Yet more, Appledore.
With an hour’s walk back to the campervan and a serious chat with Baa Baa Toure ahead, I thought I’d better spend ten minutes writing off the village as the Aldeburgh of the West or something.
But it was enchanting, and surprisingly normal. The Royal Plaice combined deep fried haddock and Doom Bar.
The intriguingly named combined crazy golf with, er, Doom Bar.
and Serene Skye claimed a day trip to a Scottish Island one feels they couldn’t deliver (though I need a tick there).
I nearly popped in newly re-opened Royal George but they weren’t doing Doom Bar and it looked a bit Southwold.
“It looks just like a little Deal. Without micropubs” I excitedly told Dave, who had to agree.
Tight streets winding behind the bay (Irsha Street a marvel), packed with pale blues and antiques and tat. And the odd closed pub.
But the biggest treasure was the bloke who’d been seeking our votes (presumably for Doom Bar as CBOB) in the Champ. He tipped up again, twice, and nodded sagely at me outside the Beaver.
That Liverpool kit I thought he was wearing turned out to be the official shirt of the New Inn in Fremington, a short swim across the Torridge.
I should have tried at least one of the pubs, but Rishi’s half-price fishcakes had flooded the pubs, and I’m not queueing for a pint of Doom.
I headed home, wishing I’d slapped on more suncream.
“Quaint”er than an alleyway in Northampton.
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“Yet more, Appledore.”
There’s that bloody map again.
“Tight back streets”
With a convenient gutter in which to throw your garbage from the second floor. Just like the old days!
“The Royal Plaice combined deep fried haddock and Doom Bar.”
Did they fry it in Doom Bar?
“No takers ?”
Are you talking about the two good looking sheep in their, um, woolies?
“Oh, it’s not a boat trip”
‘Fresh off the boat’; that’s kinda how my wife gets the seafood for her freeze dried seafood chowder.
“Nice sign”
A bit daft to have it so close to the actual pub. 🙂
“Quaint”
That’s practically the same photo from earlier in the post!
“and nodded sagely at me outside the Beaver.”
Here’s me being full of decorum and the like.
“I headed home, wishing I’d slapped on more suncream.”
If we ever meet, I’d be more than happy to ‘slap’ some on ya. 🙂
Cheers
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I’ll be using that map when I get to Holy Island. You’ll never know.
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Historically, Appledore was a very isolated and poverty-stricken fishing community, and I think it still has a touch of grittiness that you won’t find on the Suffolk coast. Also until last year home to one of the last working commercial shipyards in Britain.
I remember visiting in the late 80s, when out-of-area guest beers were a rarity, and being somewhat dismayed to find Robinson’s on sale 250 miles from home. Can’t recall the name of the pub.
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Yes, I like to see local beers when I visit the area too. Doom Bar, for example.
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Martin,
Yes, and with it in the Dundee hotel I stayed in last year I think its reputation has spread nationwide
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It’s nice to see local, CAMRA award winning beers being successful, you’d think. Unless you’re on CAMRA Discourse.
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But I’ve not yet found Doom Bar on Autovac in Scotland or Yorkshire.
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T’other Mudgie,
But in the pre guest beer 1979 Good Beer Guide Robinsons Best Bitter was one of the six beers listed for the Lobster Pot in the “fishing village” of Hope Cove on the south Devon coast.
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Whatever happened to “Best Bitters” ?
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Rebranded “Unicorn” as I think t’other Mudgie will confirm.
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The Beaver! Great pub, great seafood including local Torridge wild salmon when their fisherman can provide. My mother lived in Northam and I used to take her out for a meal here when I visited. But in the mid C20 Appledore had a reputation as being a bit “rough”.
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Appledore a bit rough ?! I guess now it’s Northam that’s the more earthy of the little towns there, or is Westward Ho ! the place for aggro (I’m guessing, never got there).
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But you’ve got it in your diary for late December and a “Westward Ho Ho Ho!” title.
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