A dull photo to end Northamptonshire for another year, but don’t be fooled.
The Crown in West Haddon is yet another gem in the county to stand alongside the mighty Duke’s Arms in Burton Latimer and the Piper in Kettering, which I insist I get to take BRAPA to.
Plain, bustling, welcoming village pubs are a Northants specialty, just like the golden stone that makes this county the Cotswolds without t**ts.
West Haddon is best known for its mower shop and as the home of Marcia Falkender of Lavender List fame.
For five points, what is the connection between Marcia and Bolton Lads Club ?
The Crown is my first ever pub in West Haddon, though the Pytchley looks very familiar. Caravan site doen the road or an £85 room with Pytchley mushrooms, your choice.
Mrs Pytchley would have been a bit miffed we were walking past the posh pub in favour of the plain looking one.
A long, sparsely decorated room roaring with life.
And showing City’s game at Newcastle, unfortunately.
The young barman was about to get the biggest challenge of his life.
“What would you like mate ?“
“You choose”
“What do you like ?”
“Anything. You choose”
Now, beer twitter is fairly condemning of this behaviour in the past, but is it any different to me asking for the staff curry in an Indian restaurant. Of course not.
So I got the seasonal from Towcester, a dark, rich, foamy masterpiece (NBSS 4).
It’s always nice to finish a county with a beer that makes you go “Wow, THIS is what real ale is all about”, even if you’re talking to yourself.
But beyond that, it’s great to be in a proper village pub where folk can do the crossword, discuss the carnival (something like the Wicker Man I guess) or watch Jamie Carragher attempt to analyse the City defence.
And lo, another one bites the dust.
retiredmartin 
If the connection doesn’t involve Hull University rugby team and a snooker table then I’ve lost interest.
If you take BRAPA to an outlying pub, are you obliged to take him back again?
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Only on pints 1-3. From 4th pint onwards I’m obliged to leave him on the hard shoulder and sod off.
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Or Bolton Lads Clubs benefitted from royalties from Roy Wood’s Flowers In The Rain after publicity for the record had shown libellously Marcia in bed with a Prime Minister of the time ?
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Winner.
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Wot, not the nearest railway station?
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Hat doffed, Paul
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPayLGgx_8E
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– and on 30th Sept 1967 the first record on BBC Radio One.
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It said something about the imagination of British officialdom prior to Radio 1,2,3,4 etc., that they started with the Home Service (as opposed to “external service”) but needed something lighter for the war workers. So they called that “The Light Programme”. But then they really needed something for the highbrow too, a third network. They couldn’t imagine anything beyond “The Third Programme”, apparently.
Those were the days. Make Britain Great Again.
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Make Britain Great Again. Scrap the BBC.
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People said that about British Rail and the Post Office too.
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We need trains and parcels, we don’t need the incompetent lowest common denominator bear baiting of the BBC.
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The dog has a flea.
Best shoot the dog then?
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Fair point, well made.
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In London yesterday Ian Hislop said that since Marcia Falkender’s death he no longer uses the word ‘allegedly’ when mentioning her alleged affair with a Prime Minister.
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Great idea getting the barman to choose although slightly disappointed it wasn’t M&B Mild 😉
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So was I!
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“The Crown in West Haddon is yet another gem in the county”
Is that where they got the inspiration for that Netflix series?
“Patron of the Pashmina Society”
My guess is she’s hiding a very large adam’s apple with that. 😉
“For five points, what is the connection between Marcia and Bolton Lads Club ?”
You REALLY don’t want me to reply to that.
“or an £85 room with Pytchley mushrooms, your choice.”
I’m guessing you went with the mushrooms, considering the ‘doen the road’ remark. 🙂
“Boots and leather, appropriately in Northampton”‘
Well, there’s not much to get up to in the evening, is there?
“Too far south for Pedi”
Really?
“even if you’re talking to yourself.”
Pfft. You’re actually talking to us, so to speak.
“And lo, another one bites the dust.”
I bet you were ‘rhapsodic’ over that, you Bohemian you. 🙂
Cheers
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More effort goes into your replies than in writing this blog.
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