January 2025. Littleport. Cambridgeshire.
My only escapes from Waterbeach are brief ones, to unsung towns by rail. Towns like Cambridge, Ely, and now Littleport (pop. 9,168).
A trip through 20 minutes of relentless black, fertile, soil brings you to Littleport station,
from which it’s a bitterly cold 15 minute yomp to what passes as the High Street.
They still haven’t made that attractive box into a micro, an opportunity missed methinks.
One of Mum’s visitors today lives in Littleport, an Ely overspill sorta place with continued housing infill, and we agreed the only remarkable thing about it was the number of takeways and hairdressers, a dozen combined.
Sadly, I didn’t try the three (3) Chinese takeaways, or visit the Heritage Centre on this trip,
so that definitive Cut-out-and-Keep guide to the town will have to wait.
For now, admire the chimney count,
and the unfussy charms of The Crown, the only pub in the heart of town.
First visit in 15 years or more, in which time it’s yo-yo’d in and out of the Guide like West Brom yo-yoing in and out of the Prem.
Perhaps it’s been modernised a bit in that time, perhaps not. It’s loveably plain, horseracing on the lone TV screen, lone Bateman 5G handpump on the bar.
5G ? It’s like Brakspear, or Wells. Weird glasses, daft names.
But it’s pretty good, cool and rich (NBSS 3.5). One beer is plenty in the Fens. The new landlady (I’m informed by a chatty local in a bobble hat who’s interested in discussing the merits of Norwich v Peterborough) is having an intelligent conversation about what cask to stock with a chap who might be a rep, or might be CAMRA. Anyhow, real ale is is safe hands here.
Our bobble hat hero, drinking a can of coke, is sceptical about my chances in the rest of town, and indeed that lone pump is the only cask in Littleport. But cask isn’t everything.
retiredmartin 
Little bit concerned to see lads in coats and bobble hats at the bar. Is this one of those new-fangled ‘unheated’ theme pubs that are springing up everywhere?
(The Real) Mark
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Hey, Mark, this is the Fens, they’re not hard Scots like round your way.
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If they didnae heat the pubs round here I wouldn’t get away with my failsafe String Vest and Tam O’Shanter disguise!
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Coat and bobble hat… where’s the hi-vis and decorator ‘whites’?
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Hi-Vis guy is in the first pic. Decorators ? In Littleport?
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When I did the Guide pub in Littleport I was surprised how scruffy the town was, considering its proximity to the beautiful people (including you, obviously). Pubmeister
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There’s an invisible dividing line just above the Pastore brewery.
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It was so cold in Kent yesterday, that even the local posties were wearing long trousers, rather than their usual, trusty shorts!
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We’re often surprised by the number of barbers in the towns we visit. Chichester seemed to have one for every 20 residents.
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There’s a running gag that the Turkish barbers that make up half the units are money launderers but I doubt that. And most of the hairdressers in Littleport are for ladies.
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It might be true but they do good haircuts.
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Us locals are surprised, too, although the same applies to nail bars, as well!
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Oh yes, and tanning salons in the Welsh Valleys, Paul.
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