retiredmartin

February 2024. Clare.

A trip to the most genteel part of Suffolk (bar the queue for sourdough on a Friday morning in Southwold) to complete the county GBG for another year.

Lavenham, Long Melford, and Gainsborough’s Sudbury just up the road; it’s not a place brimming with boozers, and Clare Castle has resisted attempts to turn it into a micropub.

It’s a pretty little town of 2,028 souls, many of whom have come out to walk the country park based around the railway closed by Beeching and a castle ruined over centuries medieval neglect.

Great views from the top,

and a reminder at the bottom of who’s really in charge of the manor.

A first visit to Clare in a decade, and of course I make it on a day the Ancient House is closed,

but I can still walk the town in ten minutes and admire what the wool trade left us.

This used to be a Nethergate town,

now the Guide entry is a small brewery tap a half mile east with bucolic view to the Stour (and sewage works).

Roughacre Brewery has just added Thursday to its weekend opening, and has made an effort to make its industrial estate building look like a modern beer bar,

with some nice historic touches.

Fresh beer, clean toilets, dog treats, a conversation about the beer festival down the road.

It’s not my style, but I know a ticker just up the road in Newmarket who probably loves it.