retiredmartin

October 2024. Clavering. Saffron Walden.

Mrs RM is quite taken with my relaxed “post-completion” GBG ticking.

A leisurely day out at a pleasant English village like Clavering,

a pint and artisanal nuts, a stroll through the Autumn leaves.

Quite a contrast to the manic months of 2022 when there was barely a minute to think in a pub before heading off to the next midnight train to Georgia Gillingham or helicopter ride to Scilly.

Although Audley End and Saffron Walden, childhood home of the BRAPA, are better known, those Essex villages west of the M11 are real gems.

Clavering isn’t even the best of them (Arkesden is better), but it is where TV chef Jamie Oliver learnt to cook turkey twizzlers (there’s a plaque).

We tipped up just after 11am, to avoid the inevitable “Will you be dining with us?” you get after noon.

“Will you be dining with us ?”

“Er, no, just a pint. And some of those unpronounceable nuts in a ramekin, please“.

Look, it’s gastro; the barman wears a gilet. What more proof do you need ?

But it’s also rather lovely, and the comically low beams add a frisson of danger to your visit (unless you’re Mrs RM).

And the beers from Nene Valley, the middle class brewery of choice for free houses, are exceptionally good. Cool, rich and tasty (3.5). Just as there’s a “long pull” taste in Spoons, there’s a distinctive flavour to an Essex GBG pint.

I thought about bringing you the hand wash bottles, but I reckon the mechanism for a germ free exit for the Gents is more instructive.

The locals started to arrive just before noon, Guinness and Prosecco the lunchtime order (added to a table started the night before) for a cheery table more interested in the Mexican Grand Prix qualifying than anyone has any right to be.

We left just before the pop of the bottle hit our ears.