Some excitement from 200 years ago this week in the Norwich Mercury. This advert reads:
“New brewery back of the Fountain Inn, Saint Benedict’s, Norwich. A. Kidd, ale and table beer brewer, informs his friends and the public that he has opened his new brewery as above, where they may be supplied with ale and table beer, and strong ales for draught or bottling. The strong ale brewing is conducted entirely on the Edinburgh system, therefore it is expected that an ale will be produced from the malt of this county equal in strength and flavour to any imported from that city, and at much less expense to the consumer. To meet any immediate demand A. K. has brought a stock of October strong ale from his establishment at Beccles. Private families supplied, in quantities of not less than four gallons and a half.”
The Fountain Inn was once an important Norwich pub which opened in the 1750s, but in a rather sub-optimal manner, was demolished during Second World War air raids.
The brewer responsible here was Archibald Kidd and he had his operations at the back of the pub until 1840, when he sold his brewery off. Kidd had previously been living at Primrose Cottage, the Score, in Beccles and he might well have had his brewing operations there before his big Norwich move. Strong Ale, or Scotch Ale, was quite a punchy beer, although there’s more about that at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch_Ale.
It was the last friendly game before the league games start, so I thought I’d steady my nerves with a non-alcoholic Guinness.
I was suitably excited about this, it’s the first time that I’ve had to fill this in. And all without my very capable vice-captain Luke to assist, so what could possibly go wrong.
It’s unusual for the balls to be placed like that, one tucked between the two pins, one right in front of the pin, one near the break-off shot and the other near the baulk.
The final shot of the match (as the doubles games got rearranged), Gabriel fired the ball into the pocket like a true professional. It’s far to say that he was surprised and delighted, with the video being widely shared across Norwich as we speak….
I meandered past Anglia Square yesterday on my way to volunteer at Norwich Beer Con and the cinema is now starting to be demolished. It’s about 25 years since I went there, I think I only ever saw one film there, so I can’t say that I have much of an emotional connection to the place.
This line in a newspaper article in the Norwich Mercury 200 years ago this week doesn’t really suggest the significance of this marriage.
Joseph Pease (1799-1892) was a railway pioneer and one of the supporters of the Stockport and Darlington Railway Company. He also later became the first Quaker MP and was one of the advocates for increased animal rights. He was also the son of Edward Pease, who is known as the ‘Father of the Railways’ which seems a nice title to have.
Emma Gurney (1800-1860) was the youngest daughter of Joseph Gurney, a banker from the Gurney family whose operations were subsumed into Barclays Bank later in the nineteenth century.
This is a statue commemorating Joseph Pease, a photo I took in Darlington in 2022 where I managed to explore a fair amount of railway history.
This was a proper political power couple, their families bringing together wealth, railway experience and connections. The marriage would have taken place at the Friends Meeting House on Upper Goat Lane in the city. The current building was opened in 1826, on the site of the former meeting house, so I’m assuming that this might have been one of the first marriages there. Although this assumes that the Norwich Mercury was right, as some other sources are saying that they married in Darlington, which adds confusion to the mix.
As I was on a double decker bus yesterday going past Anglia Square, that gave me an opportunity to take the below photos. A couple of hours after this they started to break into the cinema, so the demolition of that part has now begun. I’ll go down and take some photos of that tomorrow (2 April).
And here’s a quick summary of my blog posts from the day out that Jen, Roy and I had on Sunday. They were both, as ever, marvellous company and they were also lucky that they had me there to amuse them. Or something like that in terms of them being lucky.
We visited ten venues and I have to confess that I can’t match Roy’s ability to drink. He had a pint in each venue, I went for a half in each, so I ended up having a total of five pints over eight hours, whereas Roy cleared ten pints. Very rufty tufty.
Thank Jen for her driving, which was much appreciated as that meant she couldn’t drink ten pints, but instead stayed on soft drinks.
The venues were selected as part of Roy’s complex old Woodforde’s Ale Trail books system (that I won’t even try to explain), but what that gave us was a selection of pubs that was nearly entirely new to me, I had been in two of them before. The pubs were all very much at the heart of their communities and all doing a good job at serving them.
We had a selection of country pubs, town pubs, one chain pub, estate pubs, one social club and two hotels. It was a really rather lovely day and we also deliberately visited a couple of two pubs that are now closed, but were in Roy’s books, that I will write about from a historical perspective at a future date.
The tenth, and final, venue on our Sunday day out was the Acle Social Club, located at the Acle War Memorial Recreation Centre which is an interestingly named building. Again, I won’t give a history to this as it’s not a traditional pub arrangement.
I approached the bar to check if we could come in with our CAMRA card as this is a members’ only club. I’d add I didn’t expect they’d take the card, it’s listed on CAMRA’s website that we could do that, which the friendly team member said was fine.
There were two real ales available from Oakham Ales and I was impressed that both options were beers that I hadn’t had. I opted for the Hare and the Hedgehog, but both looked tempting.
And I was able to get chocolate here, and not just Maltesers, but the treat bag size. The pricing was firmly towards the lower end of the scale which surprised and delighted me. The beer was well kept, light and fruity, certainly one of the better tasting ones of the day.
I really liked this venue, it was comfortable, modern and I liked the variety of seating heights. It wasn’t very busy, other than for one quite vibrant group, but it was atmospheric and welcoming. There was a large board showing what food is served during the day and the prices for this were also very reasonable.
By the time we left, I was starting to think that I’d join the club if it was just a little bit nearer to me. Annual memberships are just £10 and it aims to offer a comfortable bar and dining area for those who are using the hall which is located in. Perhaps they could get a bar billiards table, then I could visit it every year on the away game….. Anyway, this was one of the highlights of the day and well done to clubs like this that sell both chocolate and crisps.
The ninth pub of the day was Branford’s Restaurant and Bar, with Jen requesting that I mention that they could do with more lighting in the car park. The venue is located within the Old Hall Hotel, but they are separately managed.
The entrance is around the back via the hotel. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect here, and I have no idea what was in the marquee, but the signage was at least clear. I can’t write much about the history of this venue, it’s not clear to me how old the building is and I can’t find out much online.
It was a wider real ale selection than I had expected with four local beers available. The service was friendly and welcoming, with the atmosphere being less of a restaurant type venue than I had expected.
The interior is spacious and there’s another dining area to add to this whole arrangement.
I couldn’t work out whether there were any heritage elements from an older building or this was all relatively new. It didn’t help that we visited the venue when it was dark outside.
I quite fancied chocolate by this point, but instead I made do with Mini Cheddars with my Adnams Broadside. This was well kept, malty and at the appropriate slightly chilled temperature.
For anyone interested, there’s quite a large menu available. The restaurant and bar are all well reviewed on-line and it felt quite busy for a Sunday evening.
I’m still not sure that I entirely understand this venue, it appears to be primarily an independently run restaurant which also has a bar, with the hotel element being run by a sister company. Either way, the beer selection was decent, the real ale was well kept and there was a friendly welcome. All really rather lovely.
The eighth pub on our list was the Lichfield Arms in Great Yarmouth, which isn’t a venue that I’ve ever heard of before. CAMRA notes that the landlord has been here for thirty years, which is an impressive stint and he’s delivered a really rather lovely community driven pub.
The pub was built here in the 1880s, originally defined as being in Gorleston, although I think it’s fair to say that this area is now considered to be part of Great Yarmouth. It was originally a Steward & Patteson pub before it became part of the Watney Mann estate, but it’s now a free house.
Initially this was just a beer house (these venues could sell beer and were often just a front room, but they couldn’t sell spirits or wines), but in 1903, the Yarmouth Independent reported:
“The next and last application was by Mr. C. J Wiltshire on behalf of Messrs. Steward and Patteson for the removal of the full license of the Little White Lion, King-street, to the Lichfield Arms beer-house, Lichfield road. This was, he said, the third time of asking, and Messrs. Steward and Patteson were prepared to surrender an off beer-house in High-street. Over 80 houses had been put up in the district since the last application, and it was greatly extending. There was a dearth of public-houses in the area, as was shown by the drink map. With respect to what had been said at previous Licensing Sessions, Mr. Bottle would be glad to know that two doctors had now gone to live in the district. (Laughter.)
William Pembroke, of the Lichfield Arms, the nominal applicant, said he had a great demand for spirits, especially since there had been so much sickness, and he had been twice called up at night lately.
Mr. S. Rivett, architect, said there were 441 houses on the Lichfield estate, and 85 had been built since 1901. The nearest full licensed house was 490 yards away.
Mr. Bottle—This application comes before us with a better grace than any other we have heard. There should be a full licensed house in a district with a population of 2,000 people. At present it hasn’t one full license.
Mr Wiltshire—The need for a full license there has been fully demonstrated.
Evidence of the service of the statutory notices in respect of this and all the applications was given by the Warrant Officer (Sergt. W. Moore).”
The request was granted by the licensing committee, as long as the High Street licence was surrendered. It was though the third time that the venue had requested this.
There was one real ale available, the Edith Cavell from Wolf Brewery and that’s not a bad one to select.
The beer was well kept, tasted as expected and was, once again, expertly food paired. For anyone interested, and I’m not sure who will be, but those crisps pack quite a mustardy punch.
There is one long bar and the decoration is traditional and comfortable. There’s a screen showing sports and although the customers were quite lively during our visit, we felt entirely welcome. The venue is all quite under-stated in a very positive way and it’s primarily wet led, although they occasionally do serve food for special events.
Those signs above the toilet doors look like they’ve been there for about forty years, but I’m all for heritage and keeping things in pubs rather than constant renovation and modernisation.
I liked this pub, it felt a welcoming venue, it’s clearly another place that’s at the heart of its community and if it was the landlord of 30 years’ standing that served us, he’s doing remarkably well to keep the pub going.
Our seventh pub of the day, where Jen parked the car in a bush, was the Rumbold Arms in Great Yarmouth.
The pub first opened in the 1830s and it went through a succession of brewery owners, Steward & Patteson, Watney Mann, the Unique Pub Company and then Enterprise Inns got hold of it, although it’s fortunately now a free house.
It did once have a bowling green, although it’s not clear where from the 1880s image, but there is a large space behind the pub and I assume that it was once there.
It might not have the prettiest view at the front over the road, but just down there is the very competently built bridge that my friend Liam helped put together….
This was the first pub that we visited during the day which didn’t have any real ale. The service was friendly and there was a laid back atmosphere in the venue. It’s very much a wet led venue and there are numerous events such as live music, bingo and karaoke.
But they did have Caffreys, which is a little unusual to see. It’s a quirky little stout, creamy and with a taste of coffee.
This is another of those pubs that is important to the community and it was clean and well managed. I’ve also only just realised after looking at the photos that the pub had Roast Beef Monster Munch behind the bar and I missed an opportunity there…. It’s a shame that there’s no real ale available, but variety is the spice of life and all that…
