Our study tour of the week was to Wymondham and we managed to visit all nine venues which CAMRA have listed. Julian and I are both unanimous in just how rigorous our testing needs to be, so we didn’t want any venue to be missed out. Here’s Julian at Wymondham Abbey, which we found time to go and visit. We’re not one trick ponies, we also have plenty to say about public transport and history.

On the subject of buses, I was once again delighted to take advantage of the £2 single fare, with the buses sort of running to time.

The pubs or bars we visited were:

Robert Kett

Queen’s Head

Cross Keys

White Hart

Green Dragon

Wymondham Sports Bar

Feathers

Ex-Services Club

The Railway

Wymondham is certainly not badly served by the pubs and there’s plenty of choice for visitors and locals. The Robert Kett is more of an estate pub, but the rest are located in the town centre. The Queen’s Head and the Railway are more food led, with those liking historic interiors being recommended to visit the Green Dragon and the White Hart. The Wymondham Sports Bar was an unexpected highlight, although there’s some confusion as to whether CAMRA members can visit the Ex-Services Club or not. The Cross Keys was the liveliest of the venues, with the Feathers being the only Wymondham pub listed in the Good Beer Guide with the Green Dragon having lost their position in the book.

Julian and I rarely complain about anything, but we did comment several times about how bloody hot it was during the day.

It did rain at some point, but we were too busy studying one of the pubs in detail.

The length of this study day meant that we didn’t get back to the bus stop until around 20:30, but at least we left in daylight. I hope that my comments about all the venues are sufficiently positive, as it’s marvellous that these pubs are all still open and operating. In these challenging times, pubs are an important part of the community and I’m delighted that we were able to visit them all.

Previous study tours have included to North Walsham, Aylsham, Bungay and Dereham. I’m pleased to report that there are several more study tours currently being planned, including one by train to widen our coverage territory even further.

This was the ninth and final pub of the day for Julian and I on our study tour of Wymondham, with some slight concern as we approached that it was shut. It would have been something of an anti-climax, but I’m pleased to say that it was open and numerous customers were enjoying the outside seating area.

The frontage of the pub, which was for a long time a hotel, from another angle. It’s located just a short walk from the town’s railway station, but the pub name might have given that away to my assiduous readers.

This signage feels like something from a couple of years ago, but they don’t appear to be entirely enforcing these requirements now.

The bar and another reminder that they’re short of staff. We were served by a friendly staff member and I was pleased that she was able to point us towards a table with a plug by it as my phone was running out of charge. As can be seen, there weren’t unfortunately any real ales available.

The range of keg beers with a relatively limited choice.

However, there was Blue Moon which I’m always quite partial to, served with the obligatory slice of orange. This was sufficient for me and tasted as expected.

It’s a large pub and everything felt clean and comfortable. Not that I’m really one to offer decor advice, but I was a little surprised at the lack of railway memorabilia or posters on the walls, that would have felt more appropriate to me. However, I was just pleased that I was able to leave with rather more phone charge than I entered with.

Another room in the pub, there were no issues with finding a seat. The venue seems quite food led, although drinkers are welcome, with numerous people eating meals. They’re trying to keep the prices affordable and the quality high, if we hadn’t of just eaten I think that we would have pleased with the offering here.

A covered area outside, this looked suitably inviting. This area looked new and as if the pub has recently gone through something of a refurbishment.

I liked this pub, although it had the weakest selection of beers that we encountered during the day. The service was friendly, the pub was clean and I always enjoy Blue Moon so that sufficed me. I thought that the limited beer options might have been some issue with the venue being part of a pubco, but the pub’s web-site notes that they are a family operated free house. Although we didn’t eat here, this appears to be a strong point of the pub’s offering and at some point I may return for a quick meal. For anyone with a wait for a train (or, more specifically, a train departing from Wymondham), this seems a suitable place to come and visit.

I used to be a member of the Lowestoft Ex Servicemens Club, although not for reasons of ever being in the military, as I’m not sure how useful I would have been to them if I’m being honest. CAMRA note that “CAMRA members are admitted up to 6 times a year” and so Julian and I thought that we’d pop in when passing. We are very thorough in our study tour research and if CAMRA say it’s good to go in, then we feel obliged to give it a little try which made this our eighth venue of the day.

Unfortunately, the barman informed me that CAMRA members couldn’t enter and the information from CAMRA thus seemed wrong. Rather awkwardly but fortunately for us, a helpful customer told us that we were welcome but just needed to sign in. The barman fortunately decided not to contest this, but it’s unfortunate as otherwise we would have had a clean sweep of nine excellent welcomes in Wymondham.

Back to the beer options, there were three real ales to choose from and for non-members they’re priced at slightly above pub prices, although members are I understand charged a lower rate.

I went for the Oakham Inferno and this was well-kept and suitably refreshing.

The bar area and there were plenty of snack options to be had. The club was busy when we went, so we sat at the bar and gossiped about numerous people we know, in that way we have of informing each other of random news. Everything was clean and comfortable, although it was rather hot inside.

The members in the club were all welcoming and I think this is probably just a venue that doesn’t get many people just wandering in off the streets in the early evening and so perhaps we caught them unawares. I suspect that the system is that a member can guest someone in, hence how we were allowed to be served, but I found the set-up just a little awkward and it’s wasn’t clear for a while whether we’d just be asked to leave. It’s a shame, as without generalising I think CAMRA members would enjoy the club as it’s got a decent selection of beers and an amenable group of members. For anyone wanting to visit, I’d be tempted to contact the club in advance just to check where the land currently lies.

Our seventh venue of the day was the Feathers pub, the only Good Beer Guide listed pub in Wymondham and I haven’t visited here before. We had to wait for this pub to open as it closes in the afternoon, also choosing it for food as we hadn’t found anywhere appropriate and had been rather powered on Mini Cheddars. Anyway, I digress. Historically this pub was known as the Plume of Feathers and it has been a hospitality venue since the late eighteenth century.

There were five real ales available and I went for the Here Comes Summer from Mighty Oak Brewing. When it got a bit busier nearly all of the customers sat at the bar which made seeing what beers were available more difficult, but in fairness to the pub there is a separate blackboard with the options listed out. The service was immediate and friendly, it was yet another welcoming venue.

The food menu, part one.

The food menu, part two.

The pub had a cosy and comfortable feel to it.

A bicycle on the wall.

There’s plenty of character here.

I consider this genius (but I don’t get out much), and I know that Julian was also impressed, which is having little scissors to cut the sauces with. Absolutely inspired, although ironically the sauce packets they used were some of the easy ones to open so I didn’t get to use the scissors.

The Here Comes Summer beer was well kept and had pleasant citrusy notes.

I went for the chicken and leek pie, which was served as a large portion which satiated my appetite. The pie was generously filled and the chips were fluffy on the interior and firm on the exterior, with the vegetables retaining some bite. This did the job and it was all served piping hot and was brought out without too long a wait.

The pub is very well reviewed on-line and is clearly popular with locals and visitors to the town. Its position in the Good Beer Guide seems justified, it is a traditional pub which felt competently managed. Definitely recommended and it’s not the pub’s fault that we left slightly sleepy after being well fed and having endured miles of walking during the day to get from venue to venue. These study tours are hard work, the community service that we offer here is selfless.

This was the sixth pub or bar that Julian and I visited on our day trip to Wymondham and, perhaps unexpectedly, it was one of best. The frontage isn’t necessarily the most inviting, but it is welcoming to everyone and there’s no membership needed.

Wooo, Everton 🙂   There’s a couple of corridors to navigate through before reaching the bar area.

We stayed for a couple of beers here as they were keenly priced and we were waiting for the nearby Feathers to open. They only have one real ale, the Golden Jackal from Wolf Brewery, which was well kept and at the appropriate temperature. The ready salted crisps and Mini Cheddars were also delightful.

The venue’s pool and darts room.

As would be expected, there’s lots of sports branding with sports also being shown on screens in the bar. The service at the bar was friendly and warm, it felt like a welcoming venue even though I suspect it’s supported primarily by regulars with likely not many occasional visitors. When I asked where the toilets were, I liked that not only did the staff member respond helpfully, but other customers also joined in with the same answer. It reminds me of when I was in San Diego and was once again muddled up with some public transport and about twelve nearby people answered when I asked one person, so keen were they to help. I mention this less than riveting story as it suggested to me that there was a strong community feel to the arrangements here.

Nearly every pub or bar that I’ve been that has a meat raffle also has a strong community spirit.

I liked this bar, it’s one that I’d likely visit regularly if I lived in the town. There might not be bar billiards, but I’m sure that pool would keep me entertained and the customers seemed a friendly bunch. The bar was clean, the service personable and the environment comfortable and inviting. All rather lovely and better than I had anticipated.

The fifth pub that Julian and I visited was the historic Green Dragon, a venue that I’ve visited before. The pub is operated by Admiral Taverns and has recently reopened after some troubled months which are probably best forgotten. There aren’t many older pubs in the country, as part of the Green Dragon dates from the fourteenth century and it’s one of the buildings that survived the 1615 Great Fire which destroyed so much of Wymondham.

There were four real ales and I went for the Umbel Magna from Nethergate Brewery, expertly food paired with Mini Cheddars. This was a very agreeable beer which is a modern recreation of a 1750s porter which contains coriander, with some subtle flavours which makes me wondering what other quality beers they were drinking in the eighteenth century. The pub doesn’t seem to be serving food at the moment, although that might be something that changes in the coming months.

The bar serves two rooms and as can be seen on the floor in the bottom left of the photo, there was once a divider to separate the room out. The service here was personable and engaging, I’d suggest that it was the most friendly and conversational of the day. I asked the server if there was a cellar in the building, but he said that it had been blocked and they now had a ground floor cellar for the beer.

This is the fireplace that we were sitting next to. Although the brickwork is from the 1930s the fireplace surround is much older. There’s a door next to the fireplace which is rumoured to lead to a tunnel which led to Wymondham Abbey, something I must admit to not believing ever existed and certainly doesn’t here as it’s a cupboard.

The pub’s front room which was for a long period used as a shop.

The Liberator Lounge and there’s more information about the military links with the Green Dragon at https://www.wymondhammagazine.co.uk/news/special-gala-day-for-389th-bomb-group.

It notes not to graffiti the bench.

The bench, where I think former servicemen have signed when they were stationed here. As some heritage, here’s what it looked like in 1933 when George Plunkett photographed it.

I very much liked this pub, the welcome was friendly, it was clean and I enjoyed the beer. It was very quiet when we visited, but it was on a Thursday afternoon and I suspect that some people aren’t aware that the pub has now re-opened. Its lost its place in the Good Beer Guide, but the pub has an excellent long-term reputation and things feel like they’re getting better again so perhaps it’s just a matter of time before they’re back.

The fourth pub we visited in our day trip to Wymondham was the White Hart, which I’ve visited before during the partial lockdown. Although the frontage is eighteenth century, this former coaching inn dates from the early seventeenth century and the set-up internally shows some of the original elements, there are photos in my previous post. For reasons that entirely pass me by, someone thought that a better name for the venue would be the Heart of Wymondham, but fortunately wiser heads have prevailed and the historic name has returned.

The pub was used as a temporary Post Office between 2020 and 2023, with a new set-up now in operation at Jarrolds.

The main bar area, all very clean and organised.

There were sixteen real ales available and after I expressed surprise about this I was told by the helpful staff member that there’s a beer festival taking place this weekend. The selection was excellent with a range of mostly local beers, I was suitably surprised and delighted. It appears that even outside of these beer festivals that there is a decent selection of real ales, with the environment being welcoming and inviting.

I went for the Strangers No More which is a collaboration between Grain Brewery and Braxatorium Parcensis. This very agreeable and well-kept brown beer had a depth of flavour and is one of the four beers brewed as part of the Norwich City of Ale.

The pub’s former Masonic room which dates to the eighteenth century. I waited for what I think was the pub dog to get off the seating before I took the photo, a situation I’m never sure is ideal from a customer perspective but there we go. It’s a delight to have a drink in such a grand room, it adds character to the proceedings.

The pub does offer food, although the service times for this are a little confused as the pub’s web-site has two entirely different service times on the same page. From what I can work out, they serve meals at lunch-time and in the evenings, with the pub no longer offering all-day dining. The food is well reviewed and they have classic pub meals alongside separate menus for burgers and pizzas.

The beer selection here was the best that we found in the day day because of the festival that is taking place this weekend, but Whatpub suggests that there are usually eight real ales and so it’s likely this always has the widest range of beer options in Wymondham. Everything seemed clean and organised, this was a well managed pub and I hope their beer festival goes well and that they have plenty more in the future.

The Cross Keys, visible at the left of this photo showing the incoming rain, was the third of the pubs that we visited on our study tour of Wymondham.

The pub has been used as a hospitality venue since the end of the eighteenth century and there are numerous areas which have that historic feel. The building itself is older and dates to the sixteenth century. Until relatively recently the venue offered bed and breakfast, but there isn’t an accommodation option at the pub today and the food service also seems to have come to an end. The furnishings were comfortable, although Julian pondered why numerous seats had wet patches and stains, but it’s probably best not to know.

They’ve got a gaming area in one section of the pub. This isn’t part of the original venue, they extended into this section in 1961.

Decorative bottles in the wall.

There were four different real ales available, but the JHB that I went for wasn’t in the best of conditions but was still drinkable. Julian, who is typically more direct in these matters, noted that he thought it was “a bit soupy with notes of cellar imperfection”.

Trying to use my language carefully, this pub had the most vibrant of customers we encountered on our day out, which is quite an impressive achievement in the early afternoon. I’d suggest that the excitement of the customers does make this a venue that children or the easily upset might best be kept away from, although it never felt threatening. As a positive, it does mean that the pub has character and an element of liveliness to it. Indeed, Julian in particular rather enjoys it when it all becomes too excitable, especially if he doesn’t have to witness it for a prolonged period.

The local press reported in the 1970s that the new landlords of the pub, Eddie and Anne Nelson, were keen to ensure that there was “no disco and no noise”. He added that he wanted a pub where customers could “relax and enjoy themselves” and planned to introduce a menu offering “a fine selection of grills”.  Today, the venue seems to be focusing on live music and there are plenty of positive reviews about that. The service was personable with a prompt welcome and a friendly farewell, so it all felt suitably inviting. I’m not sure that it pretends to be a venue that is suitable for those who want a quiet drink, it’s a lively pub which aims to be informal and welcoming, something that it is doing well.

Second of the day in our pub study tour was the Queen’s Head, a venue that I visited last December with friends for food. It was all rather pleasant, although not particularly cheap, with efficient service and decent food. The building itself is historic, dating back to the early seventeenth century after the previous one was destroyed by fire. In the nineteenth century it was taken over by the Diss Brewery, then became part of Lacons and then in turn it was purchased by Whitbread.

It was noted in the local press in May 1982 that Whitbread had overseen an extensive renovation with Roger and Pat Fitton being the licencees. They were proudly noting that they sold a real ale at this stage, a beer from the Thomas Wethered brewery. At that point they had already been operating the pub for six years, having managed a pub in Suffolk and then before that Roger had been in the Royal Navy for 22 years and Pat was a former Wren. Unfortunately Roger died a couple of years later, although Pat kept the pub until 1986.

There was one real ale available, the Ghost Ship from Adnams which was well kept and tasted as expected. The beer selection is generally weak, there’s the slightly less generic keg option of Beavertown Neck Oil, but otherwise it’s one of the poorest selections in Wymondham.

It’s a food-led pub, but they make drinkers welcome and there are some seats at the bar for when the tables are filled with diners. The service was friendly and the atmosphere in the pub is inviting and laid-back. Everything was clean, so it felt comfortable and organised.

There’s another story relating to John Pearson, the son of this venue’s landlord, George Pearson (although he had left the pub by the time of the incident).  John Pearson was found dead in a straw stack in 1907 and it was thought that he had been poisoned. John had apparently done a few things he shouldn’t have been doing with the accounting of the Forehoe Guardians, but matters had been resolved and he was given his job back after the suitable apologies. John continued with problems relating to mental health relating to the incident and the jury at his inquest found that he had “committed suicide by poisoning himself with carbolic acid while temporarily insane”. I mention this as mental health problems were not rare at the time, but the media sometimes reported them in a slightly careless manner shall we say. At least with John Pearson, the local media made clear about the work that he had done in the community and noted how much he would be missed.

The on-line reviews for the pub are very positive and for food, I’d suggest that this is one of the better options in Wymondham. We would have considered eating here, but we arrived just as they stopped the lunchtime food service, so we had to make other plans for that. For those just wanting a beer, I wouldn’t say that it’s unwelcoming or a bad choice, but it’s not really aiming at that market in terms of the breadth of beer options. Those wanting wine and other decadent drinks might find the choices more exciting, but whatever customers go in for, this is a well-run venue and I rather enjoyed it.

The first pub in our study tour was the Greene King operated Robert Kett, which is the only one of the venues that we visited that’s a bit of a walk outside of the centre of Wymondham. It’s part of the Meet & Eat concept that Greene King have, something which worked when we saw it in action at the Gemini in Dereham. The pub opened in 1974, although the roof had to be replaced in 1999 when the roof caught fire and was destroyed.

The pub is name after Robert Kett who was a prominent figure in 16th-century English history, known for his leadership during what became known as the Kett’s Rebellion in Norfolk. Born in the town, Kett was a local farmer who rallied locals against what he considered the oppressive enclosure of common lands by wealthy landowners. In 1549, Kett led a rebellion that saw thousands of rebels occupy Norwich and seize the city, which was seen as highly sub-optimal by the authorities. The authorities took back control and executed Kett, with his body hanging from Norwich Castle as a warning to others not to interfere with the arrangements of Government.

They serve food at lunchtimes and in the evenings, with a specials board visible by the door.

The main menu.

And the lunchtime menu. There were no other customers ordering food during our visit, but perhaps it’s more popular in the evenings. I imagine by the size of the menu that a fair chunk of this is brought in from food suppliers rather than anything being made in-house.

The only real ale option was the Tribute from St. Austell Brewery and it wasn’t short measured but the team member was concerned about the quality and asked me to try it. It was fine, although the serving style of not running some off first seemed brave as they likely went through over a pint trying to serve it. The service at the bar was friendly, there was a warm welcome and a polite farewell, with the environment always feeling inviting and comfortable.

It’s a sizeable building but it all looked well maintained and clean.

The on-line reviews are mostly positive and it seems a reliable option for those in the area who want food or drink. There’s a chain feel which means that I can’t imagine many people will come out here for a special visit, but there is a sizeable local population whom I’m sure it serves most admirably. It felt a welcoming venue, everything seemed organised and it was a perfectly positive start to the day.