March 2020
Day 2 of the “World Without Pubs“, and the latest in my series of increasingly desperate attempts to sell the Fens to you as a holiday destination, should you ever be allowed to leave Paisley or Maidstone or Bridgend.
If you’d assumed Little Thetford was next to normal Thetford on the A11 to Narrrrfolk, be prepared for a shock.
A one street village leading down to the Ouse, home to 792 souls,. 792, remarkably is exactly 10 times the average age of the residents based on the cheery folk I encountered.
Those of you who pay attention may remember this sign at Stretham pointing to the Fish and Duck Inn.
I headed there now.
I’ve walked the bounds of Lt. Thetford, as its fans call it, a couple of times.
The Pedigree van remains, a victim of rampaging Little Thetfordians who diverted a delivery to Stretham’s Red Lion into a siding in 2011 and stripped it bare.
It lies, forlorn, in the garden of the Social Club (probably Greene King) which provides the only lubrication to the gentlefolk.
The only lubrication apart from Plumb’s Dairy, my own milkman, whose demand has apparently trebled in the last week.
30 minutes to Cambridge, 5 minutes to Ely, 6 hrs 22 to Paisley.
What can I tell you about Little Thetford to get you to change your summer holiday plans, bar the fact you won’t be having a summer holiday ?
The recumbent bicycle man has moved to Ely.
And the WWF Shark Swim in the Ouse is on hold for now.
But this is the place for your social distancing.
It’s been a dry village, remote riverside pub apart, for about as long as Landbeach. The number of Cambs villages without a pub may not have reached its peak, you feel.
Near the railway line a lone plasterer sang Chas & Dave’s “Sideboard Song“, badly, the first public entertainment in Little Thetford since VE Day.
Then it was down to the River, just like in the Springsteen song.
Quieter than in the 1890s when a ferry conveyed a horse and cart to Barway for purposes unknown.
Half an hour along the muddy bank to the Fox & Duck marina, where the pub has been demolished so I can’t bring you any reminiscences about a decent little stop for pleasure boats that was selling Theakston when I bade it farewell in 2003.
I walked the riverbank for an hour; a few dozen boats including our Shakira (top), one man and his dog. Which chased me. I think it was called Arthur.
The skies closed in. I trudged back.
Are you bored of the big skies yet ?
Has anyone else noticed that “Day 2 of the World Without Pubs“ is just like being abroad, only cheaper ?,
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😉
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It’s slowly sinking in that there won’t be a summer holiday… Hard to accept. I’ll throw a road question out there. I notice that from Heathrow Google maps always prefers M3 and A303 over the M4 and M5 when one goes west. Even when one goes to Exmoor. Is that the preferred route by real travelers and not just we who are living vicariously through google? Planning a visit for late 2023 when we have the vaccine.
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2023? Optimistic.
M3/303 avoids the inevitable slowdown on M5 between Bristol and Taunton, and a good 20 miles shorter.
On the upside, the M4/M5 gives you the joy of passing Maidenhead and the option of Bass at the Ship in Portishead.
Happy to be of service.
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Told you we’d turn this into a travel site. Sad we do it when nobody can go anywhere.
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Dave,
“when one goes west”
What we’re gonna do is
Go West, Life is peaceful there
Go West, There in the open air
Go West, Where the skies are blue
Go West, This is what we’re gonna do
Life is peaceful there, Go West
In the open air, Go West
but not till 2023 ?
And what about that Bathams lunchtime and Wolverhampton evening ?
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😊
NB Is that the Village People or Pet Shop Boys version?
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Fingers crossed but things aren’t looking good for travel. This seems like it is going on for a long time sad to say.
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Not sure which version.
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A303 offers a very good layby breakfast and Stonehenge…best considered in that order. Once saw Robert Downey Junior at Stonehenge, never thought of him as a druid.
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6 hours 22 minutes? I’ll start the car….
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‘a drain’
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Technical term.
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On Romney Marsh they are called sewers
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Glad to see you supporting your local doorstop delivery milkman, Martin. We’ve had our milk delivered ever since moving in, 26 years ago, and we used the same local dairy for 7 years prior to that,at our previous residence.
You might pay a few pence a pint more than at a supermarket, but you can’t beat opening the front door and finding the bottles waiting there in the outside porch.
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Fairly sure our patronage goes back 20 years since we moved back to Cambridge.
Milk just tastes fresh compared to supermarket, like cask v keg.
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I had to give up having milk delivered when they began leaving in after I had gone out to work.
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Really?
Ours arrives at 1am in the morning when Mrs RM is still working.
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Living in a flat in a high crime area called a shithole, I rather feel that if I engaged the services of the local milkman I would never actually receive the milk despite him delivering it correctly. I would like to drive a milk float though.
Whilst you may not sell the fens as a holiday destination, you do portray a most interesting view of it. How I wish those of us without private transport could get out further in these times and explore our area.
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Can you not walk to Immingham, Tom?
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I do occasionally walk to Immingham from Habrough. Sadly advice is to forego the pleasure of the train to Habrough at present. Also the station waiting room at Habrough is currently enforceably closed.
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Little Hereford is also quite a long way from Hereford itself. Unlike its Norfolk equivalent, it does have a pub:
https://whatpub.com/pubs/HFD/2482/temeside-hotel-little-hereford
It’s also in a promontory of Herefordshire that sticks out north into Shropshire, rather like Twyning in Gloucestershire, which we were discussing the other day.
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Thanks.
Apparently the derivation of the word Thetford in Cambridge is different from the Thetford in Norfolk. It’s always those Nor-folk.
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Martin,
Again I am reminded of a Kipper Family song.
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I like the prescience on the part of the builders of the Round House, as to the possibility of future invasion by paratroops.
“They don’t like it up ’em!”
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Little Eaton is just a bit further from Long Eaton than you’d expect, but not a lot, maybe.
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Both quite a way from the Church Eaton I drove through daily before I had to retire.
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