BRECK BY BRECK. THE KINGS ARMS, WATTON

January 2026. Watton. Norfolk.

Obviously no pressure to visit the GBG newbies anymore, but there’s something compelling about them, even if my pinking is a bit half-hearted these days.

The places I’d circled were the newbies, and as I’ve completed Norfolk every year since Delia Smith did her “Let’s be ‘avin’ you” rant at half-time v City I feel compelled to trek off to backwaters like Watton and do my duty.

As you’ll see, Watton is so exciting it gets a second post, but let’s start with the pub.

Odd place, in the heart of the Brecks with its windmills and piggeries and prisons and 50p bags of manure. Only two GBG entries ever on my spreadsheet; one an offie, the other the 16th century thatched Willow House.

Like that one, the Kings Arms is bang in the middle of a high street I will shortly be told is one of the longest in the country. In fact, within the hour I will be the world expert on Watton, although I expect Donald Trump would claim to know more.

It’s solid looking,

and that Norwich Brewery livery harks back to more innocent times, when Delia cooked swan curry (possibly).

The CAMRA Pub of the Year has just been given to the Tamworth Tap again. While that’s exactly the sort of curated public house that CAMRA would like to present to the world, I’m fairly sure Stafford Paul, like me, would much prefer the simplicity and spaciousness of the Kings Arms.

I enter (no stares) to Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish” which I always confuse with “Supersition“. A lovely welcome at the bar, £3.90 (I hear it as “five pounds nineteen” as I don’t speak Narfolk) for the Greene King IPA, which makes a sploshing sound in to the glass.

Oooh, pub branded glass ! Cool, rich, easy NBSS 3.5, but is it a 4 ?. You oughta know, I think it is.

Coincidentally, at that moment the soundtrack veers from ’70s Stevie and Elvis to ’90s Alannis Morissette, as the uncensored version of “You Oughta Know” blasts out. No-one at the bar breaks off from a discussion of the paucity of produce at the market and the price of asparagus.

In some places all the trade would be sitting round that bar and you’d feel a bit left out, but here you can blend in at the sides, and when an Old Boy in the Gents says “Thank you Sir” as I hold the door open I feel part of the furniture.

Dick and Dave would love it. I believe there’s still Americans nearby, too.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

25 thoughts on “BRECK BY BRECK. THE KINGS ARMS, WATTON”

  1. Google thinks that the longest High Street is in Southend although it is called London Road which doesn’t seem right.
    Asparagus is probably expensive as it isn’t in season here so is probably imported if it is on sale.

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    1. Jon,
      But what does Google know ?
      I think the longest High Street is in Atherstone although it is actually and rightly called Long Street there and the Watling Street as it continues towards London or Holyhead.
      .
      Martin,
      I use just over a hundred Staffordshire pubs each year but am not sure if I should comment here about what’s happened again in Tamworth.

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      1. I think the Tamworth Tap is exactly the sort of pub that CAMRA want to represent the organisation, a place with uniformed staff, reservations and a middle class custom. And nothing like the sort of pub I want to go in. The comment from Ben about bouncers and beingg shown to your table was spot on.

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      2. Yes Martin. I won’t comment here after only a brief visit at a busy time nearly two years ago but maybe we can properly discuss the TT on Friday.

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    2. Southend may have the longest high street named “High Street”. I think my guide meant it had one of the longest main streets with east to west, and certainly that’s true (there’s not much else, a bit Wild West !).

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      3. My parents stayed in Buxton for a few days after Christmas. The picked The Palace Hotel with apparently so many steps up to it it gave my weak hearted dad a spell in hospital :-S

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      4. I think we should find out what the Donald knows about longest High Streets. His knowledge is better than anyone’s. You would know that if you knew anything.

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    2. I won a free pair of tickets to the Test Match at Headingley in 1985, together with free XXXX in a marquee that was pitched on the adjacent rugby league football ground. It was a beermat competition that I picked up at the Royal Park pub half a mile from the stadium, having moved to Leeds in February of that year.

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  3. “I feel compelled to trek off to backwaters like Watton and do my duty.”

    I think that’s a ‘common’ feeling as we age; I’ve done (something) forever, may as keep it up, so to speak.

    “Only two GBG entries ever on my spreadsheet”

    Read that too quickly. After seeing 50p bags of manure, my brain read spreadsheet as spreader, as in; manure spreader. 😉

    “one an offie, the other the 16th century thatched Willow House.”

    Blimey. Disparate to be sure.

    “Like that one, the Kings Arms is bang in the middle of a high street”

    Hang on. They’re located in Middle Street, according to their address and Google Maps.
    (just off of High Street though)

    “It’s solid looking,”

    (looks down)
    And, on Middle Street!

    “I’m fairly sure Stafford Paul, like me, would much prefer the simplicity and spaciousness of the Kings Arms.”

    I can concur that my vision of ‘a pub’ is more in line with thatched roof, warm cozy fire, etc.

    “(I hear it as “five pounds nineteen” as I don’t speak Narfolk)”

    Pfft. Pretty sure putting one of those newfangled translation apps on your phone could take care of that.

    “Cool, rich, easy NBSS 3.5, but is it a 4 ?. You oughta know, I think it is.”

    How many categories do you have in your judging criteria?
    (and that’s not a dig).

    “to ’90s Alannis Morissette, as the uncesored version of “You Oughta Know” blasts out. ”

    Canadian born, that girl. 😎
    Also, you didn’t need to censor ‘uncesored’. 😊

    “and when an Old Boy in the Gents says “Thank you Sir” as I hold the door open I feel part of the furniture”

    You can make some spare cash doing that in every pub you visit. 😎

    “Dick and Dave would love it. I believe there’s still Americans nearby, too.”

    That would be Mildenhall or Feltwell. 😉

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    1. I heard those American fighter jets zooming overhead as I left the pubs, a regular sound in East Anglia.

      Beer quality is scored on the National Beer Scoring System (NBSS). A beer can get better over the course of a pint, and always tastes better in a pint glass !

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    1. Yes, quite worrying, though quite a common sound over Waterbeach for decades, and probably the explanation for all those UFO sightings back to 1980.

      I didn’t actually realise that Feltwell had its own base, Lakenheath and Feltwell are virtually contiguous. Not many GBG entries round that bit of Suffolk over the years.

      EDIT : I didn’t realise Feltwell had its own base even though I actually wrote about it in 2019.

      YOUR PRINT-OUT-AND-KEEP FELTWELL GUIDE

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  5. Always wonder why Kings Arms pubs are not King’s Arms or Kings’ Arms. I had to look up and play the Stevie song as was convinced I did not know it. Of course I do, I just did not know it was called “I wish.”

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    1. Lana,
      Last year I only used two Kings Arms pubs but five Kings Heads.
      Also five George and Dragons, five Railways, five Royal Oaks and five Vines.
      And six Castles and six Red Lions.
      ( and four Bells, Crowns, Holes in the Wall and Swans. )

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