Sometimes I have to go to a plain pub with plain people in a plain village and give you nothing except the joy of knowing that I’m one tiny step closer to completing the Guide.
But the real point of ticking is discovering or re-discovering the gems of the UK. Like Stotfold in beautiful Bedfordshire*.
Mrs RM and I lived a couple of miles away in Letchworth in the early ’90s, but I couldn’t recall anything about Stotfold, bar a 0-0 draw with Raunds in the United Counties League in 1994 punctuated by Ian Atkins shouting “Winners !” “Seconds !”, back when I visited non-league grounds rather than non-league pubs.
For a small (<6,000) industrial town it’s quite rural in feel.
The most famous resident is “Queen” Victoria Pendleton, though Wikipedia also gives us this Local Hero;
“Robert Seymour, (Kpop Artist), Member of BTS, hes got grey hair so therefore he is good kpop man.”
Half an hour is plenty of time to explore the town highlights. As always, walking aimlessly is your best bet. Jehovahs Witnesses, Strict Baptist churches, Indian takeaways, Greene King locals, you know what to expect.
An hour after leaving Baldock station, I claimed the Crown.
The Beer Guide talks of beers on gravity at the Crown, making it seem mysterious and beery. It’s not. And the Guvnor was never going to ask “You one of them CAMRA ? “.
I saw Greene IPA and Adnams Broadside; if there was a beer from the barrel the locals were keeping it for themselves. So I had the IPA, my second of GBG19.
A dozen Old Boys alternated between the smoking hut and the bar and high tables, leaving me with a fairly pubby area to myself.
You could hide from life here. And I did, only interrupted by the Southampton v Brighton repeat. Someone shouted out the full-time score, ruining it for me.
The IPA was decent enough (NBSS 3), and it all felt very cosy, if you prefer old gramophones, Top of the Pops jukeboxes, and redundant fireplaces to exposed ducts and long tables. Which I do.
“He’s got a nice girlfriend. She’s got a company car”
“Done well. And he’s not all that.” You know how it goes.
It wouldn’t get in the Beer Guide in Derby, but it would almost anywhere in Scotland. What more can I say ?
The GBG said sandwiches were available, but I really didn’t fancy my chances, so I held on to Charles & Co, the authentic looking chippy down the road, stopping only to admire the discarded Paul Simon CD booklet.
Anywhere up north, Charles & Co. would be called Stotfold Fisheries. The search for haddock in the freezer was worthy of its own soap opera, and London escapee Mr Charles told me more about fish than I could ever wish to know.
The incident of brill substituted for monkfish on the North Norfolk coast in 1979 has clearly not been forgotten. Or forgiven. Quite how he got on to reminiscing about the Prospect of Whitby in Wapping I still haven’t figured.
Anyway, medium haddock and chips for £6. Superb.
I doubt I’ll be heading back to Stotfold soon, but I might nip back for that chippy.
*It’s the heat getting to me
retiredmartin 
Gherkins make it a proper chip shop.
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Gherkins when on a supermarket shelf, wallies when in a chip shop.
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HH,
I’ve never heard that before.
Might it be in common parlance around London where I most often see them in chip shops ?
I miss the excellent chip shop there was for many years at 70 Eversholt Street.
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Not really thought about it before; maybe it is just a southern term.
My favourite was Gigs, just off Tottenham Court Road, in Tottenham Street. Run by two Cypriot brothers for decades. The fish & chips were superb, and for London really cheap. Take away only, there was always a queue out the door.
When the founders eventually retired and passed it on to their boys they gentrified it and turned it into a fish & chips (+Mediterranean) ‘dining restaurant’. Prices soared accordingly. Doubtless this made commercial sense as it’s still there, trading under the same name, a further couple of decades on, but I’ve never been back.
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Cypriot fish & chips often great e.g. Petrou Brothers in Chatteris.
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Nice post. Surely non league pubs are those not in the Guide? Though like Barnet, they can drop in and out from time to time.
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Defining a “non-league pub” is ideal CAMRA Discourse material. I had in mind grass roots, salt of the earth places like Callum’s in Johnstone, but my analogy may fall at the first hurdle. Where would Maidenhead CCC fit ?
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Think the analogy may have legs. Maidenhead CCC would align with the Independent Schools FA (independent being a euphemism for private of course).
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The State Bar can be St Mirren, Rangers can be Cains Brewery, and Livingstone can be Clockwork Brew Co. I’m rambling now.
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You could extend that into Europe easily. The Kulminator would be Benfica, a glorious history but definitely fading a bit in current times.
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“A1 excitement”
Is it just me or does it seem strange to have a ‘countryside walk’ beside the A1? 😉
“Troubled waters”
Where’s the bridge that goes over it? 🙂
“Future Micro Mill”
Does it flood a lot there?
“Tomato plant house”
And by the looks of the window they’re starting to decorate for Halloween.
“Remote control overload”
A bit like what’s in my house.
“Proper food”
Looks luverly.
(I shouldn’t read these just before dinner)
Cheers
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Halloween preparation starts as early here as in North America, Russ. Pubs covered in cobwebs in a fortnight.
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Bloody hell.
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Good grief, that time of year here already? Prepare for the horrors of Pumpkin beer…
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The one word that has you instantly running from any Chippy – ‘Freezer’. Typical of southern chip ‘oles which are generally very mediocre. No wonder they have to have Gherkins with them.
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I’ll say one thing for Yorkies, moan better than any other county.
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But do all chip shops in Yorkshire still use beef dripping ?
And if not why not ?
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The better ones still use dripping. Fish & chips in vegetable oil just isn’t right is it, mind you, shouldn’t have Cod in a chip ‘ole neither.
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