I saw this in St. Mary’s Church in Horsham and thought that one of the greatest poets of his generation, Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), was buried here. But, he wasn’t, so that wasn’t as exciting as I thought. It appears that this is just here as a reminder that Percy had links with the church, as he died overseas with his body being cremated on the beach and then his remains buried at the Protestant Church in Rome, other than his heart which is somewhere in the UK.
Excuse the poor quality photo, I hadn’t realised that this was here at the time so this is part of a wider photo I took of the memorials in the church (and it’s located very near to Percy’s memorial bit of stone). But it’s relevant as Percy’s father, Sir Timothy Shelley (1753-1844) is buried here in the church. Timothy was the MP for Horsham between 1790 and 1792 and the son of Sir Bysshe Shelley (1731-1815), the first baronet, who had actually been born in Newark, Province of New Jersey (now the United States). He had made his money by marrying into wealthy families, but it’s perhaps a little unusual for someone to move from the colonies back to England at this time to become an aristocrat.
Anyway, back to Percy Bysshe Shelley. There’s a current controversy in Horsham at the moment with regards to a new monument in his honour, with some saying that the memorial in Horsham Park would be a fine tribute and others think it’s a waste of taxpayer’s money. Some of the £100,000 cost of the memorial would be funded privately, but there’s debate about whether the council should increase their contribution from £10,000 to £50,000. It was meant to replace the also controversial Rising Universe fountain (also known as the Shelley fountain) and that caused enough drama on its own.
I think that this is my favourite name of any JD Wetherspoon pub, I’ll use their history of the pub to explain its origins:
“The eye-catching building next door but one to these premises is Oxford University’s history faculty. It was originally the city’s High School for Boys, which opened in 1881. The comic actor Ronnie Barker was a former pupil and later one of the Two Ronnies. Probably their best-known sketch was ‘Four Candles’. Barker walks into a hardware store and asks for and gets ‘four candles’. However, he really wanted fork handles – ‘andles for forks’.”
The building was used as a Yates Wine Lodge until JD Wetherspoon took it over in 2008. There’s a different carpet in every one of the chain’s pubs and this one is styled in the form of four candles.
It’s located across two floors and is a reasonably large venue. The tables are a little near to each other which makes navigating around just a little more difficult.
And my breakfast arrangement of a small breakfast, alongside toast with marmalade and unlimited hot drinks. This was £5.48 for everything, which doesn’t feel unreasonable for Oxford city centre. Everything was hot and tasted as I’d want, especially after I’d added my required amount of black pepper.
This wasn’t early morning drinking, I bumped into Simon from the LDWA later on and we had time for a quick drink before my coach to Luton Airport. It’s the Firefly from Windsor & Eton Brewery which was light, hoppy and unexciting. They usually have three real ales alongside their Greene King offerings, not the largest selection by any means.
As it’s a JD Wetherspoon venue, I of course had to go and look at the online reviews, which are broadly positive for the chain.
“Tattoo barestaff asked me to leave after my food due to me taking some of my ecig.. understand couple of warning but after I order food. Blocking tab straight away. Obvious intentions. Disgusting and want be returning.”
So a customer breaks the pub’s smoking ban and is allowed to leave after finishing their food, but they still think that’s “disgusting” as they felt they needed at least a couple of warnings?
“Went for a few drinks here, was asked to leave the pub for being too loud?”
Good. There are other pubs to be raucous in.
“Standard Wetherspoons but T**** the Deputy Manager……..Well done T****!!!”
I’ve removed the complaint itself, but I’ve never understood the need for people to name individual staff (and I’ve starred the name out so I don’t look hypocritical) in negative reviews. I’m also not entirely sure that Google should allow it, but there we go….
“where to start the table was filthy luckily I have a baby so baby wipes was on hand. we ordered 2 traditional breakfasts, 1 with an extra sausage and preserves on toast. the breakfasts came with no bacon or tomato, and missing the extra sausage. and the toast had no jam. disaster.”
Disaster? Maybe sub-optimal or even not ideal…..
“I came there, waited for 15 for a waiter to come, and then I left. And I will never come back.”
I think I know what’s happened here…. Anyway, I digress.
It’s a cheap, friendly and cheerful option in the city centre, one I’ve visited before, but it felt right to excite and delight my two loyal blog readers by writing about it.
This year, we decided to include the Little Red Roaster, which sells coffee, on our efforts to visit every food stall at Norwich Market. They’ve been trading since 2002 and I think their business is primarily selling speciality roasted coffee in bags or on a commercial basis, but they have this bustling little arrangement here selling hot drinks directly.
They sell bags of coffee beans and there’s an interesting selection of types including the Red Panda Guatemala which has flavours of dark brown sugars, being rich and toasty, alongside the Brazil Vargem Grande Estate which has flavours of chocolate, nuts and is sweeter.
The price list at the stall. James commented on how cheap it was, although I’m more used to having 8 coffees at JD Wetherspoon for £1.71 or a filter coffee from Pret for 99p. James is really quite decadent now though, I think he goes to some high-end coffee shops in the city, that’s probably how he knows all these people in suits. The prices do seem to be in keeping with quality products though and at least there’s some authenticity here.
The coffee machine arrangement. There was a friendly welcome from the stall holder and it all felt organised and the ordering process was clear. They accept cards or cash for drinks, with hot chocolate and tea available for those who don’t want coffee.
My £3.50 mocha. The drink was served at the appropriate hot temperature, there was some latte art (well mocha art) and it had a depth of taste and lingering flavours. I actually couldn’t taste any evidence of chocolate (although I think those black bits are chocolate, so it was in there), so I’m not sure that I would have known it was a mocha, but perhaps it was a little subtle for me.
James’s coffee and he really liked this, but he has an advanced palate for hot drinks (and chips) so that’s high praise. We coupled this visit with the Chocolate Bar Baker, which went really rather well together.
Overall, this is a handy place to get a hot drink at the market where there’s a quality to it. There are stalls, primarily the cafes, where coffee is available for 99p but that’s just in granules form with hot water added, so individuals can choose what suits them, such is the joy of the market.
This is week 29 of James and I eating at every food stall at Norwich Market, this time the turn of the Chocolate Bar Baker. James and I also discovered we’ve got a couple more stalls left than we thought, there really is an incredible depth to this market.
One of the two display cabinets of baked goods. I would add at this point that I don’t really have a sweet tooth, but I was tempted by a few different items here.
The second cabinet and that cheesecake arrangement does look rather lovely.
They also have chocolate covered strawberries for those who aren’t sure whether they want to be healthy or not.
And cake shakes are available for those wanting liquid refreshment. The service here was warm and friendly, with the stall taking both cards and cash. I got a feeling of passion about the product from the stallholder, as if she was just proud of what she sold.
I went for the cherry crumble slice which was £3.50. It wasn’t as sickly as I feared, the cake was moist and rich with the cherry running through it, with generous amounts of chocolate on the exterior. And there was literally the cherry on the cake.
James, who is more decadent and artistic than I am, went for a £4.50 Mars Bar Chocolate Millionaires Tart. He was suitably impressed and, only slightly distracted by someone being arrested by the police nearby, noted the high quality of the product (the tart, not the police). We only had six people in suits saying hello to James today, so a quiet day for him in the city.
Overall, I enjoyed this visit as the prices were reasonable for the quality of the product. It felt like an authentic small trader with a passion for their product and not a local multiple treating the market as just another venue. Definitely recommended and it’s something a little different for the market.
Not that I have time to read anywhere near as much as I once did, but Hammond Innes (1913-1998) was one of my favourite authors. Whilst walking down The Causeway in Horsham, I was pleased (and moderately delighted) to see a blue plaque in his honour.
Hammond Innes lived in this property as a child, when he was attending a local primary school before he went off to study at the Cranbook School in Kent. Innes had been born in Horsham, but after he married his wife, Dorothy Mary Lang, they spent most of their lives residing in Kersey, in Suffolk.
This was a Nathan discovery, but that likely won’t surprise anyone that knows him. It’s a proper bona fide tourist attraction now with a Google business profile and everything. It’s a railway bridge with something special attached to it.
The anticipation mounted as I got closer to the main exhibit. It’s one of those anonymous artworks and I think it’s best that the artist isn’t yet known, as that would only mean someone would pinch the jelly and a chunk of the railway bridge to sell at auction. I don’t think society is ready for a whole new crime of jelly theft at the risk of transport infrastructure damage.
And there we are, perhaps the highlight of the weekend! Fortunately the locals haven’t all caught onto this new tourist attraction so the queueing situation wasn’t too bad when I visited. Well, I was the only person there, but I suspect that there will soon be queueing barriers and everything set up. As another highlight, if it’s quite busy when someone visits, they’ve established 24 hour opening to try and spread the queues out a bit.
The next pub (and final one for me, I can’t be doing partying until the early hours) was the Rock, which is part of the Brewhouse & Kitchen chain.
The beer selection, although this didn’t seem to entirely tie up with the range on the actual bar. The selection of beers was very reasonable and cut nicely across the beer styles, although the prices were a little towards the high end of the scale.
I rather liked the design of these keg lines.
The beer tap toilets.
This is the Waterbeach Weisse Mango & Passion Fruit from Pastore which is incredibly tart, but the flavours were agreeable. Pastore are known for their tart sours, so this was as I expected it to be. Nathan went for the Party Bag from Queer Brewing which I can’t say was the greatest beer that I’ve had. Although I read Nathan’s Untappd review and full marks for getting the words/phrases of “furniture polish”, “methylated”, “tricky”, “terrible” and “pomegranate” into the same description and after he’d had numerous drinks.
Full credit to Nathan for being so supple to get in this position so quickly. He might be over 30 now, but he’s still got the moves. Note his shirt as well, it’s him that got me my Goose Island addiction and I still think they’re the best brewery in the world. I fancy another Chicago trip, but I digress….
We were going to stay a little later, but the venue was closing early and so the heavy drinkers amongst the group (I won’t name him as I’m discreet like that) had to drink up quickly. There was the suggestion from one of our party that perhaps the doorman could go and speed up the other customers to give us a few more minutes, but it quickly transpired that we were the only customers let.
I rather liked this venue, they didn’t have music blaring out and it was a clean and comfortable environment. A slight shame they didn’t open a little later, but the team members were friendly and engaging, so it felt like a welcoming venue. They serve food during the day before catering for the late-night crowd (late-night as in most customers, not Oscar) and I’d merrily go here again.
As I hadn’t eaten at the Burger King at the services, as the prices were far too decadent, I decided to get food and drink at the Lynd Cross pub in Horsham whilst waiting for the others (Nathan takes hours to do his hair). It’s a JD Wetherspoon venue and it was relatively busy when I entered, although it felt like a safe enough pub.
Before I go further, I’d add that I was going back for breakfast the next day so thought I’d get some riveting photos for this blog. Unfortunately, the damn thing was shut as they had a water leak, so the imagery on this blog is rather limited.
The chain, who at least make an effort to explain their history, notes:
“The Lynd Cross was the 14th-century name of the junction between the Bishopric and Springfield Road, now the site of this Wetherspoon pub. The first record of a building at this address is in the 1930s, when it was the Old Horsham Bakery.”
To my slight surprise, the venue is on the lowest price band for the chain, so this meal cost just over £6 and included a pint of beer. The group of lads on the table next to me were quite excited about that I had ordered a breakfast on a Friday night, although I pointed out that the chips quite rightly made this an evening meal. They also helpfully gave me some suggestions for other pubs in the town, one of which the others were about to go to. The food tasted fine, particularly at that price point, and was sufficiently filling and all at the appropriate hot temperature.
The drink never arrived at the table but the time I had finished my late night breakfast and so I just went to the bar to collect it. The Elvis Juice from Brewdog was its reliably grapefruity quality. There were six real ales available, but I wasn’t tempted on this occasion. Unfortunately, this pub isn’t in the Good Beer Guide, so I couldn’t tick another one off.
The service generally was a bit all over the place with the staff just standing talking rather than doing any table orders. I mention this as the venue has rather poor reviews for a Wetherspoon venue, which nearly all fit into the 3.8 to 4.1 stars on Google Maps (yes, I’ve analysed it that much). This one sits at 3.7, which indicates there’s likely a local issue going on so I’ve decided that it’s a great use of my time to read the reviews.
“So My Husband and myself are sitting outside Weather spoons in Horsham as I write this , with our 5 months old puppy on our laps , We know dogs are not allowed inside . Hence we are outside , We have been asked to leave because dogs are not allowed anywhere on the premises , I’ve never experienced anything so ridiculous. She’s as quiet as a mouse not disturbing anyone . So we can sit in any pub garden , but we not allowed to sit outside scruffy old weather spoons sitting on a rented public thoroughfare”
I’m not entirely sure that a lot of customers realise that the ban is on dogs generally, it’s not “no dogs, but we allow quiet dogs” as that is, unsurprisingly, difficult to enforce. And if you don’t allow dogs, then you can’t really have them in beer gardens or outside, as how do you get them through the pub or how do you go to the toilet or whatever unless you have someone else to look after them?
“Warning no dogs accepted outside. Even the staff member had trouble locating the sign. Even well behaved dogs. There loss of a £45 order. Other pubs in area dog friendly and excellent service”
I’ve seen pubs with “well behaved dogs welcome” signs but how are we defining a well behaved dog? One that doesn’t bark? One that doesn’t jump on tables or chairs? One that doesn’t bite other customers? And, in the same way as people think their child is an angel, I’ve met lots of dog owners who think that their dog is well behaved and IMO self-evidently isn’t.
“Terrible experience here. Ordered food while the app said there was a waiting time of 12 minutes. 25 minutes later asked at bar, very unhelpful. In the end we had food 39 minutes from ordering, had to rush to eat then go to an appointment. Also had to go to bar to get coffee cups as they didn’t arrive. Staff couldn’t care less.”
and
“Absolutely horrendous service 45mins it took for 2 small food meals & 10+ minutes for 2 pints of apple juice to arrive the atmosphere is dull”
There are a lot of these reviews from the last few weeks, something seems to be sub-optimal with this particular JD Wetherspoon.
“Dump and the lowest of low customers, even had one guy called Peter come up and Insult us, quite funny but would not set foot in here again”
This rather says more about the reviewer, but there we go.
“Surely one of the worst managed pubs in the Wetherspoons franchise. Service at the bar is nearly always slow; tables are rarely cleared; app orders take forever. They are seemingly always understaffed, and consequentially even on quiet afternoons they struggle.
In addition, whilst staff are friendly, there is quite a cliquey atmosphere amongst them collectively. Off duty staff can often be found performing ad-hoc duties, and there is a general atmosphere which can make customers feel like they are imposing upon the staff.
The pub just needs a reset, with a better manager in place who can help it realise its potential.”
This is one of the recent reviews, it feels quite balanced. But that’s enough of my commentary on this matter….
Anyway, as the pub was shut the following morning I couldn’t work out whether things were better when it was quiet and nor could I take a photo of the carpet (I didn’t say I was interesting). It’s quite a small venue for the chain, but it opened in March 1998 before they started opening much larger outlets as almost a standard. But, I have to note that the food and drink represented excellent value for money, so I left happy although maybe I’m just easily pleased….
The next pub visited in Horsham was Sit and Sip which is part of a very small chain (well, it’s this and another venue in Wokingham).
The beer list which has some interesting keg options alongside the mainstream ones. The prices are pushing towards the higher end of the scale, but at least they’ve made an effort to provide some comfortable surroundings.
This is the Sunny from Vault City, lots of orange and suitably smooth. Perhaps this should be an option on hotel breakfast buffets….. And there’s Oscar. He had the Rolling Papers from Bullhouse and we agreed that it seems to be better in cans. It’s perhaps just one of those peculiar mysteries of brewing, like how Guinness tastes better in Dublin or why some beers lose their sparkle when poured by anyone called Derek.
The bar felt rather on-trend and the customer base was a mostly younger one. It’s more of a cafe bar on weekends with light snacks being available, but in general, they’re aiming to be a cocktail and craft beer bar. The only downside is that they closed at midnight, rather earlier than Oscar would have ideally liked, which meant we had to look for somewhere else. Between my two blog readers and myself, Oscar’s idea of a fun evening involves bars that only close when the sun comes up or when the staff finally beg him to leave. Or both.
Anyway, all rather lovely and I’m pleased to have been to half the Sit and Sip pub empire now.
Nathan had one of his good ideas that a group of bar billiards players should go to the 3rd Inter-County 4-pin bar billiards challenge. He collected some of the best Norwich players and as a tactical masterstroke I also invited myself to the event. Suffolk couldn’t make the event, so there were five teams in the competition with some experienced and quality players. Also, it was an honour to know that one person outside of Norwich (who are mostly bored hearing about this blog) knew about this blog 🙂
The venue was held at the Inn on the Green in Ockley. We’d gone down the night before and I’ll finish the write-up of those pubs soon enough. Nathan and I also thought it was a marvellous idea to see how many underground stations we could name at 03:15, but I’ve never been convinced that we’re very sensible if I’m honest.
Firstly, let’s deal with the beers. There were a few keg and cask choices, perhaps the best was the reliable Steady Rolling Man from DEYA.
And Guinness, it’s good to have a energy drink in the afternoon.
Before I get to the bar billiards, let’s deal with the most important element, which was lunch. Others had their meals in the evening, but I couldn’t be waiting for that long and so I went for the sausages and chips at lunch. Decadent, rich and meaty.
OK, right, food and drink out of the way.
My two teammates, Nathan and Fraser, we were Norfolk ‘A’. The other Norwich team had Pete, Zak and Oscar on, playing as Norfolk ‘B’. Nathan agreed to sacrifice doing very well by having me on the team which was very honourable of him. Norfolk ‘B’ managed to arrive at the event late, but Norfolk ‘A’ were very conscientious and punctual.
Nathan excitedly waiting for the balls to drop.
And Nathan in action. It’s like looking at a young John Higgins.
The prizes were on show all day to tempt us. This was kind as there was no entrance charge for the event, the organisers were very generous.
The final game which Nathan stormed. There will be some videos going up on YouTube as Pete had cameras going on both the tables which were used in the competition.
And here are the final results. I was slightly surprised to do this well (I did think that I’d lose every match which has been known), although my first match was against Oscar “I’m better at coaching than playing” Gerdes so that was an easy victory. In fairness, he beat me when we happened to play again, which transpired to be his own victory of the day. I think he exhausted himself with the second battle against me.
Nathan did the best out of all the Norwich players, but he secretly knew that he would although he was disappointed that he didn’t average 2,000 points in each game. Fraser had bought two brownies to eat after winning a match, but he just had to eat the second one at the end of the day. His average score was higher than mine though….
So, what this meant was that Norfolk ‘A’ managed to come third…. This surprised and delighted our team. I’m not saying that Fraser didn’t love his trophy, but Nathan and I were positively clinging onto ours on the journey home so we could pretend we’re really good at this (actually, Fraser was driving, so it was probably best that he wasn’t clinging onto his trophy). I definitely heard a yelp of genuine pain when Nathan briefly couldn’t find his trophy.
After all the games, here was the award ceremony with Oscar still buzzing with the excitement of it all. He’s thinking of putting his fifth place award up in his pub. I was surprised that the venue didn’t give Oscar an award for finishing a keg of Steady Rolling Man on his own, but perhaps next year.
Oscar collecting the awards for his team as they’d cleared off home. Zak had performed brilliantly during the day despite being, er, tired.
Oscar took over the videoing after Pete had gone home. Oscar had just had a half hour conversation whilst in the venue’s conservatory which did a marvellous job of echoing the noise around the pub so that at least one of the two tables was shaking.
The six Norwich players. So very brave, especially for Pete who had a very painful handshake when his finger nearly fell off. Zak is standing at the back as he needed to be propped up.
The Birchanger stop on the way home as Oscar was craving KFC. We probably can’t go back to these services since he managed to get the napkin container stuck on his hand, but Fraser, Nathan and I didn’t say anything in case we got some free chicken from him in the car. I’m pleased to say that we did. Thanks to Fraser for his very professional driving, even though he’s been put off going to Leicester for ever.
This was a rather lovely weekend and the plan is to go back next year assuming that we’re actually invited back. Everyone was very friendly, the food and drink was excellent and Nathan and I want another trophy for our new trophy cabinets we’re building this week now that we’ve got something to put in them.
Very many thanks to the organisers and all of the other players, but big thanks to Nathan for planning this!
