October 2024. Wymondham.
I’d dragged Mrs RM two hours east to rural Norfolk on a Sunday evening because a) the alternative was another night in my parents house Waterbeach without internet, b) I knew the Green Dragon would make her a good Instagram reel.
A good day already, with Goose Island at the station, Doom Bar at the GBG newbie and Adnams Old at the marvellous Feathers was about to peak at one of the UK’s most famous pubs.
Well, I always assumed the Green Dragon, one of only 3,133 pubs claiming to be the oldest in the country, was a national gem, and certainly when it unexpectedly closed last year the press talked of the “sun setting on this much-loved 600 year old gem for the last time” as if pubs never ever changed hands.
What Pub says it closes at six (Sunday bedtime in Norfolk), the pub Facebook agreed, but Google said 8pm and a call to the Green Dragon suggested it depended on trade.
No time to lose, then.
Untappd had raved about that Moongazer Caramel Stout; Mrs RM was all beered out so had a large glass of Pinot that cost almost as much as the train fare.
But it was worth it. The Dragon is a wonderful place, smaller than I remember,
which is odd because when I was last here I wrote how “everything about this place was local boozer heaven. A cheery, unpretentious public house, with couples and mates talking rubbish in a mid-afternoon drinking session“.
And it felt that now, with a couple playing cards in one room, another couple debating tea options in the other, and us in the middle sipping a sumptuously sweet stout (NBSS 3.5+).
Having spent a fortune on wine Mrs RM felt vindicated in taking her Insta shots,
but actually this isn’t at all a showy heritage pub, just a welcoming old one.
Back in the GBG in 2025, hopefully.
“Sullen wives” ? No idea what one of those is.
retiredmartin 