Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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Streets of Norwich – Baltic Wharf

Part of my Streets of Norwich project…. This post was updated in October 2023.

Baltic Wharf is a relatively new road, it follows the line of the trees on this map from around 1900. SD on maps from this period either means sun-dial or a single-drain, so that little tiny circle next to the S might be a sun-dial…. There was a Baltic Wharf in the nineteenth century, but that was located a little further down the river.

There’s not a great deal of historic interest on Baltic Wharf, which leads off Mountergate, with the exception of St. Faith’s House which is a listed building. It was built as a three-storey grand private residence in the eighteenth century, although it’s now used as offices.

There was a planning application put in on November 2018 to build seventeen dwellings around the building and to change the property itself by kicking the businesses out and putting five flats in. The road is next to the large St. Anne’s Quarter residential building development (I thought the word quarter was being phased out, it has been so over-used recently….) and so this was always likely inevitable.

October 22, 2023
Greater Anglia – I’m Home

This is the outcome of Greater Anglia’s latest little debacle. It has also transpired that one of the largest taxi companies in Ipswich wasn’t contacted by Greater Anglia and they could have got a fair number of people back to Norwich in shared taxis. They’d better be reimbursing this promptly.

Brilliant taxi driver incidentally, very friendly and I got water and crisps since Greater Anglia hadn’t provided either. We had to go via Bury St Edmunds so it wasn’t a quick journey, but some roads are blocked.

October 21, 2023
Greater Anglia – Train Stuck Overnight in Ipswich as “Control Room Fail to Respond”

Excuse the poor quality of the photos in this post, I hadn’t expected to use any of them….. They are blurry, but they’re all that I’ve got at the moment. And this post might be slightly grumpy at I’m still at Ipswich railway station at 02:30.

This was the happy scene in London Liverpool Street earlier this evening whilst waiting for the train to arrive onto the platform before it became the 20:00 service to Norwich.

And here the train arrives in, ready for a quick turnaround so that it can return to Norwich. They were warning that they expected 15 minute delays during the journey due to localised flooding in Stowmarket.

I wasn’t thrilled that it was the bloody Stansted Express service once again, the train that keeps appearing on the mainline to Norwich which has no tables. I’ve asked the Greater Anglia press office and the train crew before why they keep using this train on the mainline and the former didn’t know, but one train guard told me last year “because they couldn’t run a piss up in a brewery”. I appreciated his candour, although it wasn’t quite the answer that I expected. Anyway, I digress.

Back to tonight, it was a train and that’s positive given the weather conditions today, so it’s not really a complaint for today (although I’ve moaned about it anyway). Off we went and the train arrived into Colchester more or less on time. Only then did Greater Anglia’s control room think to tell the driver that there were a series of trains stuck in front of it, meaning a long wait at Colchester. It did occur to me that this would have been useful information to tell passengers at London Liverpool Street, but there we go, we live in an imperfect world. The train behind us arrived into Colchester and then decanted onto the train that we were on.

The train arrived into Ipswich and there was some confusion as to what was happening. After a while they transferred us to the Norwich train on the adjacent platform, which transpired to be the train that had left London Liverpool Street one hour earlier that we did. This was at 22:31 and I’m writing this at 02:15 and the control room have still yet to come up with any information about what is happening. The driver has been endlessly apologetic that the control room have abandoned the train, but he and the rest of the crew are sticking with it. Not once has anyone at Greater Anglia explained what the problem is at Stowmarket or whether it can be resolved.

This is the train (the train in the rear of the photo, which I accept is terrible quality) that I arrived into Ipswich on. I wondered whether this would return to London and I decided that if it did, I’d get on it. The driver on our train then announced the train would be returning to London if passengers wanted it, so some decided that was the first organised communication that we’d had. At this moment, the train pulls off nearly empty and leaves the passengers wanting to return to London stuck in Ipswich, including myself. I remain annoyed (I expect I’ll get over it in a few months) that I could have been back in London in a hotel room ready to return when the railway line was back to normal.

I don’t think it’s a secret or I’ll get anyone into trouble by saying that the train crew have made a series of announcements about the behaviour of Greater Anglia’s control room tonight. To be precise, “Greater Anglia’s control room have failed to respond”. That’s their own train crew, just abandoned along with the passengers.

After three hours on the train, they asked us to move to another one. The train crew then said that they had finally got permission for passengers to book hotels in Ipswich, but there are of course none available. The cynic in me suspects they knew that when giving the permission, but that might be unfair of me.

And here we are, seemingly all night. It’s evident that this is the reality, but Greater Anglia still haven’t communicated this to anyone. The control room has apparently given up and it’s unclear what this train with around 150 to 200 people on is supposed to do. I don’t usually verge into the political and I have been deeply sceptical about the RMT, but it’s entirely unclear what the Greater Anglia management are doing to resolve this situation and I can see why their staff feel internal communications are a real issue from senior mangers. Between 17:00 and 23:00 they had the chance to communicate to passengers that they could stay in London, or return to London when it was realised how bad the situation was in Stowmarket, to get a hotel. I would have returned to London and then not been stuck on this train all night. Instead they just abandoned their train crew to deal with matters and have some social media team trying to respond without being given any information from their own control room.

The weather is evidently not in Greater Anglia’s control, but it’s clear that a better managed operation would have communicated far better. They had the opportunity to tell passengers to either stay in London, or indeed return them to London or elsewhere along the route, instead of leaving them on a train parked up overnight. And not once have they said what is happening at Stowmarket and whether the line might clear to given passengers the information they needed to make a choice. In fairness it’s positive that they have a social media team still on-line, but I can see why the train crew are upset at how Greater Anglia have treated them and their passengers tonight.

But, I will say most importantly, the train crew and station staff have been doing all they can by all accounts.

Oh, and the outcome….

October 21, 2023
Leominster – Press Room

Our final pub of the evening was the Press Room in Leominster, located next to the JD Wetherspoon venue. Apologies for the rather dodgy photo of the frontage, my photography skills are a little limited. It takes its name from the period when it operator as a printers, although it was actually the site once of the Duke’s Head pub. They couldn’t call it that though as JD Wetherspoon decided they would use that name for their neighbouring pub.

They had two real ales on and I went for the Town Crier from Hobsons Brewery who are a set-up from Shropshire. The venue is poorly rated on TripAdvisor and Google Reviews, so something appears to be up, but I found the service perfectly friendly during our visit. The management don’t reply to negative on-line reviews, so it’s hard to understand what exactly is happening here.

I might have forgotten to take a photo of the beer before I started drinking it….. It’s an error that I rarely make. I got a taste of apples from the beer, which was well kept and it was a rather decent golden ale which was also served in an appropriately branded glass. Julian found something non-alcoholic and Jonathan was tasting dry ciders, they seemed happy.

The bar was well presented although some parts of the venue were just a little grubby and disorganised if I’m being entirely honest. Maybe let’s try and put that in the quirky category though. There was a band playing which I can’t say did much for me, but there we go, each to their own and at least the venue was trying something to get customers in.

They’ve got a deli arrangement in the fridges, although the pricing wasn’t very clear but some of the products looked tempting.

It’s something of a quirky venue, although the volume of negative reviews is unusually high, but I didn’t experience anything problematic and the beer was fine. It’s certainly worth a little look in for those wanting a drink, there’s always a place for pubs that are a little different. It was also time for us to leave the delights of Leominster as we had late night Trivial Pursuit to play….. That’s just my rock and roll lifestyle.

October 19, 2023
Leominster – Grape Vaults

We left the Bell Inn in good time to ensure that we could visit the Grape Vaults. We promptly then discover that they had decided to shut early, which is a little sub-optimal. I have to say that this was disappointing as this was a venue that I would have liked to have visited given it’s listed on the CAMRA historic interiors list. However, it wasn’t to be, but there’s more detail about the interior on CAMRA’s web-site.

October 19, 2023
Leominster – Bell Inn

The third pub of the evening was the Bell Inn, a Craft Union operated venue which Julian was hoping would be raucous as he has a penchant for those. The Bell has been a hospitality venue since the nineteenth century and there was some excitement when in 1935 the landlord of the pub, John James Ree, was charged with handling stolen goods. The goods in question were 84 lbs of sugar, which seems quite a lot to me, but apparently the landlord used it for cider production. Ree’s representative said that there was no case to answer as he hadn’t realised that it was stolen, but the court thought that there was absolutely a case. In the end they gave him the benefit of the doubt, but they added that it was a close run thing and told him not to do it again.

However, back to today. The service was friendly and immediate, although the team member behind the bar didn’t even try and serve the real ale she poured for Julian as it evident to her that it was just vinegar. It’s sub-optimal that it got to that stage, but at least she noticed when pouring it. One of the pub’s customer was making rather more conversation with me than I felt entirely optimal, so I passed her over to Jonathan and Julian, which I was thought was the best strategy. I don’t think she was as interested in them as she was with me and who can blame her?

I had the HPA from Wye Valley Brewery and I thought it was all in order, although Julian didn’t think that it was in perfect condition. They had run out of cheese & onion crisps, so I manfully managed with salt & vinegar.

The pub could do with something of a refurbishment, not least replacing the sign to the male toilets which someone seems to have stolen. As it’s Craft Union venue, the prices are towards the lower end of the scale and it is quite vibrant. However, the atmosphere was friendly and it seemed relatively busy, so it’s filling a need in the community and I rather liked the place. As for Julian wanting something raucous, I wouldn’t say that there was sufficient activity for him to be entirely delighted, but he seemed to enjoy the visit as well.

October 19, 2023
Bar Billiards Update – Victory Against the Manes and Now Progression to the Plate Final

My first update in a little while on the bar billiards front, but we haven’t played many games recently. This was our league match a couple of weeks ago, where I was present but not playing. We managed to beat the Manes 6-3.

Today we played the Vikings, a first division team based in South Walsham, in the semi-final of the Plate. They transpired to be a marvellous opposition, not taking it too seriously and I think it was a rather entertaining evening. Here’s the food, I went for the moreish chickpea curry on the left and was delighted to see not many others did, so I accidentally had six portions and there was still plenty left for others. Thanks to Oscar for funding this and Chay for preparing it. There are few better pubs in Norfolk than the White Lion under Oscar’s management.

How rather lovely. But, it’s not all about the food! Well, it is mostly, but it’s also about having fun and tonight had an upbeat atmosphere.

And we managed to overcome the Vikings, winning 6-3. It’s a team effort, but since this is my blog, I will mention that I won both my games. There were some close games which added somewhat to proceedings, but as we were 3-1 down when I went to play my singles game it didn’t look good to start off with. Huge thanks to Zac for his impeccable training every Tuesday night at the White Lion (even though plays for another team), some of the shots that he has taught me proved to be useful. I won’t call out individuals as it’s a team effort (other than me, but I’ve explained the reasoning for that), but Guy’s 400 in his doubles game was something special on the final shot. Also, I was impressed to see Julian watching a little bit of one of the games, I think he’s getting into this 🙂

We now play the formidable and friendly International Brigade in the final at a neutral venue. Due to another project I’m engaged with, it might mean that I can’t make the final, but I’m doing all I can to be there as I’d love to see this journey through. Thanks once again to Emma for inviting me into the league (what a talent spotter she is!) and for our marvellous captain Roy for accepting me, it’s all been rather exciting 🙂 Here’s hoping for success for us in the final!

October 18, 2023
Leominster – Chequers

Excuse the sub-optimal photo quality, but this is the Good Beer Guide listed Chequers pub. It’s operated by the Wye Valley Brewery, so there’s a strong emphasis here on the beers that they brew. The building was constructed in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, with seventeenth and nineteenth century extensions. It was likely first used as a residential property, with the earliest evidence of it being a licensed premises being from 1843.

This is a photo of the real ales that I had to take of the back bar rather than the front bar. My first impressions of the venue were negative as they had customer seating along the small front bar which entirely blocked the view of the real ales, meaning I had to try and use my camera to zoom into the options. One customer provided me with help with choosing a beer which is all rather lovely, although it’s more usual that the member of the bar staff does that. Anyway, that issue aside, there was a laid-back and inviting feel to the pub.

Julian’s camera isn’t for effect here, it was just a relatively small table. The choice of table was mine as I noticed that I could charge my phone if we sat there, another little problem resolved. The beer is the Talisman from Wye Valley Brewery, a well kept pale ale which was unexceptional but still pleasant tasting.

There was lots of heritage here, although I had thought when visiting that it was an old coaching inn and it doesn’t appear to have been despite its size. However, a modern extension and new toilets has been sensitively placed onto the side of the building, with the interior feeling historic and comfortable. Just a couple of weeks ago it was named by Hereford CAMRA as their “pub of the season” which isn’t an award that I’ve heard of before.

Engagement from the team members was minimal, but by putting seats in front of such a small bar they’ve created a barrier to first time customers. The result of that is team members are unable to help customers, a situation that I thought was just a little sub-optimal. All else seemed fine though, with the pub being clean and well presented. For those lacking in confidence, it’s probably best to visit a venue such as the town’s JD Wetherspoon which doesn’t barricade its bar as part of some defensive mechanism against newcomers, but for those who are confident and want to try Wye Valley beers, it’s recommended.

October 18, 2023
Leominster – The Duke’s Head

The first pub of the evening that Jonathan, Julian and I visited in Leominster was the JD Wetherspoon operated Duke’s Head. I’ll use their history of the pub, but in short, it’s the former Post Office which is named after a pub which once stood nearby.

“Before the post office was built in Corn Square, there was a small building on the front part of the L-shaped site. In the mid 1850s, it was the premises of dressmaker, Ann Lloyd, later occupied by Susanah Knill. She was the widow of the innkeeper of the Duke’s Head Inn which was located just a few feet away, on the corner of Draper’s Lane. The long-standing timber-framed inn closed in the 1870s and was demolished soon after.”

I’m already going off on a tangent, such is my way, but I had a look at the response of some of the locals when in 2007 JD Wetherspoon put their planning permission request in…..

“5.3.1 The loss of the post office is a loss of a public service.
5.3.2 Already enough public houses in Leominster which are finding it hard to compete with each other let alone the low prices which Wetherspoons charge.
5.3.3 No need has been proven for a further drinking establishment in area. Independent cost benefit analysis would be required to back up need for another drinking premises.
5.3.4 The proposal will lead to rowdiness and attract undesirable elements to the area. Unruliness, anti-social behaviour, vandalism and noise will be generated in the area by proposal.
5.3.5 Change character of town due to scale of proposal and anticipated number of drinkers.
5.3.6 Already a public house in vicinity. Will make situation worse.
5.3.7 Police already have problems in area.
5.3.8 Noise will affect residential amenities of adjacent dwellings.
5.3.9 Problems of litter.
5.3.10 Proposal will destroy amiable atmosphere of Corn Square.
5.3.11 Landscaped area at rear could be screened.
5.3.12 Maybe managed inside but problems will occur outside.
5.3.13 Enough public houses in Leominster and more will lead to more trouble.
5.3.14 The vehicular access onto Church Street is very narrow and delivery lorries will have problems entering and leaving access.
5.3.15 Church Street already busy with problems of parking which will be made worse by proposal.
5.3.16 Large lorries have caused problems to local people over the years.
5.3.17 More use of rear access track will make surface even worse.
5.3.18 Public access along track will cause problems. Parking in local streets by customers will add to existing problems.
5.3.19 Extra cars will be attracted to area.
5.3.20 Not enough room for delivery lorries to turn within site.
5.3.21 Delivery lorries could take light from dwellings in Church Street.
5.3.22 Vehicular access from Corn Square would also be a problem due to narrowness of streets.
5.3.23 The proposal could adversely affect tourism.
5.3.24 Leominster needs to address its social problems.
5.3.25 The proposal would destroy character of landmark building in town centre.
5.3.26 More about demolition than conservation.
5.3.27 Former post office building has strong period character. Loss of distinctive lantern roof and windows is undesirable as they complement fenestration of surrounding buildings.
5.3.28 The replacement building is featureless and undistinguished and gives little consideration to its exterior and surroundings.
5.3.29 Wetherspoons can do a better job of redesign than this.
5.3.30 There are a number of inconsistencies in the drawings, ie drawing no 173, “area to be demolished”, fails to show the removal or covering of four first floor and one ground floor window, and does not agree with elevation no 173/12 and plan no 173/10E. The smaller size of this drawing makes it an easier point of reference making its potential to mislead the more likely. There are other more minor discrepancies between drawings 173/10E and 173/12.
5.3.31 Church Street is an historic street and could be damaged by additional traffic generated by proposal.”

Three people wrote to support the new pub. The local planners were more supportive, and in my view correct, noting:

“There is no convincing evidence to the effect that an additional public house will adversely affect Leominster Town Centre.”

It was all quite pleasant inside and I’m not sure that the world fell in because the town got a JD Wetherspoon pub opening there.

As the JD Wetherspoon beer festival is on, I went for three one third of a pint beers. Oddly they had a beer priced at 99p which I queried as it seemed wrongly priced and the team member and manager had a little think and decided it was wrong but they left the signage up anyway. Perhaps sub-optimal, but it didn’t impact me. One of these thirds was under-measured, but they filled it when I asked. Jonathan was on his Staropramen whilst Julian was on low alcohol Ghost Ship as he was the designated driver.

I went for the Yazoo Dos Perros, a brown ale brewed by a company based in Tennessee, with the beer having some hints of chocolate. The next was the Nut Brown from Adnams and I was aware I had come halfway across the country (or indeed more) to have a local beer to me, with this being quite fruity. The final beer I had here was a favourite of mine which was 1872 porter from Elland Brewery. This was odd, it tasted of bitter Kenco coffee and gravel, I can only think there was a cellar issue or they’re somehow serving the wrong beer. This was the one priced at 99p and they seemed confused what beer was on what line as it was. But the whole arrangement came to around £2.30, so I didn’t exactly feel short-changed.

I liked the environment and ambience of the venue, it was all relatively peaceful and the service was timely and polite. The venue was clean, although I was disappointed at the lack of power points, but that was because I was keen to charge my phone up rather than me expecting them to have them. I had a look at the reviews on-line and they seem average for a JD Wetherspoon venue. One person left a one star review because of council policies and it wasn’t even the local council to the pub:

“We traveled to bridgenorth while on holiday in Ludlow when we arrived traffic getting in to town was so bad because of road work we could only park fo 40 mins as car park was blocked off couldn’t wait to get out of there which took about 20 mins shame because we had been before and its a lovely place get something done about this mess Bridgenorth council”

Helpful…

“Had breakfast this morning. Mine was cold after being stood around for 10 minutes while my partners was being cooked. When they arrived the eggs were RAW and the pancakes were rock solid!”

I’d like to see how these raw eggs were served. Perhaps still in their shell.

“Not good,. Got our order wrong at the till when asked to put her mistake right, she just verbally abused us. Kitchen staff apologized and said it was McDonalds mistake who claimed to be the manageress.. shame could be a great place.”

McDonald’s? Many of these reviews entirely confuse me.

Anyway, it’s a large pub and I’m not sure who else would have taken these substantial premises over if JD Wetherspoon hadn’t of come along. The prices for drinks were towards the lower end of the scale, with a wide range of real ales available as well as numerous craft beers. A suitably refreshing first venue of the evening, but our next port of call would be a Good Beer Guide listed pub.

October 18, 2023
Wormsley – St Mary’s Church

I’ve returned from a weekend near Hereford and this was the shortest of the walks from our accommodation which was at Herefordshire Golf Course. Jonathan and I wandered down this track which only goes to some farm buildings and the former village church which is only a five minute walk away at most.

We didn’t have a great deal of time before it was dusk, so it was fortunate that this was such a short walk.

We didn’t need to worry about the church closing before we got there, since it’s open 24 hours a day. It’s looked after by the Churches Conservation Trust and they’ve got historical information about the building on their web-site.

I would say that the churchyard was peaceful and quiet, but there was a cacophony of barking from the dogs on the adjoining farm.

I slightly wonder how this church had a large enough congregation to support it into the twentieth century. There were only 70 residents in the village in the late nineteenth century and as religious attendance fell there were inevitable questions about its sustainability. In 1972, rather inevitably perhaps, the Church of England declared it redundant.

It’s fair to say that it was rather dark when we entered. The rest of the photos are using flash and some by using my phone camera’s night mode to try and brighten things up somewhat.

I thought that it was all really rather beautiful. The church dates from the twelfth century, but there was likely an earlier religious building on the site before that as there was a priest listed in the Domesday Book as living in the village.

The twelfth century nave is built of sandstone and the chancel was added in the thirteenth century, but this has been knocked about by the Victorians who rebuilt it and incorporated some of the original stone.

This font dates to the twelfth century, although the base is more recent. As someone fascinated by history and items that have been important to generations of people, being able to see a font that was used to baptise children born 900 years ago is something of an experience. I’m not an expert in font design, but there remains the possibility that this font is earlier and would be the only element remaining from the previous church. But this font remained safe during the Hundred Years’ War, the Reformation, the English Civil War and then the two world wars of the twentieth century. It’s done well.

Both the doors in the north wall are blocked off, although it’s lost to history when that would have happened.

And the north wall from the outside.

The guidebook notes that there might be evidence here of external rood steps, but my building knowledge isn’t that advanced to even know what I’m looking at here. I imagine they would be external though, there doesn’t seem to be enough space internally for them.

The church is located on an elevated position giving it some fine views over the countryside.

There is one Commonwealth War Grave in the churchyard, commemorating the life of Able Seaman Ralph Davies who died on 21 November 1944, at the age of just 20. He was the son of Alice Davies, who lived in the neighbouring village of Brinsop.

With that, we retraced our steps back to the cabins, making this the shortest and easiest walk of the weekend. The sheep looked vaguely interested in our expedition at least.

October 16, 2023