Yes, a veritable flood of posts now that I have internet. The Ultimate Premier Inn WiFi is ultimately little better than the free version, mind.
Next up was a pub that’s been bugging me for literally decades since it became the first cooperative in 2003.
Prince Charles paid an early visit, rather more successful than his mum’s trip to Topsham in 1998 when the pork scratchings ran out. If he blogged about his pubbing I missed it.
Isolated on the map, Hesket Newmarket reminds me of isolated Devonian villages like Zeal.
Note the 14th century mural prophesying the arrival of BRAPA in 2020.
There’s two ways these community pubs can go. Amuse bouche or amusing boozer.
Well done, Crown.
It’s a tiny place with a cosy bar and a local legend holding court in the corner. I squash in at the table next to a family feeding their dog chips. Not triple cooked ones, either.
It’s a charming, chatty place. Will the legendary homebrew let it down?
No. Doris may be 90 but she still brews a rich, complex ale. Or something.
The local legend demanded 50p for the seats he was guarding for his mates. I should try that on our Proper Pub days out.
“I want the doctor banned” he said to the Landlady. “Everytime he comes in I’m sat here drinking” .
I sense he says that every day.
I didn’t even know Hesket Newmarket brewery was still going, haven’t seen their beers since Bacchanalia on Victoria Road used to stock them, years ago when the birthday ale bottle had a picture of said Doris resembling Paul O’Grady
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Still see them occasionally. I guess when you produce forba pub you don’t have the commercial pressure of a Mordue.
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I don’t think it can be long until Doris’s 120th birthday.
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I remember when Hesket Newmarket beers first appeared – I think it was the first time I suggested a micro brewed beer tasted more like home brewed, not in a good way. The village was also the home of Eddie Stobart’s haulage company.
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Was it? Didn’t notice any blue plaque.
Sure I’ve seen their beers in Spoons and a few free houses, which always made me think “Ah, need to go there”.
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Local legend, or local pub bore? There’s often a fine dividing line.
Good to see Hesket Newmarket beers on sale. I may be wrong, but I’ve a feeling Chris Bonnington was invited to either open the brewery, or was it to pull the first pint at the re-opened Old Crown?
ps. That should be Sir Chris Bonnington, one of the UK’s finest mountaineers and expedition leaders, and someone truly worthy of such an honour!
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Are there penalties for not using Sir?
I’m sure you’re right about Sir Chris. I remember quite a write up in What’s Brewing when it opened.
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I heard Chris Bonington in London last summer.
It wasn’t in a pub and he certainly wasn’t a bore.
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Cracking pub, one of my favourites. I thought the draught beers were fine, though I have had infected bottles from Hesket Newmarket brewery before.
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I think “fine” is the right word, Ed. Probably the stronger, richer beers are best.
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Hi Martin, sorry I haven’t been commenting lately; the holidays have broken up my blog reading routine– how dare they!
That photo of the Hesket Newmarket signpost makes the place look like an idyllic English village. Did you have a chance to stroll around a bit? And more importantly, have you been to the Cumberland Pencil Museum??
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You have holidays? What is Trump playing at?
Hesket was idyllic, though you’ve pretty much seen the village in those photos. The little shop had bare essentials (no baked products).
Saving the Pencil Museum for a rainy day š
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Looks like a cracking ‘proper’ pub – becoming rarer than ever these days…
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Yes, got a touch of the Five Ways pub you lovingly wrote up the other day.
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Even Digbeth is buckling under the strain…..I give it 15 years and they’ll nearly all be gone
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