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Bungay Pub Day – Castle Inn (formerly known as the White Lion)

This was the second Bungay venue of the day for us and just writing for me, it seems a little bit of a shame that relatively recently the White Lion was renamed to be the Castle Inn, as it has been a hospitality venue with the White Lion name since the sixteenth century. Although under blue paint, that old name and the Lacon’s Brewery is still prominent to this day and it looked to me at first sight a little muddled especially when there is Three Cooks branding on the signage as well. I imagine that the listed building status is likely the biggest limitation here rather than anything else.

The real ales are on the reverse of the central bar, with the only two other customers in the venue sitting right in front of them hence this zoomed in photo. They had Deuchars and Gone Fishing from Green Jack Brewing, with the prices being reasonable. The service was attentive and friendly, with the atmosphere feeling inviting.

I went for the Gone Fishing from Green Jack Brewery and it tasted as expected and was at the appropriate temperature. It was a peaceful atmosphere in which to enjoy a drink, so we lingered here for a little while. We were thanked when leaving and I liked the pleasant environment that they’ve created here.

Those just wanting a drink are absolutely welcome, but the interior has been set up primarily as a restaurant. There are also four rooms available for those who want to stay overnight and I particularly like how much history about their venue is on their web-site. I noted that they mention the 1750s advertising of rooms mentioned the “latest designs in wallpaper”.

The desserts menu and the other part of the restaurant. I suppose I yearn for the feel of how this must have been in the past, a vibrant pub with bustling trade, but I can’t unfortunately find any old interior photos. Historically this appears to have been a substantial venue with numerous bedrooms, extensive stabling, a bowling green and a large yard.

The venue doesn’t have a menu I can find on-line, but there is one posted up at the front of the pub. They’re running with two menus, one primarily Asian meals and one primarily traditional British food. This seems to be provided by the Three Cooks who have moved from their previous restaurant located a little further down the road. I’m sure that the menus are delicious and everything is beautifully prepared, but with no prior knowledge I’m always a little nervous when there are two completely different menus as I’d rather they just put forward their best food. I’m also, if I’m being honest, not entirely confident about the “kitchen hours may vary” and the use of the word “approximately” as it sounds as though they’re often quiet and so stop serving food early. I’ve always been one for clarity, I just like knowing when a venue opens and closes, along with when the food will be available.

Lovely as the welcome was, I didn’t fully get to grips with this venue, it was a warm and sunny day in late May with a spring menu being advertised alongside a winter themed A-Board. The on-line reviews are broadly positive but still a little mixed for the food, but the accommodation element is well reviewed and it seems well cared for. Looking at the photos on the venue’s web-site, one of the four rooms has the beds in the arches of the old bread proving oven which seems a marvellous piece of history. I can imagine there’s plenty of character in the rooms and it’d be a quaint and very British place to say.

Regardless of my slight confusion over branding, the service was friendly, there were a couple of real ales and the venue was warm and comfortable. They’ve ensured that drinkers are welcome, even though it’s not their main emphasis, and it’ll be interesting to see how the restaurant element develops. As an aside, the venue is also closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so we were fortunate that this wasn’t one of our Wednesday sojourns.

May 21, 2023
Bungay Pub Day – Fleece Inn

First in our visit to every pub in Bungay was the Fleece Inn which has been a hospitality venue since the fifteenth century. CAMRA note that it has been known as the Fleece since 1711, having previously been known as the Cross Keys and that seems an acceptable amount of times to change a pub name. Until recently it was part of the Adnams estate, but it now appears to be free trade.

There’s been a sensitive modernisation recently which has given the interior a clean look without impacting negatively on the heritage of the building. Julian has several stories about this venue from years gone by, but they wouldn’t be at all suitable for this blog.

There were three real ales available, Amarillo from Tindall Brewery, Nightingale from Green Jack and Greene King IPA. This seemed to be a reasonable choice from three different breweries and I hadn’t had the Amarillo before. Service was immediate and friendly, with some gentle upselling going on to offer us food. As this seemed a positively good idea given we needed sustenance after our bus journey, we decided to look at the menus.

The nibbles and starters from the seasonal all-day menu.

The mains and also the lunch menu. Given how prices have been increasing recently, these seemed entirely reasonable, especially as they’ve made a substantial effort to buy from local suppliers and they’ve listed those on their web-site. The venue was moderately busy, sufficiently full to suggest to us that the food was likely to not disappoint.

The Amarillo from Tindall Brewery was well kept and refreshing.

The Nightingale beer from Green Jack was equally well kept and complemented the Ploughman’s rather nicely. Homemade bread, blue cheese, Cheddar cheese, celery, grapes, chutney, small pickled onions, salad and ham. For the price point charged, this was most certainly most agreeable. The cheeses had a depth of flavour, the ham was salted and tasty, the bread was warm and soft, this felt like an appropriate meal for such an historic venue. Julian went for the home glazed ham, bubble & squeak and a poached egg and seemed equally as content with his meal.

We didn’t partake, but there was also a dessert menu.

We sat in the snug area which is to the front of the pub and a fair way below street level so we were looking up at people walking by. This structural history has meant disabled access is possible only through the rear of the building, with an old door visible at the rear of the photo in the snug area.

There’s another seating area to the front of the building. The on-line reviews are broadly positive, although their spell of responding to reviews in a quite direct manner has seemingly passed, which is a shame from a reader’s point of view. There were no negatives that I noticed, this was a welcoming and warm venue with helpful staff and a comfortable environment. Pricing was reasonable, the menu was intriguing and extensive with the quality of the food being high. It set quite a high bar for the four remaining pubs in the town that we were then going on to visit.

May 21, 2023
Streets of Norwich – Hampshire Hog Yard

Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

Located along St. Swithin’s Alley is the remnants of Hampshire Hog Yard, which was accessed from behind the Hampshire Hog pub, from which it took its name.

This is one of the six remaining thatched properties in Norwich and its current name, rather sensibly, is the Thatched Cottage. It was built as a residential property in the seventeenth century and became a pub in the early nineteenth century. The licensee in the 1880s was John ‘Licker’ Pratt who fought Jem Mace in a two-hour long bare knuckles fight and I can’t imagine that was pretty. Pratt won the contest though and I suspect he wasn’t concerned about dealing with any problems that might arise in his pub after that. It remained as a pub until 1912 when the authorities were trying to reduce the number of licensed premises. The street line used to go up to the frontage of the house, so there wasn’t historically a garden area as there is today and George Plunkett has a photo of this from 1938.

The Norwich Preservation Trust acquired the building in 1971 and renovated it over the next few years. George Plunkett offers some additional information about the pub, noting:

“A yard at the rear bears the name of the Hampshire Hog, the sign of an adjacent tavern, being possibly the last house in England where the game of logats was played. The logats, resembling policemen’s truncheons, were to be tossed as near as possible to a wheel-shaped jack which had previously been thrown towards the opposite end of the ground; there was some similarity to the game of bowls. A set of logats is preserved in the Strangers Hall Museum.”

The sign, which isn’t immediately obvious to those walking by, to the former entrance to Hampshire Hog Yard. The yard was cleared just before the Second World War as part of the project to remove slum dwellings in the city, with no access now possible. In 1906, it was advertised that all the housing in the yard, and some besides, was for sale at public auction and, at that time, the properties here were unlikely to have been in a particularly good state of repair.

I’m not sure how old that sign is (someone has produced a guide to London street signs to help age them, but I’m not sure that any such facility exists in Norwich) but it must be at least eighty years old and is likely a fair chunk older than that.

As for why the Hampshire Hog got its name, I’m unsure. A pub with the same name in London has its origins as a nickname for members of the Royal Hampshire Regiment, rather than anything to do with pigs. Perhaps there’s some similar link here.

May 21, 2023
Gdansk Group Trip – Day 5 (Chleb i Wino)

My lunchtime restaurant of choice for the group was Chleb i Wino and I was even willing to sit outside as I suspected that it might be quite busy. To my delight, the outside area was full but they were able to find us a table for six of us indoors. At least that meant I wasn’t at risking of being attacked by a wasp or having cigarette smoke wafting over the table.

Not being a Belgian beer expert, I must admit to not having heard of the Grimbergen brewery, but I liked this idea of tasting three different beers from their range. The Dubbel (the darker one in the photo) was the pick of the bunch for me, a pleasant aftertaste and a beer that I’d willing order again. The other two in the tasters range were the Blonde and Blanche beers.

I have a separate video of the whole matter, more of which in a later post, but Bev managed to have another crisis. She was playing about with the beers and managed to jam one of the glasses into the wooden holder. The helpful server tried to free it, but eventually he had to return it all to the bar to fix the problem. He brought just the glass back, he clearly and correctly didn’t trust Bev not to jam it right back in to its wooden holder. I didn’t say anything of course, I let the server deal with the matter as he is clearly trained in handling difficult customers.

The Caesar salad, which doesn’t look great in this photo, but it tasted much better with plenty of chicken although it was lacking in any dressing. However, it sufficed my needs as it’s one of my favourite dishes and the ingredients seemed to be of a high quality.

Don’t ask.

Steve getting ready to list his beers on Untappd, which is one of the main reasons for going out if you ask me.

And they had a Banoffee dessert and this was much better than I had expected, loaded with toffee and banana, very delicious. Richard was particularly excited by this as he’s from the Eastbourne area and the dessert originated in Jevington in the 1970s, a location which we’ve walked on numerous occasions over the years. The dessert was served at the Hungry Monk in the village, but sadly that restaurant has now gone and has been turned into housing.

The restaurant wasn’t keen on splitting the bill, but it was busy and they just wanted us out because there was a queue of people waiting to get in, so Ross resolved the situation in a very mature manner. The service was always polite, even when Bev caused issues, with everything feel well managed and efficient. It’s a very well-reviewed outlet, and they have a couple of others in the city, with a variety of mostly Italian dishes and I’ll merrily visit here again.

May 19, 2023
Gdansk Group Trip – Day 5 (Museum of the Second World War)

This museum about the Second World War is of international importance and is sited here because Gdansk was where the conflict broke out. I’ve visited before and written at length about it, so I didn’t go along with the others but I felt it was absolutely worth them visiting. Susanna took longer than the three hours she had been allocated, but I was very forgiving of that because this is such an important museum. It is unfortunately quite an emotional experience, there’s no way of hiding the torment and hatred that took place in the 1930s and 1940s, but the story should never be forgotten.

May 19, 2023
Gdansk Group Trip – Day 4 (Labeerynt Bar Again)

I’ve written about this bar numerous times before, it’s one of the best craft beer locations in Gdansk. Although I think Richard thought the whole of Gdansk would be watching Eurovision, I was confident not many Polish bars would be too engaged with it, but I was delighted when we arrived and it wasn’t overly busy and there were absolutely no screens. I went for the Sinister Smoke from Palatum, a rich and smoky but smooth 8.3% imperial porter.

Richard had purchased a £25 bottle of something decadent and he was so excited, or perhaps drunk but it’s not for me to say, he smashed his glass and caused a spillage. Bev rushed to assist as she’s very pro-active and helpful like that.

Ross was less bothered in assisting if I’m being honest. I was busy recording the moment for this blog, so I unfortunately couldn’t help deal with the crisis.

And here’s the expensive drink that Richard acquired, which I must say wasn’t too bad at all as I thought I’d better taste test it for him. After an hour or so of gossiping, Richard and I had to get back to Gdynia, whilst the others had a short walk to their hotel. Bev won the prize for being my favourite member of the group with a series of lovely things she said. I’ll invite her on trips again in the future….

As an aside, after a brief worry that we had missed our last train, Richard and I only had a wait of two or three minutes before a delayed train took us back to Gdynia. It was busy but there was a congenial atmosphere on the train, which I have to say isn’t always the case with some of the late night trains in the UK. But, I digress, it was the end of another lovely day.

May 19, 2023
Gdansk Group Trip – Day 4 (Under Beer Again)

My second visit to Under Beer of the week, I won’t add much to what I’ve written numerous times before about this excellent bar.

One of the reasons I’ve returned here yet again, this time traipsing the whole group along, is that they have Funky Fluid cans in the fridges that I usually haven’t had before. Viola is part of their ice cream sour series, this time with blueberries, plums, raspberries, marshmallow and vanilla, an intriguing combination. It was very decent, but it didn’t quite have the creaminess and smoothness that some others in the series have.

However, the Triple Gelato Berries and Cream absolutely surprised and delighted me. It was creamy, rich in taste, fruity by smell, packed with flavours of blackcurrants, raspberries and some sweetness from the marshmallow. A beautiful beer and Bev was so surprised and delighted when she tried it that she excitedly ordered one to herself. Bev was slightly less surprised and delighted when it transpired that I had purchased the last one. I think I’ve done sufficiently well at selling Funky Fluid beers though, with Richard and Bev at least being keen to try them.

I wasn’t eating as I was still content with the hot dog and beer at the football, but Richard went for a cheese salad thing.

Ross enjoyed his pizza, but Bev wasn’t happy as her bagel didn’t have a proper hole in it. I did offer to create a hole if that would help, but apparently not. As usual here, the service was friendly, personable and engaging, with the team members managing to sort out the payments despite our group being quite demanding. I didn’t say anything of course, I had already paid and so I waited outside only slightly impatiently.

We didn’t linger for too long in the bar as they were showing Eurovision, and I didn’t much fancy sitting staring at the screens of that nonsense for very long. Richard would have probably sat there and watched it all night, but I was far too social for that, I felt the need to get to another bar so that we could discuss important matters in the world. Or matters important to me anyway. Another positive visit to this bar though, all rather lovely.

May 19, 2023
Gdansk Group Trip – Day 4 (Train from Gdynia Redłowo into Gdansk)

I had wondered how easy it would be to get back into Gdansk after watching the football in Gdynia, but fortunately it’s a short walk to Gdynia Redłowo which is part of the SKM line. The station was quite busy, but most people were heading back into Gdynia, meaning that the platform into Gdansk wasn’t too busy. The signage here is clear and explains how long it takes to get to the stations further along the line.

The police marching onto the station for reasons I didn’t uncover and thought best not to get too closely involved with. There was a little bit of a queue for the ticket machine and I’m always slightly nervous when there are ten people behind me in the queue and I’m using the machine I’m not used to. Fortunately, all went well, and I don’t think I held anyone up. Ticket prices were cheap, something like £1 or so.

It’s a bit clunky as a train, but it does the job well enough. It reminds of the Pacer trains that Northern were using until relatively recently.

Into Gdansk around an hour after we left the football ground. This is Gdansk’s railway station and, interestingly, it is similar to the railway station at Colmar station in France, these were two locations in the German Empire at the time of their construction in the late nineteenth century. Unusually for Poland, the renovations and modernisation to this railway station seem quite overdue as they’ve been doing them for years and I’m not sure when the final completion date is planned for. It is the biggest investment that PKP, the national rail provider, have yet made so I’m assuming it’ll be all rather impressive when it’s finished.

May 19, 2023
Gdansk Group Trip – Day 4 (Watching Football – Arka Gdynia vs Ruch Chorzów)

Ross and I thought that it would be a marvellous idea to go and watch the football whilst the others gossiped about what a good job I had done at leading the group. I think it’s important to give people that chance to chat about just how challenging they’d been and how I had reacted so positively to the problems they’d brought me. We didn’t know whether we could actually buy tickets at the ground, but thought it was fairly likely that this wouldn’t be a problem. It wasn’t, and after a twenty minute wait in the queue we had the bonus of a ticket seller who spoke English and guided us through the process. Fortunately we both had ID as they needed to see it and before long we had two tickets from the home stand.

A man with a flare, seemed a bit raucous to me.

Outside the stadium around thirty minutes before the kick off.

And into the seats which we managed to find without too many problems.

I went off to find food and drink as that seemed to be an important part of the proceedings to me. The beer was non-alcoholic, although that is seemingly not usually the only option and the hot dog was suitably tasty and they’d made something of an effort with the presentation.

We had toured Gdansk’s football ground earlier on in the week and they said they’d only filled it when Justin Timberlake performed there. Gdynia’s ground was similar and not anywhere near capacity, meaning it all felt quite spacious.

That sun was a little sub-optimal if I’m being honest.

There was a calm atmosphere at the stadium, although they allow smoking in the stands which I think is far from ideal, but there we go.

The players from Ruch Chorzów.

This block of fans were the most vocal and had huge amounts of energy to jump up and down throughout most of the game. They tired me out just watching them, but I was impressed at their enthusiasm.

This was the final score.

The sun started to disappear just as the match finished.

And that was the end of that, an interesting experience. There was a Polish man who spoke to me in the queue and fortunately spoke English. He asked politely why I was at a match in Gdynia and when I explained I thought it was positive to come and support the local team he was most enthusiastic and welcoming. He asked how long I had been in the area and I mentioned that I had arrived in Gdansk four days before. He jokingly replied that he wasn’t interested about Gdansk, just how long I’d been in Gdynia, and I forgot that there is rivalry between the two teams.

There were plenty of families at the ground and matters seemed calm, with plenty of police in the area. Watching football is to me similar to going to a supermarket when travelling, it helps build up a bit more of a picture about the local culture and traditions. All really rather lovely and an enjoyable way to spend the early evening. With that, we went to get a train into Gdansk to see how the others had coped without me.

May 19, 2023
Gdansk Group Trip – Day 4 (Train to Gdynia and Walk to See Arka Gdynia)

The train which took us from Sopot to Gdynia and the slightly muddled nature of the Polish ticketing system in the area became apparent once again when we bought tickets. I didn’t want to wait in the queue for the ticket machine and went to the counter to buy a ticket and the five of us who used that counter were charged the same price, whereas Bev who went to the neighbouring desk was charged a slightly cheaper rate. I have worked out now what is happening here, but the system probably does need a fair bit of simplification and it looks like that new contactless machines are being rolled out which will make things better.

The Joseph Conrad monument, although it’s not clear to me what actual links he has to Gdynia in particular. Not only does he have this monument, he has also the JD Wetherspoon pub in Lowestoft named after him, I can’t imagine which he would be most impressed and excited by. Conrad is one of the greatest Polish novelists and he specialised in seafaring stories, which is perhaps why Gdynia wanted to mark his contribution.

Bev paying homage to the rear of the monument.

Lots of concrete here and the rest of the group weren’t convinced that I said this was as lovely as the pier in Sopot that we hadn’t walked down. There were pleasant views over the nearby coast though and it’s a nice walk along the promenade back to Sopot.

The group then split up, with Ross and I going to watch the Arka Gdynia football match which was about a 40 minute walk away, whilst Richard went off to a nearby bar to tell Bev, Susanna and Steve about what he had been getting up to in Warsaw. I make no further comment.

May 18, 2023