4th July, then. No, after YOU.
Politicians, radio hosts and royalty think all pubs look like this;
rather than this;
Talking of royalty, across the Bottisham Fen (5 minutes by crow, 20 by car) is the Dyke’s End, a pub graced by Prince Charles when the community rescued it 20 years ago (see also :Hesket Newmarket).
Oddly, the “Dyke” used to be the “King’s”, renamed for the ditch that takes you into Newmarket and “there be dragons” Suffolk.
It’s a destination pub, ideal for the Summer we hope will stretch beyond 4th July, and maintains a decent drinking area for the locals that the diners travelling out from Quy and Burwell probably don’t know exist.
358 souls can’t sustain a pub on pints of Adnams alone, of course, particularly when the only economic activity apart from the ancient Reach Fair is repainting the village sign and thatching retirees’ houses.
No facilities at all apart from the closed pub and a bus we’d missed. By about 3 days.
Plenty of those wide-open Fen skies you love so much, and a field full of aggressive looking cows near the twitchers.
I might pop back here next month to see if all the people who said they’d be rushing back to the pub are there at 1pm on a Wednesday.
I guess you know the answer.
retiredmartin 
This seems like quite the quaint area, Martin. I too am counting down the days until pubs reopen, although the situation in Wales seems to be a little less definitive. Hoping to return to them very soon!
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I’ll be watching the situation in Wales with interest, Eddie. Many of the pubs I want to visit in Glamorgan and West Wales probably rely on food trade over the summer so I wonder how they’ll cope with folk like me popping in for a quick half !
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God knows what will happen in Scotland, I think Wee Nippy will want to keep the pubs shut as long as possible, just out of puritanism.
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Can you turn them back into milk bars ?
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I’m wondering at Mrs RM’s reaction when you brought home the “NEEDBASS” house sign.
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Looks more like “NEEDHOLT” to me.
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Reach looks nice and tranquil, if nothing else.
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I doubt you’ll find yourself driving that way but if you do it’s exactly that, tranquil ! Come on their annual Reach fair and see 2,000 people crammed into a village of 200 on fairground rides etc !
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If all pubs looked like that first photo you posted, my affection for pubs might collapse entirely! 😉
Your posts have made me think there’s a tradition of “the village sign” that some of these towns have adopted: painted sculptural things that incorporate old (even medieval-looking) elements, but seem to be of fairly recent origin. Is it something you’ve seen a lot of in your travels?
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Seems to be a big thing in Cambridgeshire ! I wondered if they were all done by the same local artist.
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