LETCHWORTH GOES “CRAFTY”

February 2026. Letchworth Garden City.

If you can’t be bothered to read the next week’s deluge of posts, here’s the spoiler: Letchworth was really good, with a great variety of drinking establishments (I’ll let CAMRA debate whether they’re “pubs”).

Start onLeys Avenue, the main shopping street; there’s a rambling furniture shop called Martin’s (clearance sale on NOW) at the end of the road where we once bought sofas we could never realistically carry up and down the stairs to our second floor flat facing Ming Wah and The Great Wall.

Yes, we started married life with two (2) top Chinese takeaways on our doorsteps, but rather fewer (less ?) great pubs. Which is why we moved to Hitchin a year later.

There was certainly no craft in 1991, and Crafty’s arrived to little fanfare 25 years later.

We chose* this unfussy bar for our own 25th wedding anniversary, an occasion notable for the police intervention in the Spoons over the road.

It’s an unfussy sort of place, a bit “homemade” but with spotless toilets, a top HiFi and that proper pub backless bench seating the Pauls love.

There’s a 1991 soundtrack of U2 and Pearl Jam, artisanal snacks and one of those odd beer lists that starts with Grolsch and then surprises you with Attic.

But it’s Number 16 you’ll be interested in, the rarely seen Devizes delight your lone cask beer, and you’ll know by now that one beer is plenty etc.

Is this 6X as good as in the Anchor, High Offley ? Probably not, but the temperature is perfect, a rich, chewy pint (NBSS 3.5) that slips down so quickly you might think I’m in a rush to catch a train home or something.

Blimey, 6X in a craft bar. They’ll be reviving Draught Bass next.

*We didn’t really choose to celebrate our anniversary, of course, it was completely accidental

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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.

16 thoughts on “LETCHWORTH GOES “CRAFTY””

      1. I would say that your last five words are perhaps the best indicator for the marriage’s being a long and happy one, Paul, and in all sincerity.

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      8. Etu, Many Marstons pubs have the cask beers at £2.70 on Mondays and/or Tuesdays, hence £5.40 for two Directors drinking well in Rugeley’s Red Lion thirteen days ago. I’d drunk Banks’s there since 1972 but they can’t sell it since Carlsberg dropped it from 3.7 to 3.4%

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      9. If you told broadcasters on BBC and LBC that a good pint could be had for under £3 they just would not believe you. I constantly hear them annouce that pubs are dying because a pint is £7 or worse, which just shows their exposure to pubs is a fortnightly Sunday lunch and Peroni at the Dove in Hammersmith.

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      11. Martin, I can’t remember the exact words after 35 years but it was asking if she would be joining all the others about to head from the Anchor to my house where ample food and Slaters beer was for many years offered on the Sunday afternoon before Christmas. She declined but made sure our paths crossed within a fortnight.

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  3. “here’s the spoiler: Letchworth was really good, ”

    Didn’t see THAT coming!

    “Start onLeys Avenue, the main shopping street;”

    I know you’re excited, but you need to s(pace) yourself. 😉

    “there’s a rambling furniture shop called Martin’s (clearance sale on NOW)”

    Of course they have a clearance sale. They can’t match the original Martin. 😎

    “Yes, we started married life with two (2) top Chinese takeaways on our doorsteps, but rather fewer (less ?) great pubs. Which is why we moved to Hitchin a year later.”

    Ah. See, I thought that the non-alcoholic thing was self imposed.

    “We chose* this unfussy bar for our own 25th wedding anniversary, an occasion notable for the police intervention in the Spoons over the road.”

    Blimey!
    Also, read the link quickly. Not sure where I was in June of 2017, as I saw my name mentioned. But, if Stafford Paul wants lessons on how to be me, it’s 20 quid an hour. 😁

    “and that proper pub backless bench seating the Pauls love.”

    I dodged a bullet there when me folks named me!

    “and one of those odd beer lists that starts with Grolsch and then surprises you with Attic.”

    (looks down)
    I see the La Chouffe Belgian Blonde tops the board price-wise at 7 quid a pop.

    “the rarely seen Devizes delight your lone cask beer,”

    (looks up)
    I’ve actually heard good things about 6X.

    “a rich, chewy pint (NBSS 3.5) that slips down so quickly you might think I’m in a rush to catch a train home or something.”

    (slow golf clap)

    “Blimey, 6X in a craft bar. They’ll be reviving Draught Bass next.”

    I think you’d faint.

    “*We didn’t really choose to celebrate our anniversary, of course, it was completely accidental”

    I’m half surprised that you and Mrs RM don’t spend Jan 1st putting big Xs on a calendar through all of the dates you don’t want to ‘accidentally’ celebrate something by mistake. 😉

    Cheers

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