retiredmartin

December 2024. Cottenham.

A flying day visit to the in-laws on the 23rd; over four hours on packed motorways and a tortuous delay at Dartford tunnel. Mrs RM had a mysterious aching arm which meant I drove; luckily she’d recovered by the time the gin came out in Royal Tunbridge Wells.

Back “home” (not sure Sheff feels like home at the moment) we were swapping Travelodge for thatched cottage, not the upgrade you’d think, and dropped James at a friend’s up the disintegrating Cottenham road track.

Cottenham, you say ? Two miles west of the Beach, but it’s only appearance on this blog was a walk round the village’s 24 Pepys related cottages during lockdown when we were only allowed out for an hour.

No GBG entries this century, and a string of closures had decimated a village where I did my (ex) brother-in-law’s stag night in 1986.

What Pub tells me I may have underestimated it, a bit.

Although the eponymous Club has a description ending “a bra” (nothing to do with B-i-L’s stag night) it’s not that exciting, open 19:30 at weekends to sell Greene King London Glory (why ?).

But the recent return of the backstreet Waggon & Horses, one of the most basic Fenland pubs imaginable, sounds like big news;

or perhaps not…

But tonight it was Cottenham’s village boozer,

though always thought it was Hop Bind.

This is run by the Impey family who have just finished a caretaker stint in Waterbeach’s White Horse. I still don’t understand the family link to the Impey’s of publican fame, and never will.

The Hop Bind has the coaching inn heritage,

and the book swap corner,

but it’s otherwise frill-free and we should celebrate that.

No space at the inn, or at the bar, but you can guess it’s going to be IPA and Landlord (treated as a rare beer by two Old Boys at the bar) and Rocking Rudolph,

so I get a chance to add a tasting of Greene King’s festive seasonal to the Sheps and Youngs and Wells.

It was OK, a bit “milky” (2.5), but the beer was secondary to a frankly joyous pre-Christmas atmosphere you’d pay more than £4.40 a pint for.

I pass no comment on the sign in the Gents,

and will seek Stafford Paul’s memories of the Cambridge Brewery.

Which may well be better than my memories of that Stag Night here in 1986.