Have I shown you this OS extract before ?
Very useful. Take a look at that built-up area between adorable Appledore and bucolic Bideford.
That’s Northam. No, me neither, but there’s 7,489 souls here. That’s more than Waterbeach. Only one (very non-GBG) pub though. I make that one pub per 17 people but Russ will check my workings.
Two things jump out on the Wiki page;
“Northam has a public library. This burned down in 2005 destroying the building and 90% of the books, in a fire believed to have been caused by the action of a hands-free magnifier on a pile of leaflets.“
Oh, and Rose West was born here. BRAPA would have got a headline out of that.
Without Mrs RM or Sis to steer me, I inevitably drifted off the A386 to see what was here. The WhatPub description for the Golden Lion was tempting,
but only Duncan is currently allowed to enter locked pubs, so the Kingsley Inn it was.
How could I resist a Doom Bar Premier Stockist.
Pub Curmudgeon mused on the appeal of The Pub over The Beer this week, and like that St Neots backstreet boozer the Kingsley is definitely one for the purist.
I noted the cheery Lancastrian accent of the barmaid explaining the one way system even before the “Premier” Doom Bar (look at that head).
Five minutes were spent pondering what suburb of Rawtenstall she came from before she joined the gaggle of young lads in the games room while I was halfway though my NBSS 3+ pint (the only one pulled, but still).
“Burnley is great for nightlife, you can get change out of a tenner for 3 pints, a tattoo and a ferret“. I made some of that up, but you get the picture.
Just like in Burnley, it’s very much 1980/1/2 in Northam. Stacey’s “Jump to the beat” gives way to “Forget me nots” and I wait for “Going back to my roots” but it never comes.
“A great night out. Out out OUT !” I stirred from my Doom and admired the lacings.
Anyway, enough Doom Bar debate. It’s the antique condom machine you really want to see, since you don’t get any of those in Surrey (which is why posh familes have too many children).
That machine was the one used by The Clash in Protex Blue from their eponymous debut album!
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I didn’t know tattoos had spread from Manchester to Burnley.
I was recently reading of “the craft beer revolution of the past decade in Manchester and ….. a wave of diversity and creativity with impressive beards and tats”.
It only takes one generation for beards and sandals to have evolved into beards and tattoos.
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A wave of DIVERSITY ?! But they all have the SAME beards ! My lad living in Salford is cleanshaven and different.
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How could he be anything other as your lad?
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The Kingsley was my step-father’s local – Whitbread Trophy in keg. Golden Lion was a better pub in my view. Ushers if I remember correctly.
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I used to drink Trophy occasionally in Hitchin’s Rose & Crown before Mrs RM converted me to cask Boddingtons. Golden Lion looked more interesting and I reckon Ushers is possible, though I rarely saw Ushers that far west. Paul Mudge will know.
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That Trophy would have been from Tiverton as sold in Falmouth’s Seven Stars alongside the Draught Bass.
There was quite a lot of Ushers in Devon and it even crossed the Tamar.
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The two breweries with tied houses i remember most from mid C20 North Devon were Arnold & Hancock and Starkey, Knight & Ford. Smattering of Devenish houses too, including my 1960s Barnstaple local, the Golden Fleece.
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John,
Arnold & Hancock Ltd was formed in 1927 by a merger of S. W. Arnold & Sons Ltd of the Rowbarton Brewery in Taunton and William Hancock & Sons (Wiveliscombe) Ltd. The company with 262 tied houses was acquired in 1955 by Usher’s Wiltshire Brewery Ltd with the breweries closing in 1955 and 1959.
Starkey, Knight & Ford’s Bridgwater brewery was acquired, and closed, by Whitbread in 1962 with 400 tied houses and demolished five years alter.
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Arnold & Hancock pubs were brown. Starkey, Knight & Ford were black and white. Devenish green.
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John,
I certainly remember Devenish as green.
Too young for the other two !
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– and a bit darker than 1959 green ;
https://retiredmartin.com/2019/08/06/a-torpoint-sore-point/
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And Banks’s pubs were a similar dark green but only till the late 1960s if I remember correctly.
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I wonder if one day collectors will bid hundreds of pounds at auction for an authentic rusty (aren’t they always rusty?) condom machine…in the same way that enamel Hovis signs are sought after today..;)
Doom Bar Premier Stockist eh?! Assume it’s the stockist that is premier, not the Doom Bar – but it probably just means they have signed a 5 year deal not to stock any other brewery’s cask beers .
Mind you…I have to say that head is impressive, though I thought for a minute that you were admitting that you’d stirred it. If it gets any tighter and larger it could be challenging John Smiths Smoothflow.
🙂
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I feel like the Shamen (not the Ebeneezer Goode), possessed of the mysterious knowledge that Doom Bar can be “quite good” when kept in the cellar for more than 15 minutes prior to serving. No-one will ever believe me.
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Yes, I think we all know that Doom Bar can be “quite good” but I’m yet to hear it described as the pinnacle of the brewer’s art.
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Doom Bar is the pinnacle of the brewer’s art.
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Though I’m unable to resist being a ‘prophet of doom’ I bow to your greater knowledge from sampling the product on the ground (not literally) RM. Further to your sponsorship comments in recent posts – maybe Molson Coors/Sharps ought to come up with the deal 😉
It never being described as the pinnacle of the brewers art is an interesting point – as perhaps in so many cases beers which should be…aren’t either due to the factors causing cask beer to below par when served in pubs.
Would be interesting to know what Doom Bar Premier Stockist actually means for the landlord though – bound to associated with various sales incentives.
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Oh you cynic. Similar schemes for Oakham, Burton Ale, Fullers and Landlord. All highly variable.
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Is it true you can get a tattooed ferret in certain pubs in Stalybridge?
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It was in 2019.
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“Have I shown you this OS extract before ?”
“Very useful. Take a look at that built-up area between adorable Appledore and bucolic Bideford.”
I don’t ‘C’ anything there.
(A B C, get it?)
“I make that one pub per 17 people but Russ will check my workings.”
I’d say you’re off by a factor of almost 26! But I’ve had a hard day (i.e. more beers than normal) so the fault may lie with me. 😉
“in a fire believed to have been caused by the action of a hands-free magnifier on a pile of leaflets”
Feh. If it had lasted till now the cause would have been a small bottle of sanitiser caught in the sun.
“Lots to read”
I noticed it’s 1 metre again. Is Covid not as deadly by the seaside or in the hot sun?
“Nice beer range”
Crikey. Even over here we don’t have to pay ahead of time. I take it the ‘new normal’ over there is ‘drink and dash’? 🙂
” I made some of that up, but you get the picture.”
Well, duh! I don’t think you can get a tattoo alone over here for less than 10 quid.
“I stirred from my Doom and admired the lacings.”
Tempted to stay for another pint I see. 😉
“I stirred from my Doom and admired the lacings.”
Nothing to do with them being Catholic then? 😉
Cheers
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