The Market Tavern on Market Street would have been our fourth pub of the day in North Walsham, but it’s unfortunately closed. The Auction House sign says that the “business is not affected” but the signage of the pub has come down and its future doesn’t look entirely promising. We were told in the Hop In that the landlord died which is why it closed, but hopefully it can re-open again in the future as a pub as the venue seems entirely viable financially.
The Black Swan was the third pub that Julian and I visited on our little day trip to North Walsham. It’s a Stonegate pub where they’re currently looking to recruit a new landlord who wants to pay £30,000 per year to rent this venue. It has been a pub since 1794 (although oddly, it doesn’t seem to be a listed building) and is a former coaching inn, but it has gone through several different landlords over recent years and some periods of closure. As Julian would say, it’s sub-optimal for the venue and its sustainability.
That tenancy only rental figure seemed ridiculously high to me for a back street pub in North Walsham, but they also own a separate function room area which is this building on the left. Having thought about it since, that rental figure does present an opportunity for a landlord because of the revenue that they could generate from the function room facility, it’s an interesting proposition but still a hugely challenging one. The problem here is that Stonegate are ripping too much money out of this building for it to have a truly sustainable future, I suspect it’s in danger of being lost as a pub in the medium to long term.
This was the worst selection of the day, no attempt at either draft real ale or craft beer in any shape or form. The service was polite and the prices were towards the lower end of the scale, which seemed to be its main selling point. This is also the only venue of the day that we visited that I wouldn’t personally have felt comfortable taking a child, the environment was more focused on drinking.
I liked the heritage of the bar itself, advertising wines, spirits, mineral water, tobacco and cigars, it’s the only heritage element that was still visible.
There was a little wildlife corner.
He was generally quiet but made some interesting gaming machine noises which he’s picked up.
This is John Smiths, slightly under-poured and in an incorrectly branded glass, but it tasted as it was meant to. Uninspiring though.
As a bit of history, a visit to Norfolk Pubs History is always recommended and they tell this story:
“On the night of 12th August 1858, an itinerant accordion player, named Scales drank threepenny-worth of gin and retired to his lodgings in the Black Swan. Unfortunately he got the wrong room and upon being woken by the rightful occupier, the ostler of the Inn, he grabbed the hair of the ostler, bit him and cried out `Murder! Murder!’ This attracted the landlord, Mr. Palmer, who along with others in the house, separated the two. Once the mistake had been explained, all appeared to be settled, but after a few minutes another disturbance was heard. Scales had broken through the roof and fled, with nothing on but his shirt. A search ensued and at five o’clock in the morning he was detained by Superintendent Scott. Ascertaining that Scales had come from Lowestoft, he was taken there, but nobody `owned’ him so he was returned to North Walsham and on Monday 16th August taken to Thorpe Asylum.”
Sounds an interesting night out. But, back to today, and this doesn’t feel like the pub is at its full trading capacity. However, the welcome was friendly, but I suspect it’s going to need to develop a stronger offering if it’s going to pay that massive rent from Stonegate.
Our second pub of the day had what I considered to be the most interesting building, the substantial structure of the Kings Arms Hotel. It was constructed in the seventeenth century, although was much modified in the following century, but that’s still plenty of heritage. The pub’s web-site claims that Horatio Nelson might have popped in for a drink which is not entirely fanciful as he was at Paston Grammar School which was located next door, although he left there when he was 12 so who knows….
There are plenty of pubs which were formerly hotels and keep that word in their name, not least the Bell Hotel in Norwich, which seems a little confusing to me. However, the King’s Arms still welcomes overnight visitors and the reviews for their accommodation seem broadly positive with all the guest rooms located on the first floor.
There were three real ales available, Timothy Taylor’s Landlord, the Ghostship from Adnams and Abbot from Greene King, with prices feeling around average. I’m somewhat out of date with my knowledge of shots as it’s a long time since I’ve run anything which sells them, but the Dead Man’s Fingers rum looked intriguing in their garish packaging. But Julian and I were sticking to the beers and didn’t want to get distracted with shots, a sign of our professionalism to our day trip.
We didn’t have a food plan for the day, so I asked if they were serving food and these menus were supplied. As they looked suitably interesting we decided to get food here.
The problem a large pub has is ensuring that it feels homely and that there doesn’t seem to be tumbleweed floating across the plains of the carpet. There were no such difficulties here, there were plenty of customers from all age groups with this being one of the more comfortable environments we found during the day. I went for the Landlord from Timothy Taylor’s Brewery and this tasted as expected, at the appropriate temperature and well kept.
Historic photos of the pub.
A little shrine of pub history, I liked it.
This sign was more confusing than it needed to be (or to me at least, I’m easily confused), but the ladies and gents were to the right.
The pie is listed on the menu as traditional British, which frightened me slightly, but I asked and was told that they had beef or chicken. I wasn’t entirely sure that this sounded entirely tempting, but I went with the chicken pie and had suitably low expectations of a sub-optimal experience. I needn’t have though, this was a perfectly good meal with the chicken pie being sizeable, the chips being firm on the exterior and fluffy inside alongside peas which retained some bite. But the star of this little show was the gravy which was served in a large quantity and had an onion taste to it which added positively to the whole arrangement. Although the chicken pie did seem to have been brought in, the meal was filling and tasty so I had no complaints. There was also a check back during the meal and I got the impression that the pub would have promptly fixed any problems. Julian went for the scampi and chips which was also served as a large portion, indeed so substantial that he was defeated towards the end, but he mentioned the quality of the food.
The pool table area of the pub, one of several separately defined areas of the venue.
I very much liked this venue, it had lots of character, the service was polite and the surroundings were comfortable. The food exceeded my expectations and I rather got the feeling that I was carrying on the tradition of generations of enjoying sustenance in this pub. And just perhaps I was sitting in the same place as Horatio Nelson, who knows….
The first pub in our little day trip was the White Swan, a listed building located opposite the church and a hospitality venue since the end of the eighteenth century which is also from around the period it was constructed.
There were two real ales available, the Black Sheep Best Bitter and the Hobgoblin Gold, with prices being towards the higher end of the scale.
We were drinking half pints for reasons of economy and the Black Sheep Bitter was adequate but I’m not sure it was at its absolute best, but the bacon fries helped to lift things a little.
The interior was quite eclectic, but this was a pub that seemed to have a broad trade base and was trying to cover the needs of those wanting to watch sport, listen to live music, play pool or have a quiet pint. The environment was welcoming and the pub was clean, with the service always being friendly with a community feel to it.
I was pleased to see numerous photos around the pub of how it once looked, with this one being from the period that it was operated by Bullards. Apparently in August 1977 the landlord of the White Swan, Barry Cunningham, organised a race where drinkers pushed a pram around the pubs of North Walsham having a pint in each. It sounds an interesting affair, especially as there were once more pubs in the town than there are today.
Pool tables make an appearance in nearly all of the pubs in North Walsham. Shame they don’t have a bar billiards table, but that’s a different matter.
I know that pianos in pubs were once far more commonplace and secretly I’m glad that this is no longer the case, as drunken people banging about on the keys would disrupt my analysis of beer. This reminds me of how many pianos were smashed up in the 1980s in the name of sport, something that seemed to be a common event at village fetes. I’m not really interested in things that involve destruction, but whatever amused people at the time I suppose.
But, back to the pub and away from my flights of fancy, this was a traditional community pub which offered a comfortable environment and broad appeal.
Firstly, apologies to my two loyal readers who are faced with my out of sequence posting, but I’ll try and get this series of posts all completed this morning. It’s from the day trip of Thursday this week with my friend Julian to the city centre of North Walsham in North Norfolk. We were planning to visit six pubs in North Walsham, finishing at the Good Beer Guide listed Hop In. We boarded the Sanders Rocket in Norwich with the journey to the provincial capital of North Norfolk taking just over 50 minutes.
The pubs we were visiting (and I’ll link these in when I’ve finished posting) were:
Black Swan (third pub visited in the day)
Hop In (sixth pub visited in the day)
Kings Arms Hotel (second pub visited in the day)
Market Tavern (fourth pub visited in the day – although closed)
Orchard Gardens (fifth pub visited in the day)
White Swan (first pub visited in the day)
There is also one more pub in the suburbs of this great regional metropolis, which is the Bluebell, but we didn’t have time to get that far. Julian did record some video of the day as we’re planning these days out to be a regular feature over the next few weeks and months. As things go, we’re planning Dereham for our next expedition. There are more photos from our day out in North Walsham at https://www.flickr.com/photos/julianwhite-uk/albums/72177720307312981/.
The new and improved X55 bus. Given that the £2 single fare cap is in place until the end of June, this is all making bus travel feel much more desirable.
And we arrived safely at North Walsham’s International Travel Hub. By travel hub, they mean bus stop as it’s nowhere near the railway station and there’s no other transportation departing from here other than cars. However, to be fair, they have arranged the bus stops and signage so that everything is clear and it feels safe.
This was the best rated fish and chip shop that I could find in Harwich and also one that was open during the day. I was also pleased when I arrived to note that there was a small seating area, which meant that I didn’t have to brave the unbarred rolling plains of Harwich with its potentially aggressive herd of seagulls.
They had quite a stock of items already cooked, the chicken pieces were quite tempting, but I went with a medium chips and large battered sausage. The service was welcoming and friendly, with the environment feeling inviting and clean. The shop has a few negative reviews for not taking cards, but they certainly take them now so that must be a recent innovation.
Goodness knows what meat the sausage was made from, but it was neither decadent or particularly interesting. The batter was a little soft and flavourless, so there wasn’t much to be said for that sausage effort although adding plenty of vinegar improved things somewhat. The chips portion was too big for me and I didn’t finish it, although that’s obviously not a complaint. Perfectly decent chips, quite thick cut with a firm exterior and a fluffy interior, they were more exciting than the sausage element. It would have felt wrong not to have visited the seaside and then not purchased some chips, even though I felt a little exhausted for the rest of the afternoon.
I like a good list and this sign shows all of the ships built at the Old Naval Yard (King’s Yard), with it being particularly active during the Anglo-Dutch Wars. The location didn’t have sufficient deep water access to the larger ships that were needed later on so its usefulness started to diminish. Unfortunately, I understand that every single ship constructed here has been lost whether sunk, scuppered, set on fire or broken up. The Navy used the dockyards between 1652 and 1713, with the site being used by private operators until the early nineteenth century. There’s more about the history of the site at https://www.harwich-society.co.uk/maritime-heritage-trail/the-navyard-wharf/.
As one of Norwich’s leading athletes I decided that I should come up with a new idea to show off my sporting prowess, because long-distance walking, squash, bar billiards and competitive crisp eating just isn’t enough for me. I’ve straggled enough people together to form a five a side team, or technically two teams otherwise there wouldn’t be much of a game. We played at Goals on Hall Road and I must say that they’re incredibly welcoming and made the whole thing easy to book and arrange.
I’ve realised a few things after playing for an hour which include that bar billiards hasn’t given the ability to sprint for short distances tens of times, as well as discovering that my feet are more delicate than I had anticipated. And I’ve grazed my knees, so the multiple warnings I received in the King’s Head the night before that I might injure myself sort of were very valid concerns. I did score a goal though, so that was a highlight and I think it was the best of the game, an essential part of our victory against the other team.
Next game in a few weeks and then probably fortnightly after that, fortunately it seems that just about everyone wants to play again and some new recruits are coming along to add to the mix. And Dylan is a very good little player although I ignored his taunts of why couldn’t I run as fast as him. Everyone else didn’t feel the need to have food after the game, but Dylan and I needed Chicken McNuggets, so I’m suspecting that we’re the two professionals of this whole arrangement.
I probably should get a couple more photos next time as well in case I feel the need to write about it.
I actually forgot to take any photos to record the bar billiards last night, but this is the nearest that I got and since there’s chalk on the table it’ll just have to do. Further to my last post on this matter, I’ve switched teams to now be part of the Serengeti which is also at the White Lion. This whole concept of beer and sport is rather an agreeable one, it’s definitely less damaging than the five a side football team thing I’ve set up and which played for the first time on Monday, but more about that in another riveting post……
Fortunately I managed to play sufficiently well last night not to be removed from the team, so that’s positive, and I’ve discovered some exciting rules that I didn’t know existed as part of the learning curve. Slightly nervous of the whole arrangement as I’m entirely uncompetitive (as I usually lose) it transpired to be even more exciting than I had hoped for during the sort of training session we had. I was aided with the support from the cheap seats (as opposed to the higher seats which have a premium view of the table) in the pub of Julian, which gave us the chance to debate our pubs excursion to North Walsham later today. Anyway, my first match next week against the International Brigade at the King’s Head. I’m looking forwards to the food and I’ve got an aim to score at least 800 in every match as a target, as well as a set of things that I need to practice, so that’s several games this weekend needed….
Oh and the Liberator Beer, orange blossom version, from Tindall at the White Lion was very agreeable.
This rather lovely little garden is a memorial to those who died in the February 1953 floods and it was reopened just a few weeks ago following a restoration to mark the 70th anniversary of the disaster. There’s an extensive Wikipedia page about the flooding and there were nine Harwich residents who lost their lives. And here’s more about how the flood impacted on the town itself.
In the centre of the garden is a spherical sundial with seating placed around the exterior. It’s a fitting tribute and it’s located on Wellington Road, near to the Harwich lifeboat museum.
Information on how the disaster unfolded.
The names of the victims are listed along the pathway, this one commemorates the life of the youngest, who was just 16 months old. Peaceful and quiet, it’s a very respectful memorial and I like that they’ve made such an effort to add information about the flooding and its impact on Harwich.
