retiredmartin

19th February 2023.

It had been nearly 20 years since we last visited Sedgefield, a County Durham town the size of Waterbeach acting as the “posh” bit for a famous parliamentary constituency you may have heard of,

if only because of a famous visit to this unassuming pub just before my own arrival.

The Dun Cow has a plaque on the wall proclaiming the Bush/Blair tour, but no mention of NBSS scores or whether the Bass was off.

And, yes, that does say “restaurant” (ugh).

Sedgefield’s constituency boundaries have been mucked around a bit since Charles Anthony Lynton Blair won the seat for the Conservatives Labour in 1983, the transferring in and out of Spennymoor and Tudhoe presumably mirroring some bartering in CAMRA GBG allocations.

Anyhow, Sedgefield itself is a lovely little place to wander for half an hour before the town’s first new Guide entry in decades opens at noon.

I’m tempted to tell the Americans that the pump on the village green was used to dispense Bass;

but they’re not THAT daft. It’s all Strongarm round here.

The sundial struck 12. Or possibly 1707.

and we headed to the bar at the Hardwick Arms. You can see the sign to the bar, written on the wall.

Writing on the wall, unless it says “CAMRA vouchers accepted here“, are never a good sign.

They’d been stocking up on logs,

but not on beer. The Draught Bass hadn’t been delivered yet, so Mrs RM’s Hobson’s choice was Exmoor Antler.

Why oh why is an Exmoor beer being sold in County Durham ?

The actual bar area was busy and cosy, with the Scottish Premier league being shown to zero interest.

Mrs RM’s interest was in the beer.

“Ugh, smell this !“.

So I got to see the rare sight of Mrs RM taking a beer back.

And she did it expertly.

“Excuse me, this beer doesn’t taste right*”. None of my wimpy “Ahem, I’m so sorry, but it may be, ahem, the end of the barrel” and to their credit the response of the staff was equally polite, though the only alternative with Beavertown also off was the UK’s new favourite beer.

And to their credit, the Exmoor pump was turned round.

The Bass clip just sat there taunting me as we shuffled out.

*She had her “I’m a CAMRA, me, I know what beer tastes like” in reserve.