfield.
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Richard,
And of course ‘growler’ has a different meaning anywhere south of Dronfield !
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I had to look that one up on Urban Dictionary … Oooh er Missus!
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And there was me thinking you were a man of the world !
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Beautiful. For some reason I’ve only heard negative things about Sheppey, but it doesn’t look too bad to me.
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To Schlep is a Yiddish verb meaning to tiresomely drag or travel to somehere without enthusiasm. It can also be used to mean that you had a lot of carrying to do. eg ” I had to schlep all these curtains to Bury Market only to find it was closed”
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Or, of course “I schlepped myself to Maidenhead to tick the new micro-pub, but it was closed for the month. Nothing mentioned on the website or facebook page, just a piece of paper stuck to the window with bluetack.”
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I shall def use that one sometime.
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