retiredmartin

Yes, a literal blog title, but what rhymes with Foxton ? Hoxton ?

Quite what you’ve done to deserve a post on an unheralded village pub (never graced the GBG in my lifetime) in an unheralded South Cambs village I’ve no idea.

All Foxton has is a railway station that surprisingly survived Beeching, and the pervading sense I ought to have a view on the White Horse.

A 5pm opener, of course, so plenty of time to explore.

Your archetypal village cricket ground,

archetypal thatched cottage,

and archetypal floral obssessions.

Seven people, all over 70, said “Good afternoon” in order to judge by my response if I was an invader from the Fens. Which I was.

Foxton would be about No.373 in the League Table of Cambridgeshire villages (there’s 381 of them), but with minor roads only taking you to Fowlmere and back you can walk down the middle of the street to your heart’s content.

It’s flat and dull and peaceful, and also very wearing in the 30 degree heat.

I’d brought a bottle of water but no pork scratchings, and my legs suddenly felt heavy a couple of miles out.

So I walked back, so slowly that the Google Maps estimate was right for a change, and was grateful the village store opposite the pub was open till 5.

Baguette, French cheese and juice, service from a lovely lady from St Helens.

“Ah, a woollyback”

“And proud of it”

The recreation ground has an impressive skate park as well as the cricket ground and fitness trail, an ideal place to pig out.

I gave the White Horse five minutes to prepare for my grand entrance.

The canine presence caught me out though.

No Old Boys had beat me to the bar. In a village of 1,260 I suspect the Old Boy quotient is low.

It’s a fairly traditional Cambridgeshire all-rounder, without the airs and graces of That Grantchester up the A10.

Oh, here’s a surprise. You expected Greene King IPA, Ghost Ship and Cloudwater, didn’t you ?

Since the smoking ban killed off the few remaining keg boozers, Cambridgeshire has been unique in having cask available in all its pubs. Don’t worry, Brew Dog arrive in the city centre this month.

Of course, cask and good cask are very different things.

How good would a pint of Harvey’s be in a non-Beer Guide pub first out of the pumps on a Monday afternoon ?

OK, actually. It started cool and chewy and ended up a bit milky by the end, but I could tick the box that said “Competently kept“, and feel I’d done my bit to save pubs.

The Landlord was polite rather than engaging, that’s fine by me. I think he was more interested in The Chase, which as BeerMat will know is what defines pubs at 5pm on a weekday.

That and four shelves bulging with darts trophies from the ’90s.