April 2025. Royal Tunbridge Wells.
I’ve been spending more days in Tunbridge Wells than at any time since I asked Michael for Mrs RM’s hand in marriage.
Since completing the GBG the desperate urge to shoot off from Southborough has eased a bit, but I’m still mentally unable to sit on a sofa in a living room waiting for someone to move, and after some “life admin” with the in-laws I said “Right, I’m going to the allotment“.
Southborough has allotments,
but they’re not a patch on the ones near the Dortmund ground, or even Walkley.
I like walking aimlessly, the only certainty a pub somewhere, though since the Spencer household had hit the gin and Sauvignon hard at lunch I wasn’t getting picked up if the sun turned to rain so best not get lost.
High Brooms, the old brickmaking suburb of T’Wells, isn’t a place to get lost in, dull and un-pubbed,
the Chesterton (Cambridge) of the South. Kentish Paul has blogged on the two pubs, one of them a Hungry Horse I thought best to save for a special occasions like the in-laws 60th wedding anniversary.
Half an hour up and down rows of featureless semis, just the odd bit of ghost sign to break the monotony.
What Pub confirms the near pub desert.
And then, just before the mysterious “Washerteria” (probably an espresso bar), you reach that oasis in the desert.
Kentish Paul hasn’t blogged on this, Brother-in-Law hadn’t heard of it despite parking nearby when he drives to work at M & S, so my excitement levels rise as I (eventually) find the entrance to this undiscovered heritage gem.
Well, perhaps not.
The allotment knows its market, and its not Old Codgers like me. But I wager half the residents within minutes walk are packed into the garden and high stools on Sunday.
From my uncomfortable high table I get the joy (and it is a joy) of Prosecco-fuelled female screeching and blokes discussing house prices over a soundtrack of “We Are Family“.
Everyone is drinking Guinness and Hopical Storm.
Yes, not content with dominating the cask trade, Keighley’s finest are now mopping up the market in keg IPAs. Surely Tim Taylor have now themselves become the national we should rage against ?
The lone Harvey’s was OK, cool and refreshing in an NBSS 3 way. I’ve had far worse in Sussex GBG dining pubs.
Just don’t look TOO closely at those bubbles.
retiredmartin 
I must get along to the Allotment, as it’s a pub I’ve heard quite a lot about, but never visited. Looking at the map, it’s well tucked away, although one bus route, at least, runs along nearby Ferndale.
Alternatively, a walk from High Brooms station, through the Hilbert Woods nature Reserve (never heard of it), might be the best bet.
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I really should have visited Hubert Woods, Paul. Next time
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Ah, allotments, yes, increasingly fashionable with young organic vegans, who are keen to prove that mankind has been getting it wrong for the last 15,000 years by using the
No Hope MethodNo Dig Method. They don’t usually last long…LikeLiked by 1 person
But High Brooms does have the (unsurprisingly named) Brick Works pub?
https://camra.org.uk/pubs/brick-works-high-brooms-128547
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And I still haven’t been there, Richard.
It was easier to say “I’m going to the allotment” to get out of the in-laws, though 😃
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