July 2024. Dereham.
An absolute joy to meet up with Curry Charles (though blog debutant Julia was the star) properly again after a year or two of no more than exchanging smutty political cartoons on WhatsApp with the King of Double Entendres, whose hilarity is commemorated in our next Dereham pub,
appropriately the GBG Cock,
which has given Charles so much material over the years (all of it over my head).
We entered the Cock at 19:12, and although it was supposed to close at 20:00, the clocks show we were there well past kicking-out time.
So, although the Cock’s reputation rests on beer range and quality,
and second pints of local Beeston IPA touched and exceeded NBSS 3.5, it was the charm and thoughtfulness of a barmaid who could see we were having some deep conversations about life* who let us linger long past drinking-up time and I thank her for that, and wish her all the best in light of ongoing events;
8pm seems unusually early to close, but many town pubs don’t bother at all with Mondays (or Tuesdays, or Wednesdays…), so it was always impressive the Cock opened at 11am each day.
It’s a pub that wouldn’t look out of place in the Sheffield Valley of Beer, a bit less beery than the Blake or Gardeners but with high standards that I hope the new custodians can maintain, whatever becomes of the treasure chest of breweriana.
Right, 20:38, time for a curry yet…
*Yes, and even of pubs on Lewis, and suddenly I have Port of Ness on my To Do list.
retiredmartin 