BROXBOURNE – A CALL FOR EVIDENCE

February 2024. The Lea Valley.

Just back “home” (Sheffield) from “home” Waterbeach; a week with Mum and Dad split with a couple of days in our capital.

A wealth of material from London, which you may have heard of, but I start with a (genuine) request for info. on a place you probably haven’t.

I only passed by the Lea Valley as the train to London had to take the “Essex” route from Cambridge North, itself now the proud owner of a statue commemorating the visit of Hercules to Chesterton in 1957.

The only beer at the station for the Science Park is Camden in the new Novotel and cans in the Co-op, but don’t let that stop me doing a pub crawl there.

The painfully slow trip from Cambridge to Liverpool Street does have one advantage;

Yes, not just a seat to yourself, a whole carriage and a loo.

I can see why politicians think rail travel has dropped post-Covid when I visit Cambridge. In Sheffield. virtually every train to Manchester/Leeds/Derby and beyond is packed, with folk unable to squeeze on board. Down south, with far more carriages, rail looks (relatively) underused.

That was one observation. As the train stopped at Broxbourne, I suddenly thought;

why have I never been to those Lea Valley towns ?

Hoddesdon, Cheshunt, Goffs Oak, Lower Nazeing…

Such evocative names, but I don’t ever remember a GBG pub bringing me to this area between Hertford and Waltham Abbey.

Not just me, either. Looks like the Bull hasn’t been surveyed by Herts and Essex Borders for 15 years;

And that’s despite the attractions of “clean” bars and “no rowdy kids”. And proper family brewery beer.

So, should I be planning some surveying of my own if I get bored of the charms of Waterbeach and fancy an exciting rail excursion ?

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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 “BROXBOURNE – A CALL FOR EVIDENCE”

    1. Excellent question. I’d like to know what their GBG allocation is and where it goes as I can’t really think of ANY pubs round there. It’s not really a real ale sort of place to be fair.

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      1. Dave,
        There’s a new policy that from next year branches will have their GBG allocation severely reduced if they’ve not properly surveyed enough pubs over the previous year, hence my branch yesterday while getting round the Waggon and Horses, Kings Arms, Princess Royal, Greyhound, Railway, Lamb and Vine having a four page survey form filled in by one of us in each of the pubs.
        GBG allocations are so precious that it should get hundreds of members off their sofas and into unfamiliar pubs. Not before time.

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      2. This sort of change is a good one. Now they need to solve the issue of how many allocations each branch receives based on actual beer quality. More Midlands I say!

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  2. The thing about Macs is that their ales are very traditional, which is fine (so are Holts, Holdens, Harveys etc), but their pubs tend to be family/food oriented, and even in the good ones most people don’t drink the cask so quality is often poor. They probably sell more Fosters than all their own beers combined. For 40 yrs AK was the only cask mild regularly available in central London, but it’s never had cult appeal; no-one ever said “Oh wow, Macmullens!”

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    1. I think I thought “Oh wow, AK !” on approaching the bar of their ex-Tim’s Whitehall pub last May.
      Covid prevented me staying in Cheshunt where I would have got in a couple of their pubs.

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      1. We were in Trafalgar Square on Tuesday but I resisted the Lord Moon of the Mall.

        Note that McMullens now have cask in the erroneously titled “Cambridge Tap” which used to be the local Building Society.

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    2. I know this may be the exception, but I look forward to the traditional breweries when we see them. I really believe there is a quality improvement based on brewing a certain volume of the same beer over and over again. The constant change in smaller breweries beer line ups can lead to some really awful brews.

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