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Category: UK

2022 Hull Trip – Day 1 (A Road Trip from Norwich to the Raymond Mays)
Much as I am always surprised and delighted by travelling by rail, primarily surprised they’re running at the moment, there’s something exciting about a road trip. Back in early September 2022, my friend Liam and I decided to go to Hull for the weekend and so the next few posts will all be about that trip. What a treat for my two readers. And yes, it was ages ago, but I took rather too long writing about the US. But back to the trip, our first stop was about three minutes into the adventure to get a Greggs to sustain us for the journey. That was my idea.

Some al fresco dining. I can be very continental at times.

Our next port of call was Bourne, a town that I don’t think I’ve visited before. Founded in Roman times, during the Middle Ages Bourne was a centre of the wool trade and the town prospered as a result. In the 12th century, an Augustinian priory was established in Bourne and the town might have been where Hereward the Wake was born in around 1035. Its economy was boosted with the arrival of the railways in the nineteenth century, but they were withdrawn in the late 1950s and now the nearest railway station is twenty miles away in Grantham. Which brings me onto why we were here which is that a new JD Wetherspoon pub opened here in the spring of 2022 and I can’t easily get to it by public transport.

The pub is named the Raymonds Mays and above is the memorial plaque to him. Raymond Mays was an English racing driver and engineer who was active in motorsport in the mid-20th century. He is best known for his association with the ERA (English Racing Automobiles) racing team, which he co-founded and for which he also drove. Mays was a talented driver, who competed in several major races and events, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Mille Miglia. He also played a significant role in the development of the ERA racing cars, working on the design and engineering of the vehicles.

In addition to his racing career, Mays was also a successful businessman, and he was involved in the development of several innovative technologies, including the high-performance engines that powered the ERA racing cars. He is remembered as one of the pioneers of British motorsport and is widely regarded as one of the most talented and innovative drivers and engineers of his generation. And, yes, it was my idea to come to this pub.

Here we are standing opposite the pub with Liam surveying the scene. This was two separate shops until around 2012 when they closed, with the buildings being left boarded up for several years until JD Wetherspoon came along. Provincial towns once on the route of major roads are I think fascinating, so much history with the old coaching inns and various hostelries.

The interior is open plan and it’s quite cavernous, but it felt ordered and comfortable. It’s also got a long beer garden at the rear with various car related items to add some character. I had a quick half of Bear Island from Newby Wyke Brewery, a well kept hoppy blonde ale, keenly priced as ever.

Being quite dull, I’ve established that it’s possible to get a measure of a JD Wetherspoon pub’s operation by looking at their Google Reviews scores. They nearly all fall within the range of 3.8 to 4.1 out of 5, so any one of their venues outside of that range is likely either doing very badly or very well. I should publish a treatise on this fascinating piece of research and observation of mine. This one is sitting at 4.0 out of 5, so things seem to be going well. One reviewer summed up the pub’s beer policy:

“They serve larger in ale glasses, ale in larger glasses and they pour the ales flat with no head other than that it’s ok”

I’m sure the management will consider this carefully….. There’s nothing else memorable that I can much mention about the pub, but it seemed relatively busy and it’s another one ticked off my list. We then had to make some progress as I had decided that we had time to pop to Brigg next.
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February 25, 2023
2022 US Trip – Day 32 (The Final Part of the Adventure)
I use the word ‘adventure’ in the title of this post, but I accept that I hardly went on a solo trip walking through the Amazon or something. Although on the 32nd day away, I was getting a little tired and thinking that it had been an adventure of sorts. But, I’ll tidy up my random thoughts about the trip in a final post. I had a £10 fare to get from London Liverpool Street to Norwich and was able to board first so I had a choice of seats.

I went for the seat on the right, pleased that Greater Anglia weren’t running the bloody Stansted Express services without tables on this journey. The power worked so that was a relief and the conductor came stomping through the train on numerous occasions always looking she was heading to an emergency at the other end. To be fair, she probably was.

Biscuits I had acquired from somewhere that I found in my bag along with my refilled water bottle.

And that was that, safely back in Norwich. I must admit that I’ve rushed through the last few days of this trip to finally get this trip written up for posterity, but I’m pleased to say that other than for one more post with general thoughts of the trip, that completes this write-up. Yay!
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December 30, 2022
2022 US Trip – Day 32 (British Airways Flight from Dublin to Heathrow T5)
This was the last day of my little trip home and I had chance to pop into the airport lounge at Dublin. This is a different one to where I was before going to the United States, I was off in Terminal 2 at the Aer Lingus lounge then. I’ve written about this Dublin lounge before, so won’t repeat that. I was fortunate to get a seat though, it was at near capacity when I got there and didn’t really let up. It’s an odd shaped lounge and they really need a bigger facility, but it was an entirely satisfactory place to spend three hours.

It had just turned midday, so having a farewell to Ireland Guinness seemed sensible.

Mine was the 15:20 flight and one of the gate staff made an incorrect announcement of the gate number which caused some people to get up and move. I hovered between the two gates thinking that this was far from ideal. I didn’t intend to miss a flight at this stage of the trip.

I had worked out that the flight could be three hours late and I would still be able to get my train home to Norwich. Above that I’d miss it, but I’d either get EU261 compensation or at least a duty of care if it was weather related. I think it transpired that the flight was about eight minutes late so I hadn’t needed to pre-worry.

Ready to battle the rain for one final time in Ireland.

No airbridge in Dublin. This was the tenth and final flight of this trip, along with the twelve or so rail trips I took in the United States. It’s aircraft Airbus A320 G-TTNS and for my own interest only, I hadn’t been on this aircraft before but that’s not surprising as they only took delivery of it on 1 October 2022 and this flight was on 19 October 2022. It’s one of the newest aircraft that I’ve been on I think.

It’s a short flight and it was entirely unremarkable, with the crew being the usual friendly and helpful sort. I was given water and crisps, but I saved them until I was sitting at London Liverpool Street waiting for my train.

Boarding the underground to cross London on the Piccadilly Line, which is always much less exciting when coming back from a trip rather than getting there.

I was able to get a seat.
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December 30, 2022
2022 US Trip – Day 31 (British Airways Flight from Heathrow T5 to Dublin)

I had just landed into Heathrow T5 from Newark and my two hour connection was shrunk down to 45 minutes due to some delays in disembarking. That meant I was down to only around 20 minutes in the lounge, although a slightly late departing flight to Dublin meant that I eventually had over 30 minutes. That gave me time for some charging of devices, a couple of drinks and a little snack. The lounge was busy, but I was able to perch at the end overlooking the runway, my favourite location in Galleries North as I like the higher seats.

I understand the importance of security and the UK require passengers to go through full security screening regardless of where they have flown in from. It is though much easier from a passenger point of view with the US set-up of domestic flights where you only go through one security process. I was fortunate that there wasn’t much of a delay before getting to the lounge, I think it was all done in fifteen minutes.

Waiting for the 08:25 service to Dublin, there were a few seats available here, but the airport felt busy in general.

Boarding was efficient and I got to take a photo of the aircraft before walking down the airbridge. I forgot to get the aircraft’s registration number just to check if I had been on it before, a slightly odd check that I do when I remember.

It’s only a short flight, but there’s a snack and water provided. This is perfectly sufficient, it’s useful for passengers to feel hydrated if nothing else. There’s a limited amount that I feel it’s useful to add about short haul flights, as there’s little chance of much engagement from crew on such a brief trip. However, they were welcoming and polite, with the flight being quite light in terms of passengers, so it all felt comfortable and efficient. I like the reliability of British Airways in this regard, a lack of anything to write about is often just because everything went as it should have done.

Safely into Dublin Airport, where I had just over 24 hours before returning back to the UK on the following day.

December 30, 2022
2022 US Trip – Day 30 (British Airways Flight from Newark to Heathrow T5)

After an entertaining couple of hours in the British Airways Galleries lounge in Newark, I then walked the short distance to the gate, an earlier flight than I had been anticipating. I was very impressed with how BA handled this, they made it easy not just to change flights but also to ensure that my seat reservations were carried over.

I don’t like the seats on this Boeing 777-300 aircraft, they’re too narrow for me. However, I was in an exit row on the aisle, which is my favourite, meaning that I did have plenty of space. The three seats were all taken, but I was fortunate that the person sitting next to me didn’t veer into my space once.

The crew members on this flight were exceptional, making an effort to build rapport with customers where they felt appropriate and being ever present. I’m rarely disappointed with the friendliness and engagement of BA crew, with the pilot making chirpy and positive announcements.

It’s fair to say that I had enough leg room.

The first drinks round took place around one hour after take-off and the crew member seemed pleased that I asked for Brewdog Jet Stream by name, so she gave me both cans on her trolley.

The crew member didn’t let me down with the Brewdog beer, she remembered me from before and pro-actively asked “would you like another Brewdog beer?”, which of course I did. So she went off on a mission and came back with another four cans, two raided from a different cabin, the other two from the trolley on the other side of the aisle. Apologies if anyone else wanted Brewdog Jet Stream, but the crew member was wonderfully hoarding them up for me. Incidentally, that’s the film Belfast on the IFE, a story about the violence in Northern Ireland during The Troubles.

Onto the food, these meals are catered in the United States and it all entirely met my expectations. I can’t quite remember what sort of chicken dish this was (and I probably wasn’t entirely sure at the time), but it tasted better than it perhaps looks. It comes with a couscous starter, a chocolate dessert and then some cheese and crackers. For an economy flight, which cost me just £220 or so return, I felt I had received excellent value for money with this whole arrangement.

I then thought I’d have a nap after enjoying the heap of Brewdog Jet Stream cans that they had given me.

I admit this wasn’t to my taste, the breakfast option was a cheese bagel or a cheese bagel with turkey. Very innovative. I don’t like the smell of certain melted cheeses and unfortunately this went into the bin, as seemingly did many of those given to other passengers. I rarely eat the breakfast options on aircraft as they’re not often appealing to me, but BA seem to want to provide some sort of hot option. It’s a shame they didn’t have a cold option of just a cereal bar or something, it’d likely be cheaper for them and lead to less waste.

I had a two hour connection before my flight to Dublin, but there was a long delay disembarking and then it was a bus to the gate which all took up time. I was moderately disappointed that this was all eating into, well, my eating time in the BA lounge, and I was partly wondering whether I might be able to miss my flight to Dublin and get a later one since I was in no hurry.

Still my favourite airline, although American Airlines aren’t far behind. Who needs Emirates and Qatar?

And off we go to Heathrow T5, where I’ll pick up my flight to Dublin in my next post.

December 30, 2022
London – Camden (Borough of) – The Hardy Tree (A Bit Fallen Down)
In a quick departure from my US trip content that I’m droning on about, I was saddened to hear that the Hardy Tree in London has fallen down. The Tweet below shows the state of it now….

The Hardy Tree in St Pancras Gardens (Thomas Hardy shifted the gravestones around the roots when not writing Tess of the D) has fallen down. ?@SimonLamrock pic.twitter.com/MIDZyysZRF

— Richard Osley (@RichardOsley) December 27, 2022
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December 28, 2022
London – Goose Island Shoreditch, It’s All Over Now…..

In a little interruption to my random piffle about my US trip….. I knew that it was coming because the manager of Goose Island’s taproom in Chicago told me last month, but Goose Island’s Shoreditch has now closed. Apparently profit making, but not falling within the requirements of Goose Island, it closed in September 2022 and has been immediately converted into the Queens Head.

I visited this bar tens of times (many of which are recorded on here….) because I considered it to be one of the best run operations in the UK and I’m glad that I got to see the manager Daniel a few weeks ago before it was too late. Impeccable service, engaging staff and a commitment to excellent beer, fine food and a welcoming atmosphere. The Chicago Goose Island manager told me that the UK team has been able to visit the Chicago taproom just before it closed, which was some form of gesture I suppose to the outstanding bar that they had in their estate.

A huge loss to the London bar scene that was vastly better than any other operation I’ve seen in the capital.

November 10, 2022
Streets of Norwich – Stamp Office Yard

Part of my Streets of Norwich project…. [Updated in November 2023]

One of the reasons I started doing this long-winded thing of walking around every street in Norwich is that I hoped to notice some things that I hadn’t really seen before. I’ve found all manner of things I didn’t know existed, including plaques, streets and historic buildings. And, although I’ve been by it hundreds of times, I’ve never noticed Stamp Office Yard located off of St. Andrew’s Street (it’s the one in the centre of the above map, so to the left of the S of St. Andrew’s Street).

The street takes its name from a business that operated here in the eighteenth century, which stamped official documents. Although in the map above, from 1885, there were plenty of buildings in the yard, it’s all been opened up now at the rear and is mostly car parking. The building to the right hand-side of the Stamp Office Yard is St. Andrew’s House, and when that was extended in the 1970s there were plenty of medieval pottery finds.

At the 1921 census, there were two households reported as living on the street. In the first property there were six members of the Sabberton family, Frank William (aged 56), Emily (aged 59), Stanley (aged 22), Hilda (aged 25), Emily Ellen (aged 19) and Winifred (aged 16). Frank William Sabberton worked as an engineer at a clothing manufacturer, whilst Emily was noted to be working at home duties. Stanley was an engineer at Sabberton Brothers Engineers at Palace Plain, Hilda was a shorthand typist at Boulton & Paul, Emily was a clerk at Mann Egerton Cars on Prince of Wales Road, whilst Winifred was a shorthand typist at Singer Sewing who were at 16 Calvert Street in the city. In the other household was husband and wife Reginald Arthur Sabberton and Amelia Sabberton, aged 28 and 34. Reginald worked as a motor engineer for Goffs at Aylsham Road.

November 9, 2022
Streets of Norwich – Willow Lane

Part of my Streets of Norwich project…. [updated in October 2023]

Willow Lane connects St. Giles Street to Cow Hill, a looping road that is shaped by the St. Giles’s Church site. The lane takes its name from the willow trees which were once on the south side in the seventeenth century, with the Mayor of Norwich being responsible for checking them. Despite this being a relatively short road, there are nine listed buildings along it.

This is the St. Giles Street end of the road, the building on the right (which is 53 St. Giles Street) is the side of Ellis Second Hand Books and then the building behind is 1 Willow Lane, an early nineteenth-century residential property which was sold in 2019.

The next building along is a former Catholic church which was built in 1827 by JT Patience, which was then turned into a Catholic school. The building is now used by Rogers & Norton solicitors and George Plunkett has a photo of when the building was still used as a school.

Looking back towards St. Giles Street, the former church is on the left behind the fence.

What looks like a Georgian building on the left, the entrance to the former church site is now on the right of this photo.

The series of buildings on the left-hand side are early nineteenth-century residential buildings, which remain as houses. The white building on the right-hand side is number 9, also known as Willow Lane House, an eighteenth-century residential building that has been converted into offices.

The brick building on the right is 15 Willow Lane and is a seventeenth-century residential building that was extended in the nineteenth century. It was also the home of Francis Blomefield (1705-1752) who was a local historian who wrote the ‘History of Norfolk’. The building was used as a boarding house in 1939, so the register gives an interesting look at its occupants. There were:

Mary and Stanley Page (boarding house owner and husband was a hairdresser)

Barbara Dash (assistant in grocer’s shop)

Alice Nicholls (billiards room attendant)

Sarah Barber (private nurse)

Jacob Black (steel bender)

Mary Black (unpaid domestic duties, wife of Jacob)

Elizabeth Ledleve (boot and shoe branding).

There were also two other people on the register where the record remains closed, so it’s possible that they’re still alive.

Looking back the street from the Cow Hill end. The street feels very Georgian and unchanged, and there’s also the hidden property that was once the George Borrow museum, where the author lived between 1816 and 1824. However, this now has more in common with Cow Hill, so more on that in another post.

Norfolk Pubs also suggests that there might have been a licensed premises called the Cellar House located along the street in the early nineteenth century.

October 6, 2022
2022 US Trip – Day 2 (Terminal 2 to 3 at Heathrow Airport and a Quick Couple of Lounge Visits)

I don’t often do much transiting at Heathrow, but today I was going from Terminal 2 where my Aer Lingus flight landed to Terminal 3 where my American Airlines flight was departing. I had four hours or so deliberately in the schedule when planning this (so that I could enjoy the lounges), and despite the potential delays from the Queen’s funeral, that schedule worked out.

Here’s the transfer bus stop within T2 with a sign saying that there are regular buses every ten minutes. Anyway, 24 minutes later the bus arrived. Another couple were getting edgy as their flight was quite close in terms of time, whereas I was losing lounge time. Obviously mine was the most important situation that needed resolving, but I didn’t say anything.

Wooo, here comes the bus. The process was all quick from there, with another security check required because that’s what UK airports do, but there was a minimal delay with that and I was through and into the lounges within fifteen minutes of that bus setting off.

I do take decadent photos to surprise and delight readers…. This is one of the bathroom units at Cathay Pacific, which also has shower facilities. Note all the complimentary stuff in the little boxes, but I decided to just take the toothpaste as I’ve decided to keep my bag as light as possible during this trip. Fully refreshed, it was time for food.

I’ve written about the T3 lounges many times before on this blog, so a search will help any readers wanting to read my previous missives. In short, Oneworld status passengers can use the BA, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Qantas lounges regardless of which Oneworld airline they are travelling with, although the American Airlines one is currently closed. This is the menu from the Cathay Pacific lounge, where food is cooked to order, although there’s a self-service British section as well.

I went for the BBQ fried pork rice although with my regular order of the Mix Dimsum basket. As ever, it was delicious, as was the Guinness which is the first time I’ve seen that in this lounge.

I then rushed off (there’s no time to waste on days such as this) to the Qantas lounge as I’m just a little obsessed with their salt and pepper squid, but here’s the rest of the menu options. I’m not travelling next year so will lose my silver Oneworld status, but I’ll likely be getting it back soon enough in 2024 as I can’t miss out on the delights of menus like this. Yes, there’s more to life than this, but this is a bloody useful contribution to it.

Beautiful, melt in the mouth stuff…..

I remained in the Qantas lounge until it was time for my flight and I was slightly surprised to see that the majority of everyone there was watching the build-up to the Queen’s funeral on the lounge’s TVs. By nature of the lounge, most of the people there seemed to be Australian and some people had built themselves almost like little nests packed with food and drink where they could watch proceedings from. It was a reminder to me of the level of interest that people around the world have in the life and work of Queen Elizabeth II.

It was a lovely few hours, but I had a plane to New York to catch…..

September 21, 2022