This line in a newspaper article in the Norwich Mercury 200 years ago this week doesn’t really suggest the significance of this marriage.
Joseph Pease (1799-1892) was a railway pioneer and one of the supporters of the Stockport and Darlington Railway Company. He also later became the first Quaker MP and was one of the advocates for increased animal rights. He was also the son of Edward Pease, who is known as the ‘Father of the Railways’ which seems a nice title to have.
Emma Gurney (1800-1860) was the youngest daughter of Joseph Gurney, a banker from the Gurney family whose operations were subsumed into Barclays Bank later in the nineteenth century.
This is a statue commemorating Joseph Pease, a photo I took in Darlington in 2022 where I managed to explore a fair amount of railway history.
This was a proper political power couple, their families bringing together wealth, railway experience and connections. The marriage would have taken place at the Friends Meeting House on Upper Goat Lane in the city. The current building was opened in 1826, on the site of the former meeting house, so I’m assuming that this might have been one of the first marriages there. Although this assumes that the Norwich Mercury was right, as some other sources are saying that they married in Darlington, which adds confusion to the mix.
As I was on a double decker bus yesterday going past Anglia Square, that gave me an opportunity to take the below photos. A couple of hours after this they started to break into the cinema, so the demolition of that part has now begun. I’ll go down and take some photos of that tomorrow (2 April).
Luton Airport Parkway is one of the most bizarre railway station operations that I’ve experienced. On two occasions now over recent months, the staff here have launched into quite direct attacks about the management of the railway station at a local level. As I’ve never asked a staff member about their thoughts on the management (nor indeed their thoughts on anything), it seems like there are issues and I’m not sure that customers should be bearing the brunt of this.
There’s a problem at the railway station that the waiting room is not accessible to anyone on a timed ticket. Initially I was told that customers can’t enter the station more than twenty minutes before the train and then I was told it was fifteen minutes a few months ago. It’s been on those occasions that the, likely harassed by endless passengers, team members explained the problems they’ve had enforcing new rules.
So, with the comfortable waiting room out of bounds, passengers have to wait here. I just waited without saying anything, but when I tried to put my ticket through at the barrier fifteen minutes before the train left, it failed. There was a staff member sitting down nowhere near the barriers by a heater who managed to get called an “a***hole” by one passenger he ignored, although he didn’t come and help me.
I got the attention of another staff member and she was very friendly and let me through. She said that the rules had changed again and that customers couldn’t enter the railway station with a timed ticket until the previous train had departed. It’s to stop them boarding it with a timed ticket…..
The train arrived on time and it was hard not to miss Poland, where I had just returned from. They have the radical idea that passengers on their services can always use their waiting rooms to wait in. It’s all a bit sub-optimal from Thameslink, especially given the huge sums of money invested in this railway station over recent years.
I’ve already mentioned that there was a bit of a delay getting to the Etiuda lounge, but it was peaceful and calm when I got here.
The food selection which was all looking nicely presented and appetising.
Delicious.
With all my devices charged and having had enough food and drink, I departed for the gate. The bad news is that it was a bus gate.
The good news was that I was nearly the first to board the second bus to the aircraft, which meant I had some space to stand in the corner. Little victories and all that.
There was a group of quite loud British people who were excitedly telling each other what marvellous drugs they’d taken in Poland and they were going to get drunk on the plane. More of that soon.
Anyway, the aircraft was 9H-WNY and I haven’t been on it before, but it’s yet another new aircraft having only been delivered to Wizz Air in 2025. Their fleet is certainly mostly new and shiny….
The flight was smooth and, yet again, free of any issues. The seating Gods gave me a middle seat, but the people either side were both quiet and didn’t fidget about, so it was a smooth flight.
Back to the lads who claimed that they were going to get drunk on board…. They didn’t expect the Polish crew to reject their demands. Impeccably handled by the crew, the whole arrangement felt safe, well managed and professional.
And back at Luton Airport….. Wooo. We were actually slightly early and there were minimal delays at the border, which meant that I was rather early for my train.
The flight cost £8.99 and Wizz Air didn’t let me down here. A clean aircraft, efficient boarding, a friendly crew and everything felt well managed.
Safely at Luton Airport nice and early, as usual. The security process was smooth and efficient, taking less than five minutes from when I scanned my boarding card.
I popped into Big Smoke with my Priority Pass card and had the usual delicious chicken tenders and a slightly less delicious alcohol free Stella. The service is always friendly and efficient here, with plenty of power points to ensure I didn’t have to stress about that.
And then into Nolito for a healthy snack with pineapple juice. It’s quite pricey and I’m not sure that the quality here quite justified the price, but as it was free, I decided that I’d cope.
By then, it was getting nearer the time when boarding started, with my flight being the penultimate out of the airport that day. I rather like days such as this with an evening flight, I get a chance to get on top of everything work wise and nothing feels rushed.
The boarding process was smooth, well managed and everything was clear. The staff here were friendly and personable, it was all efficient and organised.
And then the boarding, I was towards the back of the aircraft and boarded via the rear doors.
The aircraft was HA-LGM, which is yet another one that I haven’t been on before. It was newly delivered to the airline in July 2024 and inside everything was clean and in a decent state of repair.
I have little to report about the flight, as once again, it was operated by Wizz Air with professionalism and efficiency. The seating Gods had given me an aisle seat with no-one next to me, the announcements were clear, the crew were friendly and it was all peaceful and organised. We landed on time and the pilots kept us informed of what was going on.
The one negative, which wasn’t the fault of the airline, is that they had expected steps to be brought to the back of the aircraft in Wrocław, but they instead used a jet bridge. That meant it took a bit longer for me to disembark with a wait of nearly fifteen minutes on board. This isn’t a problem, but there’s one bus an hour that departs the airport at night and I didn’t really want to miss it as it was already late enough.
I’ve mentioned this before, but one of the advantages of flying on Wizz Air as a passenger with a British passport is that there aren’t generally many of us (and that is obviously a generalisation). Indeed, despite disembarking almost last, there were only two people ahead of me in the queue at border control. This meant that I was able to get through the border quicker than most holders of EU passports, a rare treat, although I’d still quite like an EU passport once again…
Anyway, the efficiency here meant that I was outside the airport with fifteen minutes to spare before the night bus turned up. Another rather lovely flight and a bargain for just £8.99. And it’s lovely to be back in Poland.
After visiting ten pubs with Roy and Jen, it was time to plan the week’s adventure which was to work out how to get to Warsaw Beer Festival. This will be my third time going and my first challenge was to find a £8.99 with Wizz Air’s Multipass. Fortunately, there was a flight to Wrocław on Monday evening and Liam kindly agreed to take me to Luton after I had a quick hour rest in Norwich which gave me time to think about packing.
And the journey was suitably luxurious with Liam’s decadent car ensuring that my seat was chilled, whereas his was heated for reasons unknown. Safely in Luton after faultless driving, although I could perhaps have done without the ten minutes standing at the reception desk waiting for a team member to come and check me in. I also had a strong suspicion, for reasons I won’t go into here, that the team member had been asleep, but, I can’t imagine being the night porter at a Travelodge in Luton is always the more inspirational place to be.
Anyway, there were no issues with the hotel, it was a cheap Sunday night room and I woke up ready for the three mile walk into the heart of Luton.
This was pretty much the highlight of the three mile walk, it’s not really the most scenic. Listening to podcasts makes it just fly by though.
Then, after a quick free meal and also a heap of coffee at the White House, which is the JD Wetherspoon pub in the town, it was time for the forty minute walk to the airport. Arriving five hours early for the flight felt just right in terms of timing….. Another adventure begins.
And here’s a quick summary of my blog posts from the day out that Jen, Roy and I had on Sunday. They were both, as ever, marvellous company and they were also lucky that they had me there to amuse them. Or something like that in terms of them being lucky.
We visited ten venues and I have to confess that I can’t match Roy’s ability to drink. He had a pint in each venue, I went for a half in each, so I ended up having a total of five pints over eight hours, whereas Roy cleared ten pints. Very rufty tufty.
Thank Jen for her driving, which was much appreciated as that meant she couldn’t drink ten pints, but instead stayed on soft drinks.
The venues were selected as part of Roy’s complex old Woodforde’s Ale Trail books system (that I won’t even try to explain), but what that gave us was a selection of pubs that was nearly entirely new to me, I had been in two of them before. The pubs were all very much at the heart of their communities and all doing a good job at serving them.
We had a selection of country pubs, town pubs, one chain pub, estate pubs, one social club and two hotels. It was a really rather lovely day and we also deliberately visited a couple of two pubs that are now closed, but were in Roy’s books, that I will write about from a historical perspective at a future date.
The tenth, and final, venue on our Sunday day out was the Acle Social Club, located at the Acle War Memorial Recreation Centre which is an interestingly named building. Again, I won’t give a history to this as it’s not a traditional pub arrangement.
I approached the bar to check if we could come in with our CAMRA card as this is a members’ only club. I’d add I didn’t expect they’d take the card, it’s listed on CAMRA’s website that we could do that, which the friendly team member said was fine.
There were two real ales available from Oakham Ales and I was impressed that both options were beers that I hadn’t had. I opted for the Hare and the Hedgehog, but both looked tempting.
And I was able to get chocolate here, and not just Maltesers, but the treat bag size. The pricing was firmly towards the lower end of the scale which surprised and delighted me. The beer was well kept, light and fruity, certainly one of the better tasting ones of the day.
I really liked this venue, it was comfortable, modern and I liked the variety of seating heights. It wasn’t very busy, other than for one quite vibrant group, but it was atmospheric and welcoming. There was a large board showing what food is served during the day and the prices for this were also very reasonable.
By the time we left, I was starting to think that I’d join the club if it was just a little bit nearer to me. Annual memberships are just £10 and it aims to offer a comfortable bar and dining area for those who are using the hall which is located in. Perhaps they could get a bar billiards table, then I could visit it every year on the away game….. Anyway, this was one of the highlights of the day and well done to clubs like this that sell both chocolate and crisps.
The ninth pub of the day was Branford’s Restaurant and Bar, with Jen requesting that I mention that they could do with more lighting in the car park. The venue is located within the Old Hall Hotel, but they are separately managed.
The entrance is around the back via the hotel. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect here, and I have no idea what was in the marquee, but the signage was at least clear. I can’t write much about the history of this venue, it’s not clear to me how old the building is and I can’t find out much online.
It was a wider real ale selection than I had expected with four local beers available. The service was friendly and welcoming, with the atmosphere being less of a restaurant type venue than I had expected.
The interior is spacious and there’s another dining area to add to this whole arrangement.
I couldn’t work out whether there were any heritage elements from an older building or this was all relatively new. It didn’t help that we visited the venue when it was dark outside.
I quite fancied chocolate by this point, but instead I made do with Mini Cheddars with my Adnams Broadside. This was well kept, malty and at the appropriate slightly chilled temperature.
For anyone interested, there’s quite a large menu available. The restaurant and bar are all well reviewed on-line and it felt quite busy for a Sunday evening.
I’m still not sure that I entirely understand this venue, it appears to be primarily an independently run restaurant which also has a bar, with the hotel element being run by a sister company. Either way, the beer selection was decent, the real ale was well kept and there was a friendly welcome. All really rather lovely.
The eighth pub on our list was the Lichfield Arms in Great Yarmouth, which isn’t a venue that I’ve ever heard of before. CAMRA notes that the landlord has been here for thirty years, which is an impressive stint and he’s delivered a really rather lovely community driven pub.
The pub was built here in the 1880s, originally defined as being in Gorleston, although I think it’s fair to say that this area is now considered to be part of Great Yarmouth. It was originally a Steward & Patteson pub before it became part of the Watney Mann estate, but it’s now a free house.
Initially this was just a beer house (these venues could sell beer and were often just a front room, but they couldn’t sell spirits or wines), but in 1903, the Yarmouth Independent reported:
“The next and last application was by Mr. C. J Wiltshire on behalf of Messrs. Steward and Patteson for the removal of the full license of the Little White Lion, King-street, to the Lichfield Arms beer-house, Lichfield road. This was, he said, the third time of asking, and Messrs. Steward and Patteson were prepared to surrender an off beer-house in High-street. Over 80 houses had been put up in the district since the last application, and it was greatly extending. There was a dearth of public-houses in the area, as was shown by the drink map. With respect to what had been said at previous Licensing Sessions, Mr. Bottle would be glad to know that two doctors had now gone to live in the district. (Laughter.)
William Pembroke, of the Lichfield Arms, the nominal applicant, said he had a great demand for spirits, especially since there had been so much sickness, and he had been twice called up at night lately.
Mr. S. Rivett, architect, said there were 441 houses on the Lichfield estate, and 85 had been built since 1901. The nearest full licensed house was 490 yards away.
Mr. Bottle—This application comes before us with a better grace than any other we have heard. There should be a full licensed house in a district with a population of 2,000 people. At present it hasn’t one full license.
Mr Wiltshire—The need for a full license there has been fully demonstrated.
Evidence of the service of the statutory notices in respect of this and all the applications was given by the Warrant Officer (Sergt. W. Moore).”
The request was granted by the licensing committee, as long as the High Street licence was surrendered. It was though the third time that the venue had requested this.
There was one real ale available, the Edith Cavell from Wolf Brewery and that’s not a bad one to select.
The beer was well kept, tasted as expected and was, once again, expertly food paired. For anyone interested, and I’m not sure who will be, but those crisps pack quite a mustardy punch.
There is one long bar and the decoration is traditional and comfortable. There’s a screen showing sports and although the customers were quite lively during our visit, we felt entirely welcome. The venue is all quite under-stated in a very positive way and it’s primarily wet led, although they occasionally do serve food for special events.
Those signs above the toilet doors look like they’ve been there for about forty years, but I’m all for heritage and keeping things in pubs rather than constant renovation and modernisation.
I liked this pub, it felt a welcoming venue, it’s clearly another place that’s at the heart of its community and if it was the landlord of 30 years’ standing that served us, he’s doing remarkably well to keep the pub going.
