RASCALITY IN TROSTON

November 2023. Troston. Suffolk.

“Troston is a little-known village in the quiet lanes between Bury and Diss, purposeful and pleasing” writes Simon Knott on his excellent churches photo stream, and it’s managed to escape my notice for 58 years, tucked between Bury and Thetford in what I’d describe to Dave as “rural Suffolk”.

With Dad just discharged from Addenbrookes my breaks are a bit limited at the moment; Dave will be horrified to learn I didn’t spend an hour scoring St Mary’s (photo : Malcolm Skinner),

so here’s one of Mr Knott’s photos of a 14th century painting of St Edmund’s martyrdom.

St Edmund was, of course, martyred for complaining about the use of hop oils in Greene King IPA, and the short Wiki entry for Troston reveals some more recent struggles with the much loved county brewer.

I visited the Bull, recently saved from GK ownership, after a quick whizz round a village of 952 souls, 76 tractors, 348 chickens and 44 suicidal pheasants.

A splendid village pub,

still awaiting the arrival of the chap with the tools to prise the Greene King plaque off the wall.

Quite a few former GK houses have been sold off and gone on to thrive; the Dove in Bury is a rather different beast to the Bull, if I’m not mixing my metaphors again.

Rather different wall paintings to those in St Mary’s.

Yes, a refined dining pub, and the seating options for the pint man a bit limited, but the welcome was really great,

and if I’d have been delighted to see Greene IKA and Doom Bar on the pumps rather than a homebrew called “Rascality” I suspect I’m in the minority.

And I’m happy to be proven wrong as “Hair of the Frog” was superbly conditioned (3.5) and very tasty, and a village pub packed on Thursday lunchtime in November is a joyous thing.

I’ll excuse the writing on the beams on this occasion.

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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.

15 thoughts on “RASCALITY IN TROSTON”

  1. I think you’ll find the correct spelling is “plague”.
    Of all the pubs in NE Scotland taken over by GK/Belhaven in the nineties, not one is a patch on how it was run privately; those subsequently sold off are much improved.

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      2. Well, I’ve just booked two nights in Dundee late next April and will probably manage an evening in Broughty Ferry from there again.

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      3. I shall be going, parents permitting, but I’ll leave the itinerary for later ! I think five (or was it six) pints before lunch in Edinburgh may be a bit ambitious this time.

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      1. Spit the shot out, man! Mind, when m’game dealer was still around, he used to get me things that had been shot through the head so there was no lead shot in the body.

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      2. I was eating rabbit only once, and the lunch was interrupted by a phone call informing us my grandfather had died. That was February 1968.

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  3. They accuse me of rascality,
    But I can’t see why they always pick on me,
    I’m as gentle as a lamb
    But they take me for a ram,
    They go wild, simply wild over me.

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