July 2024. Coleman’s Green. Wheathampstead.
Hertfordshire was always one of the first counties to be completed when ticking the Guide really mattered, but it’s taken me till now to put my old home county to bed for GBG24.
And the weird thing is, I’m absolutely certain I’d been to Coleman’s Green years ago, when Mrs RM worked in Welwyn and would nip out for a pint of AK and a sandwich in the woods.
John Bunyan was a destination McMullen’s pub when I lived and worked locally, but McMullen’s seemed persona no grata to CAMRA, either because of the “cask breather” issue or because they weren’t good enough.
It’s taken reinvention as a free house to put old smiling JB in the GBG,
and prompt me to scour the internet for links between our Pilgrim and Pubs.
Perhaps “A Discourse Upon the Pharisee and the Publican, 1685″ ? Nope different sort of publican. Oh, he lived and preached here (there and everywhere) apparently.
It’s a gorgeous remote-but-not-too-remote rural pub,
pulling pints for walkers and the odd local.
A charming and singular place, and a landlord who approaches me with “Sir !”
which alarms me a bit, but he doesn’t think my Two Brewers looks clear so he takes it away and brings back another one (NBSS 3.5+). AND 35p difference in the pints. I applaud that, and the Gents humour (top). Well, sort of.
And even better, his young lad is pouring a pint as I leave, and pulls it perfectly. I applaud. A great landlord, raising children properly, just like John Bunyan would have wanted.
retiredmartin 
I remember when it was the grandparents pulling the pints. Still one of my favourite pubs at the halfway mark of a stroll.
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Oh yes you’d know it. Do you remember the McMullens ?
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Yes it was McMullens when the grandparents had it. It was as good a pint of McMullens as anywhere. I wasn’t a fan of McM but I’m not very discerning after a few miles.
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Sounds like a great pub! I think my (pub co) local pub – which has closed again (closed and reopened several times in the last year or so) could do with a freehouse rescue.
Photo of the ‘odd local’ would have been interesting… 😉
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You can see his leg in the photo !
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How often have you had a publican take the beer back that way?
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Probably 6 times ever, and only when the beer was still standing on the bar. This landlord saw me looking at the pint a little suspiciously in my seat and intervened.
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You’re going to get a reputation.
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