Actually, it was in Stone, Bucks. But I don’t want to confuse and over-excite Staffordshire Paul before his morning pint.
Bucks, as Si and I have said at least 37 times, is a dull county in every sense (awaits backlash from Wycombe reader).
And the Rose & Crown looks like every other village pub within spitting distance of Waddesdon or Howard Jones.
But despite almost nothing happening, I feel a public duty to report on the Rose & Crown, a mile out of Aylesbury, the Maidenhead of the A421.
Not because of the obsession with canine welfare with dog beer at the entrance and canine treats at the bar (top).
Or the Caribbean flavour to the menu. The pub was entirely set for diners, with just two groups taking up the offer.
Or the comics from my youth in the Gents.
I was a Fantastic Four fan, you know, paying 25p for imports sold on Ely Market on Thursdays through the summer of 1978.
Or even “You Get What You Give” by the New Radicals. Top tune.
No, for once it’s the beer.
The Landlady struggled with the Side Pocket for a good minute before declaring it “off”, and then debating the point with her other half.
Which left the comically-named homebrew.
There’s a fine line between decent and really good; Willy’s Brew was some way north of that line, cool, floral and tasty. Good grief.
In the garden, suspicious looking youths with hoodies were planning their Friday night out in Aylesbury. They looked at me suspiciously, anyway. Just for once, I sipped my homebrew (NBSS 4) and smiled.
If only that had been the end of Bucks. But it wasn’t.
retiredmartin 
Nice title, Martin.
“Firemen fear further fatalities from fumes from foam filled furniture fires”
One Stuart Hall – remember him? – actually read than on the afternoon news in the north west on the BBC.
It’s what you get if you don’t turn up to rehearsals.
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Driven past many times but never called in. Sounds well worth a visit. Food menu looks decent too.
Very useful blog-post.
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If you do let us know what it’s like. Hard to judge a restauranty pub like that Which I guess is busier evenings.
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I will report back. Likely to be a quick teatime visit, unless I go by bus on a Saturday afternoon. However, it won’t be for a few weeks.
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That sun-drenched room looks glorious.
My brothers and I had one of those two Superman comics when we were kids. We were a DC family, so I missed out on all the cool Marvel characters.
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Marvel comics seemed to be printed in the UK and cost about 10p every Thursday in the mid/late 70s, while DC appeared as 25p imports on the independent bookstall in Cambridge. That made choice easier !
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And Tim, the local pubman on our Proper Day Out in Oxford, worked for Marvel Comics before he turned to beer writing.
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Shows that even back then, Marvel had the smarter business strategy. 🙂
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“Stone (Staffs)” is printed on the tickets so that rail travellers don’t end up in Buckinghamshire.
There was no morning pint for me today but after a Sunday carvery lunch in the Bird in Hand I enjoyed two pints of Draught Bass in the Railway, one of the last from one cask and one of the first from the next and both equally excellent but just two beers on won’t get the pub into many guide books. Yesterday my branch did a pub crawl of Lichfield, mostly the micropubs, but I started of with a pint of St Austell Tribute and breakfast in my nearest Stonegate pub and was delighted to end with a pint of Batham’s Best Bitter in the Horse and Jockey.
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#PubMan
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Surely it’s ‘a hair of the dog (that bit you)’ and not a small animal of the genus Lupus that belongs to the dog?
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