retiredmartin

January 2025. Lode. Greater Waterbeach.

I’m claiming Lode for Waterbeach before Newmarket CAMRA decides to nick it. And you can actually walk there from the Chung Hwa across the Quy Fen, once home to Cambridge’s nudist bathing lakes (said my Dad).

Lode village (pop. 913), really a hamlet, backs on to Anglesey Abbey; you can probably sneak in without paying if you’ve got 16 feet long legs to cross the stream to the mill.

It’s basically a collection of thatch,

an impressive collection, mind,

topped off with one of those UNESCO listed rocking horses behind the church.

But nothing else, until 7 years ago when the old social club was converted into a gastropub called Shed.

I wondered where the trade would come from, but its demise allowed our favourite Thai pub to open a second outlet.

The Wrestlers is never of trade, lunchtime or evening, so Pattaya at the Shed looks a good bet for destination curry.

What I didn’t expect were the hand pumps.

Free from Wells to put on exotica like, er, Rocking Rudolph and Landlord.

But the Wrestlers always did a great job of Broadside, and the Shed does even better.

Cool, chewy, scummy head (NBSS 3.5+). Should have tried the Proper Job.

The menu is identical to the Newmarket Road original, so we boringly go Green Beef Curry and Pad Thai like we did for my disastrous 60th birthday,

and if the interior and banter isn’t the strong point,

then it isn’t in the Wrestlers, either.

The best curry and cask combo in Cambridge. Or Greater Waterbeach.