February 2026. Letchworth Garden City.
The weekly visit to see Dad in his Cambridge care home found him in rude health,
no doubt in part due to the food at Hatley Court, which is (genuinely) better than anything I eat these days.
I’d hoped to use the weekends in Waterbeach to get a few ticking and gig trips into London, but the rail network has decided that commuters are more important than tourists and picked weekends to “upgrade” the network.
So all trains stopped at Letchworth, and if you think I’m taking a rail replacement bus you’ve never been on one.
You might well think LGC (as the kidz call it) is a hard sell on a drizzly Sunday in February,
but I hadn’t been since 2020 when I brought James here for driving lessons, and that seemed sufficient gap to justify a forensic re-evaluation. Or something.
Platform, which I noted erroneously as “Terminus”, was previously “Colonade” and before that an original exciting Hogshead in the time when Mrs RM and I started married life in what still felt like a Quaker town, the original non-alcoholic pub crawl.
I had no plan, or timescale, and after admiring the Billy Fury (?) themed mobility scooter and the lone Hobgoblin pump and a sports bar feel I gave it a miss. That Hobgoblin was probably an NBSS 5.
Letchworth began life 120 years ago without any pubs in the centre, just a few like the Two Chimneys spread out across in the surrounding villages. You’ll see from the grey Ps on the CAMRA map that as the town has gained pubs the suburbs have lost their chain diners.
What can it mean ? Has the nation grown bored of Hungry Horses ?
We shall see what secret treasures the Garden City has to offer up.
I wasn’t confident.
retiredmartin 
When UHG comes into the UK those meals won’t look like that.
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UHG?
Ugh!
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Your dad looks very contented! I presume you already know not to visit Bournville for alcohol – only pretty villagedom and chocolate? Ongoing Quaker territory.
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I’m quaking at the very thought, Lana.
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Neither Martin nor me will understand Ash C-C moving from Stafford to Bourneville.
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Ash is the youthful (and excellent) chairman of the Campaign for Real Ale.
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I’ve been to Bournville for the liquid chocolate at Cadbury World, Lana ! A short walk east from Bournville tram stop takes you to a number of brewery taps.
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What tram stop? You mean train? I am definitely due a Cadbury World trip, last time was 2008.
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I guess it’s a train, I think of it as a metro though. Perhaps it didn’t have a loo or something.
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“That Hobgoblin was probably an NBSS 5.”
I think any such score would be deleted under the rules. (Though I did find one that was 4.5 here: https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/40916/ in 2024. And the Marstons 61 Deep was a 4. Quite an appropriate beer for a former coalfield town.)
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It’s probably with being off to Wales soon for seven days and five nights that you’ve reminded me of Hancocks Five Five beer over fifty years ago, only bottled I think.
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When did you last drink Hancocks HB, Paul ?
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Probably about ten years ago.
I didn’t see it in Wales in the summer of 2019, when you joined me for a while, or last autumn.
I think it’s brewed by Brains now but I never see it in their pubs.
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And quite rightly would a 5 be deleted. Clearly a score from an ignorant oik who doesn’t understand the complexities of beer scoring etc etc.
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Was Burton a coalfield town ? I’m always amazed how far south coal was mined.
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Yes, even the French had the stuff, Martin.
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They mined truffles ?
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I expect that you know about the four collieries that were in Kent.
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“The weekly visit to see Dad in his Cambridge care home found him in rude health,”
This is the reason for visiting, good on ya.
“which is (genuinely) better than anything I eat these days.”
(slow golf clap)
“and if you think I’m taking a rail replacement bus you’ve never been on one.”
No argument here. We shun busses when at all possible. All of us that is, except my dearly departed father-in-law these many years (died the day Rose opened her Cheesecake shop in December of 2011 – she dropped everything, of course, and her business never really recovered). That man would take the bus from Whitehorse, Yukon, to visit us in Edmonton, Alberta. It took over 30 hours by bus (22 hours, without stopping, if one drove). Sadly, since 2021, there is no longer any way to get from Whitehorse to Edmonton (or vice versa) by bus.
(and you lot complain about your bus schedules!) 😉
“You might well think LGC (as the kidz call it) is a hard sell on a drizzly Sunday in February,”
I’m still trying to figure out just who these ‘kidz’ are.
“and that seemed sufficient gap to justify a forensic re-evaluation”
You brought a magnifying glass this time?
“in the time when Mrs RM and I started married life in what still felt like a Quaker town, the original non-alcoholic pub crawl.”
Ouch!
“That Hobgoblin was probably an NBSS 5.”
Everything that ‘got away’ is almost always much more exotic than the real thing.
“You’ll see from the grey Ps on the CAMRA map that as the town has gained pubs the suburbs have lost their chain diners.”
And isn’t THAT a comment on society!
“Has the nation grown bored of Hungry Horses ?”
Yes. They’re now more interested in Slow Horses.
(a new show – 2022 – that is bloody good!)
“We shall see what secret treasures the Garden City has to offer up.”
Hmm. If it offers up all of its secret treasures, then it won’t be interesting anymore.
“I wasn’t confident.”
Pfft. You’re just annoyed at the railway disruption.
(can’t say that I blame you) 😏
Cheers
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