Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

Monday : A Day-Trip to Sheringham and a Rail Fiasco

Before I start on today’s riveting blog post, I feel the need to comment on the road works currently taking place at the end of Riverside Road, near Norwich railway station. I very much approve, although they seem to have been doing them for ages, but my civil engineer friend Liam reassures me it is physically impossible to do these things any quicker. Well, something like that.

Anyway, it’s a very worthwhile project which will make things better for pedestrians and cyclists at what is currently an annoying junction. I imagine car drivers will be annoyed, but I’ll live with that since I don’t have a car. I’m slightly disappointed that the pavement at the rear of the above photo isn’t being widened, but the rest of the project seems very positive. In fairness to the county council, who are often quite car focused, they’re doing some really important work at making the city move pedestrian and cyclist friendly.

And a new pedestrian crossing between Old Library Wood and Norwich railway station which is now completed. When Stuart comes to Norwich for the LDWA NEC meeting, he will be able to use this exciting new crossing to get to his decadent accommodation on Riverside Road. I can almost sense his excitement already.

But today’s blog excitement (I accept once again that I’m setting the bar low here) was a quick trip to Sheringham and back. I hate getting the bloody bus, so paid a little extra for the train service. Here comes the Sheringham Thunderbolt into Norwich railway station.

The train was relatively busy, but I got a table for four so that my laptop and I could be comfortable. The service ran on time and I was pleased with the efficiency of the entire service, I was very pleased indeed that I didn’t have to get a bus.

Getting back from Sheringham was a different matter. To cut another of my long and meandering stories very short, Greater Anglia were hopeless in their announcements following a trackside fire which cut off North Norfolk from the city of Norwich. The rail planner said that services would operate to North Walsham, so I thought I’d go there by train and get a bus from there.

Services, it transpired, weren’t going to North Walsham and one train was still scheduled to operate which actually clearly wasn’t. I contacted Greater Anglia to ask them what they thought the 50 or so passengers at Sheringham should do, although I knew the only option at this point was to get the Sanders bus. Greater Anglia responded quickly and wrongly, telling me to get the rail replacement bus. Really what they meant here was get any random bus I could find, something they’d failed to tell the people in Sheringham and Cromer (and probably elsewhere) who waited patiently for a replacement bus service to come to the railway station.

I got the Sanders bus since there were no rail replacement buses in operation. There was confusion as to what people should be doing (not least because the information from Greater Anglia wasn’t just lacking, it was wrong), but the bus driver was helpful and didn’t need to see my rail ticket, he was aware of the situation. Anyway, I mentioned to Greater Anglia (who I’m sure think I’m an idiot) that they still had a service showing as departing from Sheringham, marked as delayed, which people were waiting for. To their credit, they responded immediately and said they’d get that fixed, which they did within a few minutes. This pleased me, I didn’t have to feel guilty about the fate of the people patiently waiting at the railway station.

On the bright side, full credit to Greater Anglia who must have an automated process for Delay Repay, as my ticket was refunded in full within 15 seconds of my applying for it. Not that I want to make this blog sound like a series of incidents that I feel the need to complain about, although that’s sometimes the direction of travel it seems, I’d say that anyone visiting Sheringham (and especially one not speaking English) would have found it very challenging to know what to do in this situation. No staff on site, incorrect information on Greater Anglia’s web-site and on Twitter, this is why stations like this really need to be staffed. To be fair, a staffed station at Sheringham would be challenging as there isn’t a station to manage (the old station is now operated by North Norfolk Railway for heritage purposes), but maybe one day. But, that’s enough moaning for today I’ve decided. And, as a spoiler for the next few blog posts (since I’m writing these two weeks after), I haven’t got anything else to complain about for ages.

Here’s a photo of Jarrold’s Mill that I took after my walk back home (which is a much longer walk than when I get the train, but I won’t dwell on that) to end on a positive note.

June 20, 2022
Saturday : Still In Wales (Paddle Boarding and Drive to Daventry via Wolverhampton Cosmo)

As if the morning’s bravery zip-lining wasn’t enough, we had decided to go paddle boarding as we hadn’t done that before. I’m not very good at balancing, unless it’s in pubs where I’m world class, but I was already astounded at my own bravery so far in the day.

The walk to the paddle boarding place, which also hires out kayaks and canoes.

Mounting the paddle board, or whatever it’s called. This is effectively white water rafting, but I only took photos of the flat bits. I left my phone and the like in the upmarket changing facilities (a container unit) of the paddle boarding place, so Liam took this photo. I was too nervous about dropping my new phone into the water on the rapids section of the canal.

After some interesting manoeuvres I managed to get Liam’s phone to take photos of myself, although I was concentrating very hard on not dropping his phone into the water. I did record numerous videos of Liam doing his paddle boarding thing, although if anyone wants to see these, they’ll have to contact him as they’re still on his phone and he doesn’t feel the need to have a blog droning on in excessive detail about what he’s been doing.

Liam at Resolven Lock, by the River Neath.

The lock on the Neath Canal.

I’m not sure that this equipment is much used now, navigation ceased in the 1930s, although sections of the route have been kept open.

I had an offer on the app so this McDonald’s was cheap and we only had a short time, otherwise we would have hunted down a decadent local restaurant. We had wanted to investigate some historical sites in the area, but our hotel was in Daventry, where the prices were very reasonable, and we had a meal booked in Wolverhampton.

We did have time to pop into Aberdare and this is the war memorial, unveiled in 1922. It also has the details of Lance Corporal Phillip Anthony Sweet, who died in the Falklands War forty years ago.

The magic of Aberdare.

This stone commemorates the life of James James (Iago ap Ieuan) who composed the Welsh National Anthem and is buried in a nearby cemetery.

St. Elvan’s Church, which was constructed in 1852.

Ticking off another JD Wetherspoon, who have a relatively large number of outlets in these former mining towns, this is Yr Ieuan Ap Iago. The pub’s history on their web-site mentions the stone I wrote about earlier:

“Virtually outside the JDW premises is a memorial stone commemorating James James or Iago ap Ieuan, who composed the national anthem of Wales. The five-feet-high memorial stone was mined at a quarry just north of Aberdare. The commemorative plaque set into the stone is of north Wales slate. James moved to the Cynon Valley (which includes Aberdare) in 1873 and spent his last years in Abedare itself. He was buried in Aberdare Cemetery in 1902.”

The building was used as a Post Office before JD Wetherspoon took it over.

It’s easy to sneer at Wetherspoons, but having visited over 400 of their outlets, I’ve seen a lot of very good practice alongside some hard working staff. And my usual caveat of that it’s important to visit great independent pubs, as often seen in the Good Beer Guide, although I’ll add that this pub is listed in it as well. Trying to be as a polite as I can, understanding these are challenging times for pubs, this venue was a bloody disgrace though by any standards and just a little bit of an affront to hospitality, by far the worst Wetherspoons that I’ve visited. Surfaces were sticky, there was litter ground into the floor, there was food debris in random places and every table had empty glasses and plates on. The pub is towards the lower end of JD Wetherspoons on Google Reviews (the lowest rated in Wales and one of the lowest that I could find in the UK) which doesn’t really surprise me. Hopefully the pub didn’t get caught out on one of the company’s CQSMA inspections, although I imagine it’s had its moments in the past.

The app suggested the wait time on food was eight minutes, but it was clearly longer than that, with our drinks having not arrived after 35 minutes. I went to recover them at the bar as they were clearly not going to be delivered any time soon, with Liam’s soft drink having a glass with ice that had nearly entirely melted and my pint was substantially short measured. The staff were helpful and friendly, topping up the pint, but they were so short staffed that the manager probably should have suspended service for a short while as they couldn’t cope, especially as they had customers coming and leaving straight away anyway. The staff were also trying to deal with a number of complaints from customers, so I wasn’t entirely sure they were making much progress with the backlog given the issues they were trying to deal with.

I wondered at first why the staff weren’t collecting glasses when they walked back to the bar, but the hatch to the kitchen was already at capacity so it’s not clear where they would have put them. On the bright side, my Moose River from Hop Union Brewery was well-kept and suitably refreshing. As an aside, it could be asked why we stayed in a venue that was clearly bloody dreadful. I have to admit that the pub did have the advantage of having power points so that I could charge my phone up (unlike McDonald’s where I had hoped they might have charging facilities), so I have to give them credit for that and that’s why we stayed.

Going back to the pub reviews, one customer noted:

“The staff here really do work hard. Most of these reviews are probably from some very entitled people”

They might do, and indeed they did seem to be doing their best when we were there, but I note this review from two weeks ago:

“Slave treatment of the poor staff. Skeleton crew run ragged. No wonder hospitality industry can’t hire staff. Dirty tables uncleared of plates. Blame lies firmly with the employer NOT the staff”

Which is more in line with our experience.

“Usual dire service and did not like the look of the food being served so went elsewhere after using the WiFi”

That sounds like me using their electricity….. Not a bad idea to be fair.

“Food was acceptable but it was dirty, tables full of dirty dishes, no interest in cleaning away and wiping down these tables. The whole place needs a good clean up, everything looks grubby and shabby. I realise the drinks are cheap but not everyone goes there to just drink. When I go out for a meal I want things to be at least clean, at best light and cheerful. I haven’t been there for about 2 years because of the state of the place, I won’t be going again.”

This is from a year ago and there are tens of these reviews, not really ideal.

Anyway, enough negativity, I can’t copy and paste reviews for ages about cleanliness of a pub in Wales that I’m unlikely to ever go to again. I’ll be positive by saying the staff did seem to be doing their best.

Music is clearly important to the community, this is a statue of the composer Griffith Rhys Jones.

What was once clearly a rather lovely building, the old court rooms.

I had hoped for a delicious salad bar for our evening meal, but Liam was adamant he wanted to go to Cosmo in Wolverhampton, so I agreed. It was a bit of a drive, but I’m sure I entertained Liam for several hours with my entertaining conversation. Oh, and a song about Kettering that I’ve modified slightly.

The delights of the food selection at Cosmo. Without going on for too long, this was the best in the chain that I’ve been to, with everything clean, efficient and well managed. I had booked a table the night before (as in that’s when I had made the booking, not when I had booked the meal for), which was essential, and they had our booking and got us in ten minutes early. The food was kept well stocked, the quality was high and the range of curries was particularly decent. It’s inevitably pile it high in its design, but I liked that they had a wide range of food and it met my expectations in terms of the taste, temperature and presentation. Indeed, looking at the photos, it’s making my hungry again.

There are the usual refillable soft drinks as well and I went through far too many fizzy Vimtos, but they’re not often available and I’m easily pleased at the best of times. The portion sizes that the restaurant let me get were a little excessive, but it’s fair to say that I left not feeling hungry, and Liam seemed equally satisfied with the volume of food as well. Despite it being busy, the restaurant had plenty of food counters and I was rather pleased that Liam had picked such an excellent choice of place to go to. I need more friends who will take me on road trips and to all you can eat restaurants 🙂

And, after about another hour of driving, into the Mercure in Daventry, who had pre-annoyed me by ignoring my emails asking what time I could check-in at (which is really me checking they won’t oversell the room) and whether the bar was still open. 90% of Accor hotels seem to respond within an hour, some within minutes, so I wasn’t overly impressed as unlike Liam I do get worried about rooms being oversold. We got our free welcome drinks (which they forgot about unlike I helpfully reminded them) that I’m not sure we needed after such a long and brave day of zip-lining, but the Camden Pale Ale tasted as it should. There was a wedding going on at the hotel, but it didn’t give us any noise issues and the hotel pricing was very reasonable, so no complaints there.

Anyway, that was the end of a long day, and I don’t need to mention the bravery we showed (particularly me) as I may have happened upon that subject a few times already. And sorry to Stuart that there wasn’t likely as much coverage of Wales as he would have ideally liked.

June 19, 2022
Sunday : Returning from Daventry via St. Neots

Leaving the Mercure in Daventry, which had provided us with a quiet and restful night after the bravery of the previous day. Wetherspoons makes another appearance here, we (technically Liam did most of this) drove to St. Neots to visit the Weeping Ash, which means that I’ve now visited every one of the chain’s outlets in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. Getting to these pubs is often quite challenging for me on public transport and Liam provides an excellent chauffeur for such adventures, I think I will use his car driving services again.

Safely arriving into St Neots, a war memorial at Tan Yard, a road named after a tanning yard where cattle hides were made into leather.

This piece of land was used as a baptist church, since demolished but some of the graves remain. They’ve made a nice little park area from the site, but it feels sad that the church has been lost, it would have been so important to many people in the nineteenth century.

The pub we had come to see, the Weeping Ash. Pinching the text from the company’s web-site about the pub’s history:

“This former post office stands on part of what was once a much-admired Victorian garden belonging to the house across the road – the home of William Medland, an important man in St Neots. Bank manager and town commissioner, Medland died in 1872 in his late 60s. His widow lived in the house until the 1890s, when it was bought for the Conservative Club, which is still there. Medland’s garden was well known for its many fine trees and shrubs, particularly for its ‘magnificent weeping ash’.”

I have no complaints about the pub, it was clean, well managed and sizeable. The reviews on-line are a little less impressive, with the usual sneering type:

“It’s full of lads in white trainers and white socks that are really excited but have no idea what their excited about and badly dressed girls”

Fortunately, we didn’t have white trainers or white socks to avoid clearly offending this customer.

“They gave me a empty coffee cup without saying I needed to go and fill it up myself like I’m supposed to know this”

I do see this occasionally, often when the empty coffee cup is traipsed half way across the pub by a staff member, and then the confused customer has to traipse the same distance back to get their drink.

I find simple things entertaining, so was very excited to see a new type of coffee machine at a JD Wetherspoons. Now, I accept that I should get out more rather than spend time writing drivel like this, but it pleased me. For £1.20 for unlimited hot drinks, a complete bargain as far as I’m concerned.

It was a little early, but I did get a quick half with my hot drink, just so I could comment on the beer quality. I’m very dedicated to ensuring beer quality, but I do it for very selfless reasons of course. I went for the Jemima’s Pitchfork from the Glamorgan Brewing Co, a not particularly interesting beer, but at least well-kept.

The very keenly priced avocado muffin, my new go to breakfast option since the recent price hikes on the traditional breakfast.

And that is pretty much that, a really fun weekend and I won’t mention my bravery on the zip-lining again as I mentioned it once yesterday. Road trips with exciting things like craft beer (or just beer), adventure and Greggs are one of my favourite things, a rare event as I’m nearly always on public transport which is of course also exciting, but a change is good for the soul.

Thanks to Liam for marvellous company and I’m already looking forward to the next one (although I’m not sure my one or two blog readers can cope with even more bravery comments, but there we go…..). Although I might make him get Untappd for the next trip.

June 19, 2022
Saturday : Arriving Into Wales (Zip-Lining Bravery)

Breakfast on the bright and sunny Saturday was a delicious chicken bake from Greggs. I didn’t want to eat too much as we were bravely going zip-lining later on in the morning, which I had been dreading for the previous two weeks.

We had an hour to spare before the bravery of the zip-lining, so we popped into Merthyr Tydfil to have a look at the hi-vis clothing market. Stuart from the LDWA has been muttering about when will there be content about Wales. Well, here it is. Soak up this Welsh blog content.

St. David’s which was constructed in 1847 for the increasing size of the English congregation arriving into the town, with St Tydfil’s catering for the Welsh speaking locals. The latter has shut now, so everyone is in this church.

A statue of local man Seymour Berry, 1st Baron Buckland (1877-1928), in front of the town’s library.

Y Dic Penderyn, the town’s JD Wetherspoons. We popped in to use the facilities and weren’t tempted to stay for various reasons, mainly because I was worried about being ill on this bloody zip-lining that was careering towards us (in terms of time, not literally).

I thought that there would be a fascinating back story to this interestingly named street, but it seems that it was named after a nearby Chinese launderette. Very cultured.

Some random signs about the town’s history, I assume to try and liven up Hong Kong Alley.

The town could have been rightly proud of the former station building that was here, constructed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The sign here notes that it was designed to be like Paddington railway station in London, so this would have been a marvellous building to keep. Instead, the locals ordered it to be demolished and replaced with a Tesco. The railway still serves the town, but what a huge loss of a decent station building. Anyway, entirely underwhelmed with the heritage in the town, although impressed by the hi-vis jackets market, it was time to make the last bit of the driving (specifically Liam doing the driving, I sat there doing the worrying) before the zip-lining.

We arrived. I was pre-annoyed about the whole arrangement and blamed Liam for this being his idea. Technically it was my idea, but he had agreed to it, so that’s the same thing.

The check-in process, I was too concerned with the situation to concentrate on this. They do weigh you to ensure you’re within the weight limits, which I was pleased to note that we were. Although secretly I had hoped I had put on weight so that I didn’t have to do it. Everyone was very friendly and things seemed calm, with no ambulances on site or anything.

Liam was more excited than I was. I commented that perhaps we should go and find a pub if he was scared. He said he wasn’t.

Before we went for our go, we had a quick look at what to expect. This is the end of the zip-lining and this didn’t fill me with confidence as it looked quite fast.

This didn’t entirely help reassure me about the arrangements either if I’m being honest.

Watching the other victims coming down.

And here there’s a gap in proceedings, as we then went to get kitted up in the heap of equipment needed to do this zip-lining thing. It’s expensive, at £50 per person, but I had some vouchers that I was given that I wanted to use up, so it felt that it was free to me. There are plenty of staff around the place, which was reassuring I suppose, although I was surprised to see the number of people willing to pay this £50 each. I’m not sure that I would have been paying that personally for this ordeal.

There’s not much that we needed to be told by the team members, other than to enjoy the experience, which I didn’t plan to if I’m being honest. We were put into harnesses, as this is the fastest seated zip-line in the world or something, and then given a helmet and goggles. We then shuffled to the van and were driven up the big mountain to the top.

So, we were driven to where it says Zip World Top on the map and there are two zip-lines to go on, the first goes over the lake, then there’s a short walk before going down the second one. I was able to manoeuvre Liam and I near to the front of the queue for our session, although we were still waiting for the group in the previous time slot to finish. I suspect we were waiting there for around ten minutes in line, with the tension increasing as we shuffled nearer to the front. Liam mentioned he was just very slightly scared, but since nothing stresses, worries or frightens him, I doubted he was particularly on edge and I think that was his attempt at being reassuring. I ignored it.

I was waiting for my fear of heights to kick in, but I was reassured that the top of the zip-line platform is not on a sheer edge. That means if it were all to break and I fell off the zip-line straight away, I’ll fall about two metres, which seemed manageable, if not ideal. It’s the waiting for the things that’s the worst, but I was pleased that my fear of heights actually never kicked in, so I was unusually unstressed by the arrangements. I mentioned to one or two people (perhaps twelve) about how brave I was being.

Four people go down the zip-line at once in a line, so you can race if you want. I had no interest in racing, I was focused on surviving. There was a group of three younger women in front of us, one of whom was looking for someone to blame, so I felt a bond with her. I mentioned to the guy in charge that Liam and I wanted to go down together, so they set the three women off and there was lots of screaming. Not ideal.

Then it was our turn, two sisters, as well as Liam and myself. I moved Liam from the end position of the four as I felt the need for protection by being on the edge, so I was at the right-hand side. I did query with the guy about why was I wearing a helmet if this zip-lining was safe, and he couldn’t answer that to my satisfaction. He also confirmed that there had been no bird strikes of riders recently although he said he could find a gun for me to shoot them with if that would help. I checked on numerous other elements of the safety arrangements and they confirmed no-one had ever plummeted to their death. I ignored the “there’s always a first time” comment.

I had thought there was some sort of seat that you, well, sat in. But, it was all part of the harness arrangement I had been trudging up the mountain with me, so they just get you to sit back and put your legs up. After I queried six times that I wasn’t sure I was that versatile or flexible, we were all set.

There’s a board which is moved across which means that you can actually then go if you move your feet off the wall, but just as that happened, one of the sisters panicked and said she didn’t want to do it. They tried quickly to get her to change her mind, but they didn’t push that and just unhooked her as the board was moved back again to protect us from accidentally going. Liam reassured me that he didn’t think she could hear my safety questioning of the team members, so I didn’t put her off. She had though been evidently nervous before, so it wasn’t entirely surprising that she backed out.

And with that, I didn’t have much choice other than to be brave and think of Poland. It was actually all rather exciting, I never did get a fear of heights, as it was more like being in an aircraft (although more Ryanair than British Airways) and there was no fear of falling. Liam was trying to race down as he’s like that, but I quite enjoyed just being in the air. The guy had mentioned to tuck your legs under you if you started to sway and that trick worked for me.

We got to the bottom of the first zip-line and I was very excited at how brave I’d been. Liam had nearly gone through the two brakes of the safety system as he’s always enthusiastic like that, but my landing was more sedate. I then charged up the tower for the second zip-line, forgetting I’m scared of heights, and told the group in front how brave I’d been. They were equally impressed with their bravery, but I thought I just had the edge if I’m honest, although I didn’t say anything. The younger woman remaining from our group was disappointed that her sister had backed out, she thought that she would have enjoyed it. And I think that’s almost certainly the case.

The second zip-line was about the same speed and Liam nearly went flying through the braking system again, but he spent half of his journey down doing some odd acrobatics to show how agile he was. I just remained in the seating position they recommended, I don’t feel the need to be overly adventurous. Safely unclipped, I looked back up the mountain and commented to myself, and several people passing by, about my bravery. The mother of the two girls arrived and didn’t seem thrilled that she had spent £50 for one of her daughters to be driven to the top of a hill and driven back down again, but there we go….

No, this isn’t a SAS recruitment poster, that’s me after my very brave zip-lining experience. I did think about phoning (well, e-mailing, I’m obviously not going to phone people) the SAS (the military people, not the airline) to see if they needed any new applicants or even trainers, but I couldn’t find on the Ministry of Defence web-site a craft beer menu from the military bar and that would be a deal-breaker for me.

The expedition ended with a packet of crisps each from the cafe and I mentioned to Liam just how brave I’d been. I would do all of this again and there are a number of sites in Wales where this company operates from. There’s one where you lie down which seems quite exciting, but I might come back to that in the future. Liam spent the next fifteen minutes on his phone planning dates in the future when he could take his children down the zip-line, but that’s because he was primarily excited about doing it all again himself. I would say though that Liam was an ideal person to do this with, he’s good company and doesn’t panic about things, which is very handy in these near-death situations.

As if this adventure wasn’t enough though, it was then time to go paddle-boarding….

June 18, 2022
Friday : Off To Wales (Part Three – Gloucester and Beer)

In part three of this riveting series of posts, Liam and I have managed now to navigate our way around various Greggs across the country, have faffed about at a National Trust property and have now arrived in Gloucester. I admit, the Wales element of this trip is still a little way off in writing terms, but I’ve called it that as I was very brave in Wales and that’s how I want the weekend remembered.

We got to Gloucester and Liam mentioned that we had managed to park on Cromwell Street, which is perhaps best known for being where the crimes of Fred and Rosemary West took place. I hadn’t realised that this was in the centre of the city, I had just assumed it was in some obscure outlying area.

I’m not normally into dark tourism, but this is where the property was, now demolished and replaced with a small green area and a widened road. It’s odd to think of the crimes committed there, but there was no point dwelling on that as I’m sure the city has wanted to move on from this for some time.

We walked into the town centre and this is the signage relating to the East Gate.

And there are the remnants of the structure. These defences to protect the city were built by the Romans soon after they had established Gloucester as a settlement in AD 68. A thirteenth century tower was placed on top and the structures have been much changed, but some Roman remains are still there nearly two thousand years on.

A quick walk across the main square, or at least, a big square.

We were trying to kill an hour before moving the car to the hotel’s car park, as it was much cheaper after a certain time. As we were visiting the decadent pubs in city later on, we popped to the Wetherspoons outlet, the Regal, for a quick drink.

The interior of the pub and I did feel watched throughout by someone.

But I was too busy with my 50p Mini Cheddars to worry about people looking at me, whilst Liam had rather more decadent crisps. The beer is half a pint of Wychert from the Vale Brewery Co which was well-kept and slightly under-poured. I thought that I’d better have a quick look at the pub’s reviews, a little towards the bottom end of JD Wetherspoons outlets.

“This Wetherspoons has recently started offering Pizza on the menu. We have tried them a couple of times and they were delicious. However, today we ordered them expecting the same quality,but they were disgusting. There was virtually no topping on them, they were not even the correct shape! I complained about it, and I was given another one, which was much the same as the other one, but with dollops of cheese here and there. Needless to say, we will not be ordering a Pizza again.”

I don’t disagree with this review, as JD Wetherspoon pizzas are in my view cheap rubbish that would be best lifted off the menu, but obviously enough people like them. Anyway, there are two cultural references here that I liked, the dollops reminding me of Friday Night Dinner and the needless to say bit reminding me of Alan Partridge.

“Was served a pint in a badly chipped glass. When I complained I was told that they could not replace the drink as I had consumed some. The best they could do was tip the drink into a fresh glass. Very poor”

Always tricky, pubs usually do pour it into a new glass instead from my experience. This review could have done with photos so I could assess the badly chipped glass.

“Ladies toilets smell horrible and a notice on the door to warn of male workman being in there would of been helpful”

I wonder if there’s more a back story to this one.

“Got charged for a drinks mixer I didn’t order when brought my complaints to the manager nothing was resolved. In short this experience has turned me against pubs, first time going to one since lockdown ended & also Last time I will make that mistake, #StayHomeStaySafe #boycott #ItsMoreFunToDrinkAtHome”

It isn’t more fun to drink at home, so I ignored this review (beyond carefully reading it, copying it and commenting on it).

“The waitress brought out a plate with a very small jacket potato and a small chicken breast on it, the presentation was disgusting. We had to ask for a side salad for my friend. They could of at least put some peas, sweet corn or carrots on the plate with it to make it look appetising.”

Presentation of a meal is disgusting because there are no vegetables?

“salad was NOT fresh when spoke to manager about the salad she told me thats how it comes its pre cut and if they would make fresh salad no one would get food as they would spend all day cutting it”

Spend all day cutting it, that’s a classy comment I think, they should have given the manager some praise for that.

“This is honestly the most disgusting place I’ve ever been”

Some people need to get out more.

“Asked if EURO2020 could be put on the TV instead of the news which no-one was watching, but was told ‘no, we don’t do football here’”

And that’s a 5/5 from me. But that’s enough reading of reviews, I have a blog to write.

When I booked the hotels for this weekend several weeks before the event, the prices were high across Wales and England, the cheaper rates of the last two years have certainly gone away. I don’t know why the Travelodge in Gloucester was relatively cheap, but I picked it because I hadn’t been to the city recently, it was a short walk from the centre and there were nearby pubs.

I went to check-in whilst Liam parked the car, taking advantage of the cheap rate of £2 overnight. I had to wait a few minutes as the staff member was being ill outside, but the staff were so friendly that I felt entirely welcome. Travelodge might have some problems, but they do recruit some excellent staff, although whether or not they should have someone so ill behind the counter is a different point. But they gave me a heap of coffees on request and the booking was all as I expected.

There are two centres to Gloucester, or in leisure and hospitality terms anyway. There’s the Quays area and then the city centre, around a twenty minute or so walk between the two. We started in the Quays area as that’s where the hotel was located.

We weren’t entirely sure where to go for food, but I’ve been to some other outlets of Brewhouse so we thought we’d try there as they haven’t annoyed me in the past.

It’s not the best craft beer around, but it’s credible enough for my liking. The staff member at the door was helpful, saying that they were at near capacity, but she then worked out that a table would be available for us in around twenty minutes. I appreciated the helpfulness as they certainly were busy, and I decided I would ideally stay here for food.

There was some standing at the bar for around twenty minutes waiting for a table, but they kept us informed.

The beer choice. I work through the list in my mind, thinking about the beer styles, cross referencing them to Untappd and then having a final think about what I want. Liam decides which beer name he likes the best on that particular day. He doesn’t even have Untappd. I had two beers, the Unite Celebration, a creditable sour, and the Jamaic Ann Oatmeal Stout, which was a little lacking in depth of taste and mouthfeel.

They brew some beers here themselves, including the two that I had.

I liked the lighting. I had a lot of time to take photos of the decor as the food took over 40 minutes to be served, but to be fair, they had said they were busy and I was just pleased that we were getting food at all.

I went for the half beer can chicken, which seems to be what they shove the poor bird on to keep it tender and moist (after it’s already dead I’d add). I didn’t know what corn ribs were, but they’re essentially just bits of corn cut to make them easier to eat, which I appreciated as corn is unnecessarily fiddly. I thought that this was all very delicious, plenty of meat, the sauce had some flavour to it and everything was at the appropriate hot temperature. Liam had some pie and I don’t recall him complaining about it, so all was well and I think we were entirely satisfied with our choice of restaurant.

Next was TANK, an odd place which was poorly laid out with one clearly competent staff member and some less aware colleagues. I know this not only through my own observations, but because the competent staff member mentioned it as well. It’s listed in the Good Beer Guide as it has some cask options, but their keg selection was more exciting in my view.

I went for the Dockside Dark from Gloucester Brewery, who operate this venue as a sort of taproom, and this beer is available on cask and keg, although I went for the latter. It was OK, not rich enough for my liking though, but still very drinkable. They didn’t have any tables available when we got there, although we moved inside soon enough and I noted quietly to myself the staff could do with cleaning the place. But, I mustn’t complain.

The docks at night.

Between the docks and the city centre is this sculpture which didn’t offend me, but which was voted as one of the worst in the UK a few years ago.

We then decided we’d better make the walk into the city centre and we went to the Good Beer Guide listed Pelican Inn, which was delightful in every way. The menus were on Untappd and it had that community feel to its arrangements. I think the service was a bit lacking in enthusiasm, but Liam got this round and so I can’t comment much more about that. He doesn’t ask interesting beer questions of staff though, he’s too busy seeing which beer has got the name he likes the best.

I’ve just realised that Stuart from the LDWA, who does have Untappd (unlike Liam) as I got him into that, had been to this pub. Another handy feature of Untappd is that I know that, although it’s not clear what I can do with that information. This happens a lot with Nathan, who seems to have been to every pub in the UK. I went for the Wholesome Stout from Wye Valley Brewery, which was excellent, rich, full-bodied and, well, wholesome. It’s always a delight to see Untappd screens, not least so I can look at little pictures of myself at the bottom of the screen and remind myself I need to change my profile photo on the app.

A decorated postbox. I’d never have the patience to do this and I would be highly annoyed if I had spent hours on it and then someone pinched it.

Gloucester, including some photos of the Cathedral, at night and some of these came out better than others. I’m still playing about with my new phone to get photos look as I want them.

We thought we’d have one final drink when we were back at the Quays, ticking off the JD Wetherspoon outlet which has the intriguing name of the Lord High Constable of England. Below is the history of the pub name that I pinched from the pub’s web-site:

“This building stands on the east side of the docks, between Llanthony Warehouse (now Gloucester Waterways Museum) and Llanthony Road, where it crosses Llanthony Bridge. The name ‘Llanthony’ is taken from the now-ruined medieval priory on the west bank. Llanthony Secunda Priory was established by Miles de Gloucester in 1136. Like his father and grandfather, Miles was High Sheriff of Gloucester and was also Lord High Constable of England.”

This pub is better rated on-line than their other pub in Gloucester that we had visited earlier in the day and I was surprised how busy it was. We got the only table that was still available and the atmosphere was calm and sort of welcoming despite the busy venue. It could have all been a little cleaner, but it was towards the end of a night and it was busy, so perhaps I’m being a little aspirational there given that it’s a Wetherspoons outlet.

“I and my partner apparently had a ‘complaint’ made against us for kissing in a booth, out of view and restrained”

There weren’t many reviews that caught my eye, although this one makes me wonder how they were out of view.

“I brought an alcoholic drink from bar without being asked to show my id and then later was asked to show my id to a higher member of staff witch by law you cant do that once you have been served”

I don’t think there is such a law…..

“I would give it a 0 if I could, the tables were disgusting, the management and staff were so rude and I wanted a refund and she refused to give it to me because they “already started making my food” which isnt allowed?since I work with food and if the customer wants a refund, its law tou have engine them one!”

What laws are the residents of Gloucester following?

I went for the Old Thumper from Ringwood Brewery which was OK and well-kept, but I wouldn’t write home about it (although evidently I popped my thoughts here).

A quick couple of photos from the Quays, before it was back to Travelodge ready for our day of bravery starting the next morning. A suitably busy day, evident that it’s taken me three blog posts to write up.

June 17, 2022
Friday : Off To Wales (Part Two – Hanbury Hall)

In the next riveting instalment of the expedition that Liam and I went on to Wales, we stopped off at Hanbury Hall, primarily to get value from my membership. Not that I would have paid to go in at £13 per person, or £14.30 if Gift Aided, but that’s a different matter.

The building seems well proportioned to my non-architecturally minded eye, looking rather beautiful in the sunny weather.

The entrance to the property, which has a date of 1701 visible above the door, but that’s a made up addition from the Victorian period. It was probably finished in 1706 and replaced Spernall Hall which was previously on this site.

Ooh, books. Not quite as decadent as the selection at Blickling Hall, but still plenty of interesting titles.

I can’t actually remember why I was taking photos of the bookshelves.

I’m not really into interior design and don’t subscribe to Homes and Gardens, but I liked this room, very peaceful.

I’m sort of pleased that the National Trust put up a sign about this painting, as it is more complex than it at first appears. It was painted in 1836 and is of Thomas and Harry Vernon, painted as girls to prevent them from being kidnapped and ransomed. I must admit I’m not entirely convinced by this, there were child abductions in the early nineteenth century, but documents such as https://www.jstor.org/stable/41999356 don’t suggest they were wealthy children being pinched. Indeed, I’m suspicious enough to suggest that the National Trust have made this up, as breeching is well documented and I’ve never seen kidnapping having been given as a reason.

Another view of the same room, it’s clear this was my favourite in the house. The National Trust took over the property in 1953 and after some work was done on the house, it was primarily rented out as private apartments. I’m sure that it must have been a grand place to live, but it has now been fully opened up to the public.

I was less interested in this room. But Liam and I were amused to hear a child complain that they were bored and wanted to leave, with the parents saying “there’s just a few more rooms left to look in”. The child had at that stage only been in two rooms, so I’m not sure that a future in historical properties is beckoning.

Liam in a room, the details of which I’ve forgotten.

They’ve gone to some effort with the staircase, with the painter being James Thornhill, in whose studio William Hogarth was a student.

I’m not convinced that this is entirely comfortable and it all feels a bit excessive, but each to their own.

There’s some work going on at the site at the moment with the construction of a new restaurant, with these being some of the artefacts (if you can call them that) that they’ve found. The National Trust have been keen to push on with the work as visitor numbers to the property have continued to rise, so the facilities need to be improved.

The engineering project going on, I think this was Liam’s favourite part of the visit.

The effort made to use bricks that will fit in.

They’re going to unblock this archway which seems like a good idea.

I’m always pleased to see a bit of Hogarth.

One final bedroom to visit before our tour of the house was complete. The volunteers were friendly and engaging during the visit, but they were kept busy as there was a constant flow of visitors. Unusually for a National Trust property, visitors could walk around the rooms in whatever order they wanted, there wasn’t a directional flow that had to be followed.

A rather pleasant view from the window of the bedroom. The gardens had been left to go to rack and ruin since the grand days when they were laid out by Capability Brown, but work started to restore them in the 1990s and they look suitably grand again now.

Another photo of the construction work and although it was Friday, there wasn’t much going on.

The National Trust are certainly spending some money on gardeners, everything is immaculate.

Less money has been spent on the window closing mechanism, which looks more like I’ve been put in charge of it.

Liam took the opportunity to get an ice cream.

And a little collection of photos of the gardens and the exterior of the house. It was pleasant to have a little meander around the house and gardens for an hour or so, although we were getting towards closing time and so we didn’t have much more time. It’s well reviewed on-line, with the majority of the grumbles seemingly being the cheap Christmas decorations they used a couple of years ago. I’m in agreement with those reviews, there’s no need for Christmas decorations when you have such a grand house to show off.

Properties like this are fortunate to survive, there was a period in the early twentieth century when so many of these glorious residential buildings were pulled down to avoid paying death duties. The owners of Hanbury Hall have had to sell their furniture on more than a couple of occasions, but the building itself has remained intact. One of those instances was in 1935 when Sir George Vernon refused to pay the tithe dues and his items of furniture was seized and sold by public auction at the hall. He was the President of Worcestershire Tithe Payers Associations and I’m sure he was pleased at the passing of the Tithe Act in the following year.

Anyway, it was all rather lovely to have a quick visit to the house, before we started on the drive to Gloucester (we do eventually get to Wales).

June 16, 2022
Tuesday : A Bright and Sunny Day in Lincoln Before the Downpour and Bar Billiards

These blog title posts aren’t exactly carefully crafted pieces of literary genius, but at least it gives some background to this photo, a bright morning in Lincoln. Everything felt quite relaxed and calm, holiday makers ready to walk up a big hill to see the cathedral, locals seeming to be unhurried on their way to work and it felt like it’d be a trouble-free sort of day with no rain in sight.

As can be seen, some people waited behind the barrier for the train to go through, whilst some energetic and go-getting people such as myself rushed up the steps to take this photo. Although then I realised that I wasn’t too go-getting when I had a little rest after galloping up the steps.

Back to Lincoln Library as I wanted to get some things done and there are strict rules about plugging things into the wall. A power breaker duly acquired, which I thought was a little excessive, but all was set for the morning.

Staff walked by this, but it offended my sense of the proper keeping of books, look at them all slanted about. On a tangent, I was quite excited to hear an argument between a member of the public and a staff member as there’s a limited amount of external drama for me to listen to in a library. Spending time in a JD Wetherspoon pub usually gives me exciting content to comment on.

Anyway, back to my story. The member of library staff told a polite man that he couldn’t print out old newspapers on library printers as it was a breach of copyright. This is complete nonsense and I was slightly tempted to get involved in this matter, but I thought I’d better not as it was genuinely nothing to do with me. She didn’t back down though, she told him that this had always been the policy of Lincoln library and that unless it had changed on her day off the previous week then nothing had changed. I liked the passive aggressive behaviour really of that comment, a slight element of sneering, although she seemed slightly wounded when the member of the public said that he had been doing this all of last week.

Almost excited by what she perceived to be the rule breaking of her fellow staff, she didn’t back down, but as she was so certain so was right, she announced she’d get another member of library staff to confirm the policy. Five minutes passed and I could almost sense the argument going on elsewhere in the library when she realised that she was wrong. She sheepishly, although still with some annoyance in her voice, came back and said that there had been a misunderstanding, which there hadn’t been as she was just wrong. She announced that the library would accept printing of newspapers on their printers and she was pleased that they had come to a resolution. To be fair, the resolution was that the member of the public did what he came in to do and would have already done so if she hadn’t interfered. But, she was getting ready to go and shout at another customer who was doing something else she perceived to be wrong at a library computer, so that matter passed.

I thought after all this excitement in the library (it’s relative this excitement thing) that I needed a little drink, so I went to the Witch and the Wardrobe. This is another pub where the pumps are blocked by customers seated in front of them, so I’m not entirely sure what the drinks options were.

Although since it’s a Marstons pub, I was hardly ever going to be excited by the beer options and the house beer from Ringwood Brewery was badly kept. The service was friendly, but the pub was neither clean not had decent beer, so this wasn’t ideal. The crisps were very acceptable though and this pub should be a licence to print money given its location. The pub isn’t particularly well reviewed on-line either, it’s an odd place, but I wouldn’t recommend going there for anyone who likes beer. It’s good for crisps though, go there and fill your boots with crisps, they’ve got that spot on.

Although primarily about designated drivers, I ensured I sent this to my friend Des.

A rather attractive view of the River Witham.

And looking the other way along the Witham.

St. Swithins Church, a Victorian church which isn’t currently open to the public.

I couldn’t put it off any longer, I then decided to climb the mountain, also known as Steep Hill. I pretended that I was Dave Morgan and started off striding up the hill. Three metres later I decided I was bored of pretending to be Dave Morgan and I ambled slowly up the mountain taking photos every thirty seconds or so.

Photos of the hill, evidence of my stopping every few seconds.

Top of the hill where I stopped to find somewhere to lie down. This area is known as Castle Hill and it’s a rather beautiful area, although I was distracted with the lack of oxygen being this high up.

Approaching the Cathedral.

Very slightly lop-sided. I didn’t go into the Cathedral as I was disappointed at the scale of the admission charges, which were £24 per adult including entry and going on the tours. This will have to remain one of the few cathedrals that I haven’t visited, there’s no need in my irrelevant view for entrance fees set at that level. I accept it’s marvellous for short-term financing of the building, but as a long-term mission to engage people in religion and history, it seems very risky to me. The model at Peterborough Cathedral seems much more moderate, free admission and then offering excellent and engaging tours for a fee or donation. How on earth the cathedral is valuing entrance at the same price as the Tower of London I’m not sure, but I do feel sadness at the number of families who won’t be able to afford to visit the building. But, it’s their building and their choice, but as long as the Church of England don’t express surprise that people don’t engage with their other historic structures.

Lunch, my free coffee from O2 and a chicken bake. Living the dream and all that.

I was thinking what a glorious day it was, the sun shining and everything quite balmy.

Layout of the former St. Paul in the Bail church and there was a religious building on this site from perhaps as early as the seventh century. The Victorians built one of their new churches here in 1876, after a few centuries of demolition and rebuilding, but that was taken down in 1972. This is all that remains.

Old gravestones shoved into the tarmac.

Lincoln Castle and the weather started to look rather less balmy than I had been anticipating.

Torrents of rain meant I had to hide under the gateway to the cathedral whilst rivers of water flooded past my feet.

After ten minutes of studying the underside of the gateway, the rain went away and I got a photo of Lincoln castle without a thunderstorm above it.

Lovely square, it’s the same one as I photographed earlier, but I had recovered from the mountain climbing expedition to get to it by now.

The cathedral, which I still really wanted to go in, but I decided they’d made their opinion on visitors welcome, for the few and not the many. I can’t hold a mood for as long as my friend Nathan, but I can last a few hours.

More of the formidable money making machine that is Lincoln Cathedral. I had a look at their menu and the beer choice was limited to Budweiser, so that annoyed me again, and they were charging £4.95 for a bottle as part of their for the few, not the many theme.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Prince of Wales pub which is operated by Stonegate, but I was suitably impressed. The interior was clean, there were power points, the decor was modern and the staff members were friendly. I went for the Atlas from Welbeck Abbey Brewery and this was well-kept and suitably decadent. I also stayed here for longer than I had planned because a group came in which provided me with some entertainment when one of them announced he was having the halloumi burger as deer was his favourite meat. I put this update straight onto Facebook (I set the bar very low in my social media updates) and waited excitedly for the food to be delivered. To cut a long story short, the staff replaced the burger willingly and were very professional about the whole thing.

The outside of the Prince of Wales Inn, much better than I expected and I’d recommend it.

BeerHeadZ was my next pub to visit and my expectations were higher for here.

I decided to get two beers, the Voodoo People from Leviathan Brewing which I forgot that I’d had before, and the Jack in the Basket from Howling Hops, which was an impressive and smooth imperial stout. The crisps were decent as well.

Quirky interior, I liked this bar a lot.

I don’t normally take photos in the toilets, but they’ve made an effort here and it seemed wrong not to acknowledge that.

An interesting take on politics from Cloudwater.

I thought at this stage that I’d better taken a walk back to the footlands of lower Lincoln, this is Michaelgate.

Photos of climbing down the mountain.

This is known as the Jew’s House and the building was first constructed between 1170 and 1180, one of the relatively few residential properties with Norman architecture left in the country. It takes its name as a Jewish man lived there in 1290 and the locals must have a long memory if they’ve called the building that ever since. The property has been used as a restaurant for the last half a century and it’s a remarkable survivor (the building, not particularly the restaurant, although 50 years is good going).

Joiner’s Arms which had been closed the previous day due to staff shortages.

There were no other customers and so the atmosphere was a little muted, but everything was clean and comfortable. They only had a couple of beers, although the landlord pro-actively apologised for that, but the Bullion from Nottingham Brewery was beautifully kept, so I had no complaints.

Where’s Nathan when you need him…. I’d have beaten him easily on this table, I could just tell. I think this is the only pub with a bar billiards table in Lincoln.

Walking back through the centre of Lincoln, there’s a feeling of history all around this rather lovely city.

I thought I’d stay out a bit longer as I wasn’t particularly engaged in going back to the Travelodge. I also had my laptop to get work done and power points were available at the JD Wetherspoon operated The Ritz. This is half a pint of the Animate from Beermats Brewing, it wasn’t kept as well as it could have been, so slightly disappointing.

Just as I was planning my food arrangements, McDonald’s sent me a notification saying I could get a burger for nearly free. I don’t much visit McDonald’s in the UK, but I wasn’t going to turn down a bargain. And I never said that this blog was always full of fine dining and culinary decadence did I?

June 15, 2022
Wednesday : Toby Carvery Breakfast in Lincoln and Back to Norwich

I wasn’t overly sad to wave goodbye to the Travelodge in Lincoln, although I’d add that I rarely actually physically wave to a hotel as I don’t want people thinking that I’m a bit odd. Being someone that clearly doesn’t have enough to be properly annoyed about, I focus on wanting to say negative things about hotels that refuse to have windows that will open. But, there’s more to worry about in life I accept.

The breakfast at Travelodge was just under £10 per day and I’m not made of money, so I decided to come to the Toby Carvery where it’s all you can eat for £5.49.

There was a friendly welcome from the staff member, but I can’t say that it was particularly busy, perhaps five or six other customers in the entire restaurant. But if you’re going to an all you can eat buffet, the fewer people the better, as it means uninterrupted food grazing.

It’s all self-service, with bacon, sausages, Yorkshire puddings (but no gravy!!!!), potato & bacon hash.

Alongside fried eggs, mushrooms, beans and plum tomatoes. I really can’t complain at just over £5 and customers can go back as much as they like. Which I did, on numerous occasions as I’m quite greedy.

I’ll just link to one photo of food, as more than that is clearly excessive and arguably one photo is too much. The ingredients all tasted of a decent quality and I very much like restaurants which offer plum tomatoes as part of their breakfast offering. I also used the toaster here, which I’m normally scared of for fear of setting fire to the restaurant. Often these spit out bread which is still as raw as when it went in, but put it in again and it comes out blackened and smoking. The toaster arrangement here worked perfectly I’m pleased to report.

The only problem with the Toby Carvery set-up was that I was too thrifty to spend £3 on the unlimited coffee option, although that was partly because I prefer decaff and they didn’t seem to have that. That meant after an hour of over-dosing myself on salt from the bacon I had to rush to the JD Wetherspoon nearby to get about ten decaff coffees for £1.20. Bargain.

The former site of St. Mark’s railway station in Lincoln. As I mentioned in a post a couple of days ago, this railway station was demolished in the 1980s as it was really surplus to requirements. It dates back to when the railways were constructed, which was by rival companies rather than having an integrated transport plan in mind. This is St. Mark’s Obelisk which was originally built between 1762 and 1763 and was on High Bridge, being designed to be a water conduit. It was placed in storage before the Second World War, but was integrated into this shopping centre in the 1990s when the shopping centre was being constructed.

This map (clicking on the image makes it a little bigger) from around 100 years ago shows just how ridiculous the situation was and it’s surprising that the set-up lasted for so long. Two railway stations within a two-minute walk, which kept blocking road and pedestrian traffic trying to go down the city’s main road. I rarely say that removing a railway station is a sensible idea, but in this case, it was.

Central Market had lost its way a little over recent years and a decline in footfall has led to a decision to remodel and modernise the building. For anyone interested, there’s more information about that at https://www.lincoln.gov.uk/news/article/202/works-to-refurbish-lincoln-central-market-begin.

This is the Greyfriars building, or specifically the former infirmary of the Franciscan monastery. Most of the monastery buildings were taken down after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, but this one survived and was later used for numerous purposes, including a school and a Mechanics’ Institute. The building is now owned by the council who were using it as a museum, but for reasons unknown, they’ve decided to almost abandon this historic structure and stop people visiting it. There are though finally plans to reverse that decision and some of these ideas seem very exciting and interesting, with more information at https://www.heritagelincolnshire.org/projects/greyfriars-in-lincoln.

Back at Lincoln railway station for a cheap train to Norwich, changing at Peterborough.

Every time I see signs for the University of Lincoln I think of the Inbetweeners.

The East Midlands Railway train to Peterborough, which wasn’t particularly busy.

Table seat and laptop, what more could I need on a train….

Feeling slightly decadent, and not having long to change train, I went to the Waitrose by Peterborough railway station. I spent 60p on flavoured water and also pondered how expensive everything in the store was. I think I’ve spent too long in Poland, if that’s possible (technically, it is possible thanks to the limits of my Schengen Visa, but I won’t get political again here).

And the train to Norwich, another East Midlands Railway (or whatever they’re called, I get muddled up) service which wasn’t too busy, so I got a table seat. No power points that wasn’t entirely ideal, but you can’t have everything….. I enjoyed Lincoln, plenty of decent pubs, no shortage of history and a Toby Carvery in the city centre. I was fortunate to get cheap rail fares, and also a Travelodge at a reasonable price, because this is quite rightly a popular tourist destination.

June 15, 2022
Thursday : Artefact Brewing at the Leopard in Norwich

Back in Norwich and so an uneventful day other than for a couple of highlights that I’ll briefly mention.

OK, there are no shortage of photo from Lucy’s on Norwich Market on this blog, but this is really rather lovely food. Those meaty butcher sausages, topped with rich curry sauce and heaps of scraps. What a healthy treat! James and I should really go to other locations for lunch more often, but this quality keeps on calling and we’re not very adventurous.

I thought I’d take myself to the Leopard pub in the evening as they had a little bit of a tap takeover from Artefact Brewing from Bury St. Edmunds. I really like concepts like this, although being away so much I miss a fair few of them. They had four different beers on cask and so as I couldn’t decide, I had a third of each. I can sometimes make rapid and sensible decisions like that. They also had three or so keg options, I came back on a different day to try one of those, I think the only one that was left. I had already eaten, and was still full from my delicious chips earlier on in the day, but they had the Mr Ragu food truck type thing outside for those who wanted to pair their beer with some snacks.

From left to right (in both photos), these are the Amber Haze IPA, the Ixworth Blonde, the Session Pale and the Dark Mild. All perhaps inevitably tasting fresh, well-kept and at the appropriate temperature, they were all very delightful. Looking back at my Untappd scores, as I can’t remember everything (people like Nathan can tell me without checking what beer they had in 2017 and what condition it was in), I liked the Ixworth, Session Pale and Dark Mild equally, with my 3.75 scores. The Amber Haze IPA was for me the best of the lot, a 6.4% which had a richness of taste to it and a caramel aftertaste, all as good as this type of real ale is going to get for me.

June 15, 2022
Monday : A Day in Lincoln and the Cardinal’s Hat

My plan for the next few days was to visit Lincoln, which was the first casualty of Covid a couple of years ago, when I had to cancel my hotel and train bookings. It was also the only money I lost on travel, an £18 pound rail ticket to get there wasn’t refunded, but the return was, as train services were cancelled during that weekend because of the Covid worries. In fairness, compared to what others lost, that was trivial and I was very fortunate with Covid relating bookings. Anyway, back to the present (well, back to three weeks ago, as I’m still catching up with this blog), leaving the Travelodge, I walked past the queue for a passport, which even at 08:00 was wrapped around the Passport Office building in Peterborough.

Wetherspoon breakfasts are getting too decadent in price for me now, so I just settled down with my £1.20 unlimited coffee and waited for the train to Lincoln. I can’t complain about the value for money on hot drinks in the pub, especially as I used their power sockets to keep my devices charged up.

Fun fact, Peterborough is twinned with Bourges in France and also Vinnytsia in Ukraine. I’m surprised that the city leaders haven’t twinned the city with one of the Peterboroughs in the United States, or even the one in Ontario in Canada, as that would have made for some interesting holidays, or business trips, whatever they’re called.

The railway station, in all its glory. Located 120 kilometres north of London on the mainline, there are frequent services up to Scotland, although I was getting ready to board a more provincial train.

I was quite taken with this LNER clock, but then again, I’m easily pleased.

I had obtained my train ticket to Lincoln for under £5, another rail sale ticket, and it was all clean and comfortable (the train, not the ticket). I had a reserved seat on this train and also had the entire table for four to myself which was handy.

Lincoln railway station and note the professional photography skills of my finger over the camera. I’ve got used to the phone now, so photos shouldn’t be obscured in future. Hopefully and I can’t promise anything. Formerly known as Lincoln Central, the station was constructed in 1848 for the Great Northern Railway company. There was another railway station nearby, Lincoln St. Marks, which was closed in 1985 and for a change, this decision made sense. But more on this in tomorrow’s riveting update from Lincoln.

The view from the JD Wetherspoon’s Square Sail. I’m still ticking them off my list…. The reviews are fairly average for one of the chain’s venues and it has a modern feel to it and I liked these views from the upstairs tables. I had a little read through the negative reviews, as that’s the sort of thing that passes for entertainment for me on a Sunday evening now and I liked this 1/5 review:

“After waiting over half an hour we my Husband and I (10th Wedding Anniversary!), received 2 mugs of cold Tea, well stewed”

Puzzled as I am that they didn’t just get the tea as self-service and with no disrespect to Wetherspoons, but perhaps a special anniversary deserved a little more of a decadent venue.

This humoured me as well:

“The food was cold the hottest thing on my plate was the English mustard.”

The entrance to the Drill, a drama theatre. It takes its name from when the building was a Drill Hall and it has only recently re-opened following what was feared to be a permanent closure.

I rather liked the head, designed by Rick Kirby.

Located on Free School Lane and next door to the Drill is Lincoln library and I had a quick inspection of the local history section and I was suitably pleased with it. The building was opened as a library in 1914, moving from the Assembly Rooms.

The city’s war memorial which was repaired in 2005 after it started to fall into disrepair.

They took the iron railings during the Second World War to help the war effort and I’m not sure whether that was appropriate or not. Although, in the end, the bulk of this mass collection of metal that they took was just dumped.

And a quick visit to JD Wetherspoon’s, the Ritz. This felt a little bit more rough and ready than their other venue in the city, but I think I preferred this one as it had some characters in it. This former cinema, named Ritz which will come as no surprise, was opened in 1932 and the on-line reviews are again fairly average for the chain.

I’d agree with this customer, but am disappointed that they didn’t upload a photo of their mound of sausages:

“If you are out of a particular item, let the customer know rather than simply decide to substitute it. My mixed grill had no chicken and no lamb, and simply bunging on extra sausages doesn’t make up for that”

And in the middle of another review, someone was complaining in general about the pub and mentioned the pub’s:

“Professional coffee drinkers”

I think I manage that sometimes….

Some of the pub’s decor.

With that it was time to move onto the nearby Travelodge, where I had a cheap room for three nights. The Travelodge room did not surprise and delight me, indeed it annoyed me. This ground floor room didn’t have opening windows so I decided I’d be in a general mood about the room, which wasn’t in a particularly good state of repair and goodness knows what the stain on the curtains was. Anyway, it was cheap.

Departing from my decadent hotel room, I noticed the Lincoln Imps on this closed shop, which was a Boots until recently.

The war memorial again, with St. Benedict’s Church behind it.

This is Lincoln Guildhall, but what’s rather exciting (to me) is that this was the site of the gateway to the town on Ermine Street. The gateway was built in 211 AD and was known as the Stonebow, surviving until the fourteenth century. A new structure was completed in the following century and that in turn was faffed about with in the nineteenth century by the Victorians. It’s still where the meetings of Lincoln City Council take place, a building with considerable historic interest.

The Guildhall’s coat of arms.

George Boole (1815-1864), a local man who was mostly self-taught and he went onto become an important mathematician and philosopher, and I hope my friend Nathan is impressed that even I know of his importance to maths (Boole I mean, I’m not sure how important Nathan’s legacy is to the mathematical community).

Off to the Good Beer Guide listed Cardinal’s Hat pub, which I very much liked, with a suitably interesting keg and cask choice. The service was friendly and the whole pub felt historic and interesting.

Decadent surroundings to enjoy my Voodoo stout from Ossett Brewery, reminding me of my visit to the Rat & Ratchet pub in Huddersfield last year.

Lovely room, I like sitting by books.

The pub has a newspaper for a menu which has their food and drink list as well as some gossip about the pub. I like the idea of this, it might not be entirely practical, but it’s quirky and different.

And as I liked the pub so much, I went for a second drink, the Orbital Horizon from the wonderful Atom Brewery in Hull. Which then promptly reminded me of their pub in Hull, Atom Brewing at the Corn Exchange…. This was a very decent beer, a jam doughnut and chocolate sprinkle pale ale, this is just the sort of drink that I like. I am not threatened by beer with a flavour of doughnuts, indeed, I am very open to the concept.

It had started to rain by the time I left the pub, which was far from ideal. I’d recommend the Cardinal’s Hat and the building is authentically old, having been built in the fifteenth century as a residential property. It was used as an inn from 1521 until the beginning of the nineteenth century, when it became a shop. After the Second World War, it was acquired by St. John’s Ambulance and has recently been restored back into a pub, and a fine job they’ve made of it.

I had wanted to go to another pub listed in the Good Beer Guide, but it was closed due to be short staffed, more on that tomorrow. This is the rear of Lincoln Guildhall.

St. Mary’s Conduit, named after St Mary-le-Wigford’s church which is sits in front of.

The conduit was used from the sixteenth century until the turn of the twentieth century (1906 to be exact) to supply drinking water to local residents. They built it by pinching bits of the stone from the Carmelite Friary which has been dissolved following the Reformation, hence the rather quirky looking nature of the structure. There’s far more information about this at https://www.thecollectionmuseum.com/assets/downloads/IS_arch_19_st_marys_conduit.pdf for anyone interested.

June 12, 2022