BACK TO £5 A PINT SUSSEX

June 2023. Hawkhurst.

The Google travel map for June is going to be fun; a series of trips from Sheffield to Waterbeach to Rye and back again. Repeat.

Returning from “home” to the caravan park at Rye the day after that pint of Moretti I found myself in need of some Harvey’s. Which is odd, because it’s hard to avoid the Sussex down here, and the internet is full of beer twitter types expressing their boredom with the pride of Lewes.

Not a lot of GBG pubs on the classic route between Tunbridge Wells and Rye, and the upmarket looking Queen’s at Hawkhurst was so meh when we popped in as it debuted in the Guide last year I didn’t blog about it.

“Picturesque” says What Pub, but I still can’t get over that naff pub sign, which is a straight copy of the more famous one in Stalybridge.

Hawkhurst is as far as you can get from Stalybridge, though the swearing in the courtyard was the equal of anything on Tameside.

Look, it’s a restaurant. What did you expect, bench seating ?

But the lady who took a fiver off me for the Harvey’s was a winning combination of chat and chill, and seemed to hint the Sussex was the beer of choice despite the Cellar Head being from up the lane (well, the A21). Those handmade pump clips (below, left) don’t inspire confidence, do they ?

I took one more glance at the seating options,

sighed, and headed outside, where sweary lads outnumbered gentlefolk 3-to-1.

I reckon Harvey’s Sussex is as much a bellwether pint as Landlord or Bass. Your fiver buys you a cool, slightly sweet pint that would never convince you why this is the beer the CAMRAs fuss about (2.5, same as 6 months ago).

As I must have said a hundred times, Harvey’s looks nice on the bar in a smart dining pub, but who really drinks it ?

Luckily, a Harvey’s redemption wasn’t long in coming.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

18 thoughts on “BACK TO £5 A PINT SUSSEX”

  2. Your some-time reporter – in Herstmonceux as he writes – remarks that he’s seen more UK flags flying in gardens around here than in most places, but also more pubs offering limited service or part closed too, often with signs saying “staff wanted”.

    You really shouldn’t have voted to send them all home then, should you?

    Sussex Best has a lovely hoppy afterbite, which you don’t often get, whatever.

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    1. I do agree with you on your main point, rural pubs in particular seem affected, but in Rye itself the casual but good places along the main street have all been well-staffed with cheery young folk and seemingly open all hours.

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      3. Watch the sparrows fight under the wisteria pergola – they’ve got attitude. Didn’t notice any restriction on a Monday at any rate.

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      4. Etu,
        I heard a regular in one of Humphrey’s York pubs get “there you go, chicken” with their pint last week.
        It must be the Yorkshire equivalent of the East Midlands “there you go, me duck”

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  3. Harveys is a beer I look out for, as is Bathams. Both because I rarely see them. You’d think Bathams would be easier to find than it is living in Worcester. Harveys is understandable rare in these parts.

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    1. Yes, there’s a lot more Harvey’s in Sussex and Kent than there is Batham’s in Worcs and the Black Country. I rarely see Batham in the free trade, Great Western in Wolves apart.

      Harvey’s is a default beer in the dining pubs; in your part of the country it’s more likely to be Wye Valley.

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      1. According to this
        bathams.co.uk/pubs/bathams-free-houses-reseller-breweries/
        there’s 23 free houses selling Bathams – and also four “reseller breweries” though one’s not a brewery and another has closed.

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