October 2026. Rye.
Mrs RM found us a small caravan at Rye Harbour in 2022, mainly as an easier base to visit her ailing parents, as the thought of sleeping in her childhood bedroom didn’t appeal.
It was a wise move, though we’ve barely used it in the peak seasons as the summer lettings pay for the ground rent. Rye seems more popular by the year, though ChatGPT couldn’t advise me what sort of visitor drives this car;
With its antique shops, fish restaurants and gentlefolk fashions you might expect a middle-aged, Cotswolds style tourism, but in the (many) pubs we chat to a lot of young folk and families out on the train from The Smoke.
A lot of them seem to head to the Ypres Castle, which is pretty full on a dreich Saturday afternoon.
You probably think I’m always in the Ypres when I’m down here, but this is my first visit in nearly a year. I’m often in Rye when it’s closed (Mon-Wed), and as we’ve seen there’s always something new in this amazing little town.
But that combination of cosy seating, fantastic staff and high quality cask puts this firmly in my Top 10, and contrary to popular opinion there’s only 10 in that list. If it exists.
A lovely family atmosphere; the children here are an model future pubgoers.
We make a mess with those posh Spanish crisps that seem ambitiously priced until you see them for £7.43 a packet (+P & P) on e-bay (Klarna finance available).
Mrs RM for the win, a pint of the 6.5% Beak Skyful while my Shere Drop might be approaching end of barrel.
“Is Jeff here ?” says Mrs RM, riffing off a 1981 Department S classic.
He’s not, but his staff reflect his high standards, swapping the Surrey Hills for an exemplary pint of Kent Pale (EXCELLENT), one of the UK’s great beers. You can tell a lot about a pub by how their staff cope with an end of barrel pint.
Rye News had a nice interview with a smiling Jeff this year, one of the great publicans, earlier his year, noting how Rye has kept its pubs while large nearby villages like Northiam have lost theres.
As always, use them or lose them, folks.
I once overnighted in Jeff’s second pub in London after The Gunmakers. Somewhere in Earls Court.
The plan was this.
Fly from Cork to Heathrow and repair via several old haunts to Jeff’s place where he’d secured an overnight licence to watch the general election results come in.
Get pissed all night then catch a tube back to Heathrow at dawn to get the 7.30am flight to Dublin to watch England play an ODI against Ireland.
Then get the train back to Cobh to enjoy a late session in The Roaring Donkey.
And it went totally to plan. Nearly.
Jeff’s pub was superb. His beer great. Lots of strong cold European lager on draught. Surprisingly no more than 20 or so people there late on.Jeff kept supping throughout.
Got the early tube and negotiated Heathrow slaughtered, got to Dublin where it was pissing it down and match cancelled so slotted in a session in Toners and McDaid’s in town then train beers back to Cobh and the late session in The Roaring Donkey.
Sorry, I rambled but the Ypres is on my bucket list.
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PPT, If that’s the Gunmakers on Eyre Street Hill I have an unfortunate memory of the pub from about fifteen years ago. The beer wasn’t London’s cheapest and on being told the price PK made a sarcastic comment to the licensee about needing a mortgage. That was the last time the dozen of us could use the upstairs meeting room in that pub.
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That was his first place.
Went in once after a GBBF. It was the first time I met him. Seemed a decent bloke. And his blog was entertaining. Anyone who can make rambling interesting knows his stuff.
Prof.
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