No, the Antelope isn’t today’s pub, more’s the pity. I bet it was great in 1977 (wild guess based on advertising “real ale“).
Next stop Crewkerne, pronounced “kroo-kern” or possibly “atleastwerenotYeovil“.
Possibly the largest town beginning with “C” I’d never been to before, and a pleasant surprise, particularly around St Barts.
It’s not affluent, but the golden stone gives it an air of Market Drayton. “Air of Market Drayton” would make a great fragrance.
I’d arrived a month too late for Agatha Crusty,
so had to make do with lesser entertainment till the King William opened at 5.
No, not portable pot plants at Superbuy, despite your recommendations.
I visited the town museum, a cornucopia of local history to rival the ones at Leatherhead and Desborough.
It’s staffed by two lovely genteel ladies who took a quid off me despite their assurances I’d never do it justice in 20 minutes before it closed.
The recreation of wartime, or possibly present day, Crewkerne life is charming.
With only antiques and charity shops for entertainment I then had to kill half an hour in Costa, my least favoured coffee chain, where the young lady described the scene dramatically.
“It’s just like Piccadilly Circus!”
Well no, it wasn’t, though Costa was certainly the hub of town life, and the newish micropub had decided not to open at all today. As they’re wont to do.
I still had 10 minutes till opening, but luckily the town council don’t believe in pedestrian crossing so it took me 11 minutes to reach the door of a real backstreet boozer.
This was the scene one minute after opening.
The ale house lives! Possibly at Happy Hour, but still.
Almost entirely blokes, and not really a tradesmen crowd either. Almost like an unofficial beer festival on a daily basis.
I counted 17 other punters, so the odds of my Bristol Beer Factory Fortitude being fresh were high.
And I won. Gorgeous it was. cool and foamy (NBSS 3.5+). Less convinced by Mr Porky’s scratchings if I’m honest.
The gorgeous dulcet tones of Sara Cox were competing with the laughter of two dozen Zummezetters, and all was well with the world. Si will adore it.
And best of all, lacings are back.
retiredmartin 
Own up. Who’s read this post at 1am in the morning?
I’m at Gatwick waiting for the 4.21am train, I’ve got an excuse.
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I didn’t know trains ran that late/early out of Gatwick.
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Trains run out of Gatwick South every half hour to London, but of course you can’t then leave for Cambridge till 5am.
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It was 5.50pm last Saturday and 3.30pm on Monday that I passed through Gatwick railway station but I wasn’t going to stop off to use up a 50p voucher at one of Tim’s airport venues.
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Shame on you!
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Not 1am but reading it now, having just started on my backlog of retiredmartin blogposts. Believe I will have enough time on my hands to get back up to date !
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5.13am for me. Not bad for someone retired. Safe trip home.
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Well done, Tony. No point wasting time when you’re retired 😉
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It could’ve been me, as that would be 5pm my time.
But you can tell from the IP address where it’s coming from? 😉
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Oh yes, I do know already. I use an Huawei phone so I can see you all in your underpants drinking cans of Bud Light and reading this.
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No, absolutely, it’s OK to be sat about doing nothing on someone else’s time, but absolutely not on your own.
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“I bet it was great in 1977 (wild guess based on advertising “real ale“).”
I’m leaning towards the fact that they had exotic dancers.*
* – that’s what the double D’s stands for, right?
“I can make anywhere look good”
Learn to do it with people and you’ll be famous!
““Air of Market Drayton” would make a great fragrance.”
Sure beats ‘air of BRAPA’. 😉
“Possible dead pub”
Never count your swans until they’ve hatched.
“I’d arrived a month too late for Agatha Crusty,”
Is it a thing over there to use ‘an’ before a word beginning with ‘h’?
“No, not portable pot plants at Superbuy, despite your recommendations.”
You know us so well.
“The recreation of wartime, or possibly present day, Crewkerne life is charming.”
With all of those kids I don’t know where she finds the time to bake bread.
“All out of date but still being sold in 99p store”
Colman’s (powdered) Mustard should still be good.
“This was the scene one minute after opening.”
I didn’t see all that lot clustered around the door waiting in the photo above.
“And best of all, lacings are back.”
Hurrah!
Cheers
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You put more effort into reading these posts than I do into writing them 😉
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And you only use “an” before a vowel, so an hilarious is technically wrong. Though a Cockney might say an ‘ilarious play, I guess.
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Also the reverse (to Cockney) is true from what I remember.
Aren’t the upper crust (in)famous for adding the letter ‘h’ at the beginning of words that start with a vowel?
Cheers
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Not the upper crust. I remember H-h-h-h ‘ancocks ‘alf ‘our…
Hedward ‘Eath was arguably a great PM compared, with recent versions too.
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People often used to refer to “an hotel”, although it’s a bit archaic now.
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More likely “an ‘ovel” where I grew up.
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Obviously I got my crusts mixed up. 🙂
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