After safely switching platforms during the three minute connection time, I was safely at Hove railway station. To be fair, this isn’t going to be the most complex piece of transportation during this trip, but I was pleased that there were no delays here.
The original Hove railway station opened in 1840, but this was closed in 1880 and the railway station at this site opened in 1865 and was originally known as Cliftonville. It was renamed West Brighton in 1879, then renamed to Hove & West Brighton in 1894 before taking its current name of Hove in 1895.
Here the Southern Railways Thunderbolt rolling into the platform. It was a relatively busy train and an announcement was made that it was stopping additionally at Three Bridges to assist passengers having difficulty with the cancelled services between Brighton and London Gatwick.
We arrived on time into Gatwick Airport railway station which was rebuilt in 1958 from the former Gatwick Racecourse station. As an aside there was also a railway station at Tinsley Green, renamed Gatwick Airport in 1936 (one of the first airport railway stations), but this was later demolished (to make way for the 1958 station) and this was a little further along the line towards Three Bridges.
As an update, Jonathan had already arrived at Gatwick about 45 minutes before, so this meant that we were now both safely at the airport ready for the flight. It was good to arrive on time given we didn’t have a lot of time to spare and it was then promptly announced that our flight was delayed.
The morning of our first day started with my walking from the bargain priced Travelodge Brighton Seafront to Jonathan’s more decadent hotel.
A free breakfast courtesy of Jonathan’s accommodation arrangement. Jonathan was going to Gatwick via Flixbus on a bargain priced service which goes from the centre of Brighton. The journey was absolutely perfect in many ways other than they cancelled it, part of the reason that I didn’t book it in the first place.
Jonathan decided to get the train, although his options were somewhat reduced at that point. I had got a £4 rail ticket as part of the national rail sale, but that went from Brighton station to Hove station before connecting to another service. This station opened in 1840 and is mostly still there, but it’s hard to see the original building because of later extensions.
Mine was the 10:13 service and I was pleased that it was operating as usual as a number of services had been cancelled due to over-running engineering works. Jonathan had already departed on the first service he could, better to be safe than sorry when getting to an airport.
They announce the platforms around ten minutes before the train departs with this one departing from platform two. There are eight platforms at the station and some very careful gate line staff who were carefully checking all the tickets, something which took a few minutes as the barriers were rejecting a fair number of tickets, including mine.
My Southern Railways train sweeping in. I had cut this whole arrangement quite tight (well, tight for me), arriving just a couple of hours before my flight departed, due to wanting to get the £4 fare.
I got settled in for the four minute rail journey. There were power outlets and I must have charged my device by around 2% during the extensive journey. The train was relatively clean and organised, with plenty of free seats.
And safely into Hove railway station, where I had a connecting train to Gatwick Airport which departed just three minutes after my train from Brighton got in. A few others were doing the same connection and it feels too tight to me for those who aren’t easily able to navigate the subway between the platforms.
Anyway, that was the first part of the journey done….
So many bars in Brighton that I haven’t been to, but unfortunately, so little time. Mad Dog is a brewery based in Cardiff, although they have taprooms in not only Cardiff and Brighton, but also Tunbridge Wells and Cheltenham. This venue has been open for around one year, so it’s a relatively new arrival to Brighton.
The beer list, although unfortunately the McStout Face wasn’t available. I opted for the three 1/3 pint beer flight that they offer, all beers from the brewery themselves. The welcome was friendly and so that gave a positive first impression.
The bar is located on the ground floor and that has nearly no seating, but there are seating areas on the first and second floors. It’s a slightly odd set-up, which makes accessibility nearly impossible, but it’s otherwise a clean and tidy arrangement.
They had Cards Against Humanity which brought me some amusement as I’m easily pleased. My first beer was the Marmalade IPA from Mad Dog, this had a gentle orange flavour and was crisp and clean.
Next was the Apollo Galaxy from Mad Dog, a punchy 5.5% (although the board gives a higher ABV) beer which had a taste of citrus from the hops and a bit of sweetness.
And finally the Now in a Minute from Mad Dog, this had a malty edge and a pleasant taste, but it was a bit thin.
The venue wasn’t overly busy when I was there, but the atmosphere was comfortable, informal and inviting. All really rather lovely and it was good to try three different beers from the brewery and I’ll likely visit their Cardiff taproom if I’m back in sunny Wales.
After a quick visit to the Rook Taproom, I popped to Brighton Travelodge Seafront to check-in and I was already pre-pleased with the arrangement as the room cost £22 per night which surprised and delighted me. There was a friendly welcome at reception and the receptionist mentioned that the bar was 24 hours, which is certainly handy.
For the money, I was very impressed with the value as the room was clean, tidy and well presented. The hotel looked a bit knocked about in places, but it’s obviously heavily used. There was a heater in the room and the window actually opened, so the whole range of options as far as I’m concerned.
I had a look at the online reviews and they’re not particularly good, but they’re not a disaster.
“DO NOT GO HERE -Needs redecorating and NOT value for money paid over the top for a scummy room and toilet .Not enough coffee and milk for two people complained to reception . I don’t normally give feed back but do not use Third party websites as you will be over charged and not willing to help.Travel Lodge think before you sell your booking slots…”
There’s a heap of tea and coffee at reception, as much as you could ever want. Definitely don’t buy a Travelodge room via a third party site though….
“I booked a night on the quieter floor but the music from the Pub across the street was unbearable, even with the window closed.”
I can imagine a lot of people don’t like the noise, but it’s probably best not to book a hotel in the centre of Brighton….
“Worst hotel ever! Stains all over the floor, bedding and walls. Kept awake all night by club across the road and the hotels response is well it’s not our hotel is it!”
It’s an honest answer to be fair…
“Yes this hotel is not too expensive and in a great location. However room was infested with bed bugs causing over 40 bites on the body and then when moved room woke up with more. Was told they can’t offer refunds or compensation as the bites weren’t evidence enough so pest control have to confirm it. Rang 28 times and no one has answered to give a follow up and check If they have even rang pest control to avoid happening to other people.”
I like the reviewer’s precision of 40 bites and 28 calls.
“We paid over £200 for a 1-night stay. They don’t tell you that the hotel is right next to a nightclub that is open until 3am”
I think I would have considered paying £200 for a room as a bit sub-optimal, so they have my sympathy. Anyway, I digress.
And leaving the hotel the following morning. There was a lot of external noise during the night of crashing glasses and shouting people, but I like that kind of constant disruption and I slept through pretty much all of it. Overall, I was very pleased with the whole arrangement and if a room is under £25, then definitely go for it….
As I was in Brighton for the evening, I thought I’d tick off a couple of craft beer bars that I hadn’t visited before. This is the Rook Taproom, formerly the Prince Arthur pub which was reopened in 2023.
The beer list, all rather extensive and there were numerous options that I would have liked to try, but I limited myself to two half pints.
The bar looked modern and on-trend with the service being friendly and engaging. It had a nice inviting feel atmosphere and was relatively busy when I was there, with a main bar and a separate room at the rear.
Some of the extensive cans list.
The Even Rooks Need Beer from Moon Brewery, a smooth, hazy, hoppy and quirky beer with a decent mouthfeel.
The Respectable Mystery from Howling Hops, a slight taste of marmalade and hops, certainly not unpleasant.
It’d be unlikely that a customer couldn’t find something that they liked as there are 22 craft beer taps and over 150 cans, which should surprise and delight a fair number of people. The online reviews are very positive and they’ve actually yet to pick a review of fewer than four stars, so that’s some impressive work.
I imagine that this can get quite busy at times, but it’s certainly worth a visit. The prices were middle of the road, the service was friendly and the surroundings were comfortable. It’s only a short walk from the central area of Brighton and it was clean internally, so definitely recommended.
My journey started at Corby railway station when Richard dropped me off before he went onto something quite specialist. This is definitely rail progress for the town, there was a station built here in 1879, but that was closed in 1966. This was clearly a ludicrous decision and it left Corby without a rail link (one of the biggest towns in the country with no railway station), until wiser heads prevailed and this station was opened in 2009, bringing the railways back to the town.
Although not the most decadent of railway stations, and there’s only one platform, the train I needed to get me into St. Pancras arrived on time.
The East Midlands Railways train isn’t the most exciting, there are no power points and they’ve shoved five seats across which really doesn’t work. The guard made an announcement that due to train cancellations this service would be very busy towards London, but, fortunately, it wasn’t too bad at all.
We arrived into St. Pancras on time, although it was all a bit chaotic on the platform as they had passengers waiting for two trains and it took over five minutes to get to the ticket barrier.
One quick underground journey on the Victoria Line between King’s Cross St Pancras and Victoria. Fortunately, this service was operating as usual, although the Piccadilly Line was closed.
This is the Southern Railways train to Gatwick Airport, which despite being 12 coaches long was packed by the time we left London. There are some bus replacement services on the other line into Gatwick, so sensible passengers switched to this route. As a positive point, there were at least power points on this train.
There was an incident on the train when a passenger pressed an emergency alarm in the toilet and the driver made three announcements calling for the guard before announcing he would stop the train if the situation wasn’t resolved. It was unclear to me what the guard was doing, but the train was split into separate units so if the guard was in the bit at the back, it might have been rather more challenging to resolve the situation.
After a quick change at Gatwick Airport, I boarded another service to Brighton. The efficiency of the services meant, to my slight disappointment, that there was no Delay Repay…..
Into Brighton railway station and it’s all happening now….
It’s always a delight to spend the day with Roy and Jen, and on this occasion we decided to tour some pubs in West Norfolk. Jen, who promised to be on her best behaviour all day, offered to drive which was very helpful to Roy, who is always on his best behaviour, and myself, again also always impeccably behaved. I won’t comment whether she was on her best behaviour, as I’m not one for gossip, but I very much appreciated the excellent driving she provided.
The reason for the pub choice is that they’ve appeared in previous Woodforde’s pub trails and Roy and Jen are merrily ticking them off. I like these completionist type challenges so I was very engaged with the whole logic of their project. I did wonder whether or not the pubs would be ones which surprised and delighted me, but I’m delighted to say that they did. It was also a bonus to visit some Good Beer Guide pubs to tick off my own list, which is entirely unachievable in its scale.
It’s fair to say that there were some great publicans behind the pubs that we visited, it’s a very difficult time for pubs at the moment and country pubs in particular are finding this challenging. All of the pubs offered a friendly welcome and some were just exceptional, such as the beer choice in the White Hart at Ashill and the warmth from the staff and customers at the Chequers Inn in Thompson. It would also be wrong for me not to mention the landlord Barry from the White Horse in Longham, he’s clearly an institution in his own right and that was another highlight.
I’d note that Roy managed a pint in each venue, which shows just how tough he is. I went for half a pint in each venue, but I had snacks at just about every pub in order to compensate slightly. He’s very rufty tufty is that Roy.
The Indian is in what was the Mill pub, it was very welcoming although excuse that I’ve written a bit at length about the food as I get excited visiting new Indian restaurants and feel the need to comment. We also visited the Artichoke in Norwich for a few post-event drinks, but I frequently write about that and will do so even more in the future.
Roy and Jen were once again great company and I’m looking forwards to the next little adventure.
Our chosen food location of the day was Rani’s Indian Dining at Yaxham, located near to Dereham. This was something of a perfect combination of a former pub that Roy wanted to visit, originally the Mill, alongside an Indian restaurant which is one of my most favourite things to visit. And it was also my first time in Yaxham for a few years, this is a village that I’ve led a few walks around.
What is now the restaurant was originally the miller’s house, with the current mill dating from the middle of the nineteenth century. Its being a licensed premises is more recent, becoming a restaurant in the 1990s and it became an Indian restaurant in around 2018.
We hadn’t booked, but fortunately there was enough space for us, although it was busy when we arrived. There were a few people waiting for takeaways and combined with the positive online reviews, they’re evidently pleasing lots of people.
The poppadoms and dips, the lime pickle was my highlight here and the poppadoms were suitably crispy.
I’m not entirely sure that this was the pint advertised….
The highlight here was the lemon rice, which was light with plenty of lemon in the taste. The peshwari naan was a little heavy in texture, but had a pleasant enough taste. Without trying to be overly negative, the chicken Dupiaza was lacking in sauce and it’s not meant to be a dry curry so that did impact the whole arrangement.
The chicken was generous in quantity and it was tender, but this meant to be a medium hot curry and there was an absence of any depth of taste to the sauce and certainly no heat so that felt sub-optimal. The onion element was a little heavy and needed cooking down more, but it was really the lack of flavour that was the major limitation alongside with the lack of sauce. As a meal it was perfectly enjoyable, but it shouldn’t really be the case that there’s more heat and depth of flavour from a JD Wetherspoon curry.
The service was just a little disjointed, but it was friendly and the environment was clean and comfortable. The surroundings were inviting and it felt a warm atmosphere, with the service always being attentive and I’m always pleased to get a chocolate with the bill as a positive final touch.
Although it’s often something of a shame that a pub is lost to be a restaurant, it’s marvellous that the venue has survived. And some history has remained, the mill is still located behind the restaurant and there’s some accommodation here as well. And there’s more about the history of the mill at https://www.norfolkmills.co.uk/Windmills/yaxham-towermill.html.
The next in our exploration around country pubs of Norfolk was the White Horse at Longham. This had one of the longest histories of any of the pubs that we visited, having been a licensed premises since the middle of the seventeenth century. As with many pubs of the time, it was linked in with another business, in this case it was for a long time also a blacksmiths.
Initially the pub was part of the Swaffham Brewery estate, before becoming part of Steward & Patteson and then Watney Mann. There was something of a modernisation before it became a Chef & Brewer and then after a short period of closure between 1977 and 1978, it became a free house. It has been run by Barry White since 1995, fortunately free of Pubco influence and interference.
A list of the landlords since 1640.
There was a homely feel when we entered, it was warm and comfortable with the TV showing films. There was a slight omission of any customers or staff, but other than that, all seemed well.
There was a bell to get the attention of a staff member and we decided that Roy was the bravest to ring it.
There were two real ales available, the Cheeky Jack from Moon Gazer and the Yardbird from Greene King. It wasn’t a difficult choice.
I went for the Cheeky Jack which tasted in fine form and it appeared to have been served from gravity which I like. It had a taste of orange with a crisp taste, very agreeable. The food pairing at this pub was with BBQ Mini Cheddars and I was pleased with my ordering combination.
The service was polite, personable and it appeared to be the landlord Barry White, who has been here since the middle of the 1990s. He’s certainly doing a fine job, the pub was spotlessly clean and we felt very welcome during the visit.
One of the two dining areas which also looked in a good state of repair. There are also three rooms upstairs for those wanting B&B, with the online reviews for these being positive. There’s also the option of camping outside and the owner welcomes camper vans as well.
This pub certainly surprised and delighted me, it was a proper survivor and I hope that it has a sustainable future. Food is served and I was pleased with how well-kept my real ale was, it all felt organised and the landlord Barry is evidently very much of a character, but for all the right reasons.
The next pub on our little expedition was the Ostrich in Castle Acre and please excuse the lack of quality of the external photo, but it wasn’t the most lit up pub that I’ve ever seen. The rather odd name of the pub relates to the Coke family and the Holkham estate, who had some involvement with this venue. Although as a pub name it’s relatively rare, it’s common in Norfolk and around ten venues have had the name.
It has been a licensed premises since the end of the eighteenth century, once in the Steward & Patteson estate, but now part of Greene King. It received a substantial refurbishment in 2022 which saw its six en-suite bedrooms revamped and the historic interior restored. This was when the venue seemed primarily food-led and that had been my expectation for our visit, not that we were intending to eat there.
There were four real ales available, although as three were from Greene King I was going to have the Duration keg beer before I realised that it sold out. The pub had Greene King IPA, Greene King Fireside IPA, Greene King Abbot and Woodforde’s Nog. I would have preferred a beer that wasn’t local as an option, but at least there was a choice.
The large rear room and the specials menu is visible above the rather lovely fireplace. This venue wasn’t the only one that day, but I did think it was entirely unclear whether or not they were serving food. As mentioned, I didn’t progress the matter as we had another food destination in mind, but I’m not sure that this pub is as food led as I thought it might be any more.
The same room from the other perspective and I felt for the venue here as it was quite cold in parts of the building, but this must be a nightmare to heat. The toilets were very cold and some of them needed repair, so this must be a financial challenge for the operators. If the venue is mostly tied to Greene King, this must present something of a challenge to the operator in numerous ways.
The front bar was just a little more lively and it had more of a homely and warm feel. The service from the team members was friendly and immediate, with the pub feeling welcoming.
We sat in front of the lower fireplace, although this wasn’t on and was a bit more of a storage area. The venue does seem to be struggling at the moment and has been hit by a wave of negative reviews on TripAdvisor and a fair few on Google. Some are villagers claiming that they’re annoyed, although I might be a little wary there, all they might achieve is losing their pub entirely. Indeed, I always thought of this village having two pubs, but that’s as I was here in 2009 and it has transpired that the Albert Victor closed in 2010, leaving just the Ostrich.
The prices were towards the higher end of the scale and they might have to be careful there if they’re going to be reliant on their local audience. Anyway, this is the Nog from Woodforde’s Brewery and it tasted as I hoped, a bit of liquorice, malty and rich. In terms of food pairings, I’m not sure that the bacon fries were robust enough to stand up to the Nog, but they certainly didn’t take away from it.
I think it’s nearly fifteen years since I’ve been here and so it’s good to be back, not that I can remember anything from my first visit. It’s great that the pub is still going, although I would like to have seen more about the venue’s name and history within the pub. I mention this as a lot of sources refer to this as a sixteenth century building, but the listed building record and licensing documents suggest an eighteenth century building.
Anyway, I felt welcome during the visit and I rather wonder if the pub comes more to life during the summer months when the tourists come flocking to the area and I suspect things liven up a bit.
