Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

Dereham Pub Day – Romany Rye

Fourth in the day’s Dereham adventure that Julian and I were partaking in was the JD Wetherspoon operated Romany Rye, a pub that I’ve visited many times before. I’ve always found it a reliable and well-run pub, it’s a 2011 conversion of a pub and hotel dating from the 1960s when it was known as the Phoenix. It remains a hotel today and I’ve stayed here before, the rooms are well appointed and I remember them being comfortable and reasonably priced.

In terms of the pub name, I’ve just pinched the text from JD Wetherspoon’s web-site:

“One of the most imaginative prose writers of the 19th century, George Borrow was born on the outskirts of East Dereham in 1803, the son of an army captain, who bewitched a local girl while recruiting in the town. Educated at Norwich Grammar School, Borrow later took to the road. He could speak 20 languages, with his travels providing material for his best books The Bible in Spain, Lavengro and Romany Rye. Borrow eventually retired to the Norfolk Broads, where he died alone in 1881.”

There was incidentally a pub of the same name on Colman Road in Norwich, but then Enterprise Inns purchased it, ruined it and it’s lost now.

Julian made himself comfortable in the pub’s rather decadent furniture.

There were eight different real ales available, I’m fairly sure that this is the widest choice available in the town. The service was polite, prompt and efficient with the pub being comfortable, inviting and organised. As would be expected from the chain, the prices were firmly towards the lower end of the scale.

And today’s entry in the blurred photo of the day award…. Anyway, this is the Summa That from Branscombe Vale Brewery, a well kept but slightly dull affair. We also got a coffee each and I went, unusually, for a caffeine option as we both needed a little energy burst following our lunches. It’s hard work this pub visiting, I’m not sure that everyone realises that.

I’m not sure whether or not Stephen Fry has popped into the Romany Rye, but he is a local man.

The pub is well reviewed for a Wetherspoons, so they’re clearly doing a lot right. I had a little virtual meander through the reviews to see what interested me.

“Went there for a meal and the 3oz American style burger and the 6oz American style burger. Absolutely delicious. My Friend had the chicken meal with the chicken bites and mini wings. Tasted off and later this evening was sick everywhere! Defiantly chicken as it was in the sick! Disappointed.”

This absolutely isn’t how food hygiene works and I have to give JD Wetherspoon credit for being one of the best rated chains in the national food scoring schemes that are operated by local councils.

“Would come more often if I could bring my dog along to sit inside, but opp for more dog friendly pubs.”

Just to balance this, I would come in less often if the pub resembled a doggery. I don’t think that’s actually a word, but I like it, so it’s staying.

“Shocked that even though they don’t close till 1 they stop letting in before 12:45! Any other spoons will let you in to buy a drink until the closing time at the bar! Poor service and too interested in getting out early than serving customers!”

I might incur the wrath of Julian by writing this, but this doesn’t seem an unreasonable policy to me. I’ve had many early mornings of clearing customers out of a pub and if you serve someone at 00:45 and then tell them to drink straight up and go then the customer is unlikely to be surprised and delighted. Well, surprised maybe actually, but definitely not delighted.

“3 teens were kicked out on Sunday for not carrying ID to prove that they were 16. Which 16 year olds carries ID!? They had already payed for their food so the staff poorly wrapped up their food in tin foil and shoved it in a pizza box then made to get out. They were then left out in the cold to eat their food in the freezing cold even though they had payed full price to eat in. The staff could have just warned the children to bring ID next time, it’s not like they were ordering alcohol.”

There are about ten reviews like this and this is indeed JD Wetherspoon policy. But, it doesn’t feel right, if the pub has served the customers and charged them money, this situation is clearly sub-optimal. There’s something rather nice about a group of mates going politely to a pub and getting themselves a meal without alcohol.

“Told couldn’t come down from our room till 7am bit stupid.”

I don’t understand this, the hotel rooms have 24 hour access. Unless the guest wanted to sit in the pub area before 07:00….. JD Wetherspoon don’t have a social media presence, which I personally think is a mistake, so they never respond to reviews like this and I’d quite like to know what actually happened here. I accept that I probably need to get out more, but I like listening to a bit of drama.

“Landlord if he don’t like the look of you send staff over to ask you too leave will not give a reason”

This is the sort of thing I want to know more about….

Anyway, I’ve got distracted reading reviews again, but this was in my mind a well managed chain pub. There was a wide choice of ales, they were well kept and the prices were low. The pub is comfortable, there’s wi-fi and plenty of power points, with the surroundings being clean and comfortable. Tim Martin might come in for criticism, but even though I don’t agree with his politics, I’d suggest that he knows how to run pubs.

April 21, 2023
Dereham Pub Day – Red Lion

The third pub on our Dereham day out was the Red Lion located just off the market place and operated by Craft Union, part of Stonegate. It’s another pub with a long heritage and has been trading here since the 1770s. A minor quirk that slightly intrigues me is that the street by the marketplace is named Red Lion Street after the pub, but recently the official address of the pub has been changed to Quebec Street.

The pub doesn’t serve real ale, so I opted for John Smiths which was served just a little too cold, it almost needed time to defrost and the taste was nearly entirely lost. However, the prices were very low and the service was efficient and helpful.

At some point a thoughtful renovation has taken place here and an interesting map placed onto the wall, something which Stonegate do a fair amount when they’re trying to brighten up pubs. Unfortunately, I’m not sure this is how the designers intended this to look.

As for the pub, it seems to be aiming for the cheap beer market and that’s certainly going to be a challenging strategy. There was loud music playing, lots of shouting, plenty of drunkenness and that’s not bad going for an early Thursday afternoon. It’s obviously not for me to criticise that as variety in pubs is the spice of life, but now that I’m over 30 I’m not sure that I’m in that demographic. Well, not until the late evening anyway.

It is what it is, it’s loud and vibrant, but not unfriendly, I can imagine that there’s plenty of interesting stories that come out of here and it was certainly pulling the customers in so that can’t be bad.

April 21, 2023
Dereham Pub Day – George Hotel

The George Hotel was second on the list of pubs in Dereham that Julian and I were visiting, a large venue which is also a restaurant and hotel. The hotel element comprises of six bedrooms, a couple apparently with vintage four poster beds, currently priced at between £79 to £89 per night.

There’s plenty of history about the George at the Norfolk Pubs web-site, but this intrigued me:

“The bowling green was reputed to be over 300 years old, one of the oldest in England – when tarmac surface laid over it during 1986 (?), to allow car parking.”

This sounds sub-optimal to me.

There were two real ales on, the Pedigree from Marston’s Brewery and the Ghost Ship from Adnams. It’s not always entirely clear at some locations, but those just wanting a drink are welcome here and the bar area is open throughout the day.

I went for the Pedigree and it tasted as I expected, seemed well kept and was at the appropriate slightly chilled temperature.

We didn’t have any plans on where to eat for our day trip out, but the menu here looked reasonable and the dining area was also busy, which seemed a positive sign. The pricing also wasn’t unreasonable in this current climate of rapid food and drink price inflation.

The menu promised a large bowl of whitebait and I was suspicious of that as I have a different definition of “large bowl” to some restaurants. However, this really was excellent for £10 and I struggled to get through all of the whitebait, which was a larger portion than this photo suggests as there was more buried at the bottom. The whitebait was evenly coated so I didn’t have to stare into the eyes of the fish, the salad was dressed and the ciabatta was soft. I was suitably impressed by this whole arrangement, with Julian also commenting positively about his pan fried calves’ liver, which was too decadent a dish for me.

The dining area was pleasant, clean and comfortable. There was table service offered and the staff member was personable, welcoming and engaging, with service always being attentive and not intrusive.

These were too technical for me, fortunately Julian was able to work out how I was able to get salt and pepper. This sort of engineering knowledge is what I usually rely on my friend Liam to provide.

This is an overflow part of the pub and this was formerly a shop, note the Victorian bowed shopfront window at the rear.

The venue has plenty of character internally and there are also some live music events taking place here.

As for the reviews, they’re fairly positive, but this is one of the most ridiculous that I’ve read and I can imagine the George’s annoyance at this:

“Can’t say much good about it, ordered two lemonades and lime for ladies and were brought over in pint glass, ladies don’t drink like that, not even the offer of half pint.”

I thought these attitudes had been dumped in the 1970s, I’m bemused to see such piffle still being propagated. The owner responded suggesting that it might have been an idea to order a half if that’s what they wanted.

As an aside, not only is the venue listed, but so is the milestone at the front.

Anyway, I very much liked the character of this venue and also the friendly welcome. The service was informal, there were a couple of beer options and I left having eaten too much, so that seems a result to me.

April 21, 2023
Dereham Pub Day – Cherry Tree

The first pub on our Dereham Pub Day was the Cherry Tree, one of the oldest hospitality venues in the town which has been trading since the late eighteenth century. There were fears that a closure in January 2011 might become permanent, but it was reopened in December 2012 and has remained open since serving the denizens of Dereham.

The pub was once at the entrance to Dereham’s pig market, which is today the main car park for the town. Norfolk Record Office has the diaries of John Fenn which he wrote between 1786 and 1794, which apparently mentions multiple incidents of trouble at the Cherry Tree pub. I’ll add that to my long list of things to request at the Record Office as I’m intrigued what trouble was going on in the parish back then, I suspect it’s not dissimilar to the trouble the police currently deal with in the area. Also whilst I’m writing about the Record Office, this is an interesting article about the marriage of one of their landlords, Mahershalalhashbaz Tuck.

There’s also a story from the ever fascinating Norfolk Pubs web-site, noting:

“On July 31st 1856, Mr. Burke, who was staying at the Half Moon, had visited the Cherry Tree and sat drinking with the girls until midnight. The two girls took him across fields to a stack where they lay down and he fell asleep. When he awoke the girls were gone and he could not account for his money. Several witnesses proved that he had spent freely in the public house and the girls were acquitted.”

The pub recently posted this photo on their Facebook page, the pub is on the right. The full version of this photo, where you can see the actual pub, is at https://norfolk.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/ENQ/WPAC/BIBENQ?SETLVL=&BRN=712043.

Half a pint of Hobgoblin Gold from Wychwood and this was adequate, although not perhaps at its best. There were two beers on, this and the Coronation Ale from Greene King which has the sort of scoring on Untappd which is what I expect from the brewery. I like that the brewer’s signature has been placed on the pump clip, I suppose that they want someone to take responsibility and that’s a clever way of doing it.

For reasons that I don’t think I want to investigate, Julian was excited at the branding from Fosters and took out one of the brewery’s bar mats from his pocket. I think he gifted it to the pub to add to their marketing and I’m hoping he was more impressed by the wording on the bar mat than the beer itself.

The welcome was friendly and immediate with a feel that this is a community pub which seems non judgemental, it was a suitably inviting venue. There are no negative reviews on Google, I have to congratulate any pub which has managed not to annoy anyone over the last ten years. They don’t serve food, but they show sports and there are a number of community events which take place here, not least the weekly live music. Too often pubs don’t sell their distinct offering very well, but there’s an external sign at the Cherry Tree which mentions that they’re the town’s “number 1 live music venue” which seems like clear and useful marketing to me.

The reviews of the venue often mention “this is a proper drinking pub” and that seems to be a fair description.

April 21, 2023
King’s Lynn – NORAH event at King’s Lynn Town Hall

Despite all my expeditions to King’s Lynn recently, I’ve never made it to the historic Town Hall. Fortunately, a NorAH event was taking place and a trustee I thought it would made an ideal opportunity to have a look around the building.

The building is too complex to give a comprehensive history here, but there’s more information at their official web-site. But I’ll do my best at a potted history of the building in this post, with this grand room being the Assembly Room. These became popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, generally used by the more wealthy to take part in events such as balls, concerts, dances and all manner of other decadent events. The room has been decorated as it would have looked in the Georgian period and when they did some analysis of the walls they discovered six very different paint schemes which had been used over the years.

At the rear end of the Assembly Room, and constructed at the same time in 1768, is what is now known as the Card Room. This was used as a quieter and more intimate space which was frequently used by card playing following in the traditions of King George III and King George IV. Today the venue is used for weddings and other formal events, so the traditions of being a meeting place for those in the town continues.

At the other end of the Assembly Room is what I consider to be the centrepiece of the building, the Stone Hall. This was built in 1422 and was originally a merchant guildhall (the Merchant Guild Hall of the Holy Trinity), replacing an earlier building that had caught fire in 1421. The floor is made from Ketton stone (which is from Rutland and is used extensively in a number of colleges at Cambridge University) and was added in 1716, with marks on the floor from when they put in the judge’s bench, defendant’s dock and the jury stalls. The whole design of this room and its long heritage does remind me of similar halls in countries such as Poland, they have no shortage of buildings such as this there, usually by the city’s main market square.

The large tracery window at the end of the Stone Hall has numerous inscriptions that glaziers and plumbers (lead workers) have scratched into the glass over the years, likely annoying generations of custodians of the building.

A close-up of some of the handiwork. There is a guide on the window which shows where the inscriptions are and details of what they say.

A side door from the Stone Hall leads through to the former courtroom which was built in 1767 to serve as the Borough’s council chamber. In 1830 the room was repurposed to become the Petty Sessions, or Magistrate’s Court, and it remained in use until 1982. Modernisation is inevitable and the facilities were dated for the modern age, but there is an element of sadness when traditions come to an end. There’s plenty of centralisation in public services today, a lot of the power and civic functions of King’s Lynn have ebbed away over the years.

The retiring room which was added in 1895 to link the Georgian town hall with the new municipal wing.

The porch where visitors enter the building. It’s an odd design with a fair amount of wasted space, I’m not sure whether they’ve repurposed this area over the years.

Onto the documents that were on display, this is a survey of the lands in Terrington St Clement and Terrington St John.

These documents can often be hard to make out where the handwriting isn’t clear, but the book on the left (which is the one in the previous photo) had a scribe who was clearly proud of their handiwork. The documents and maps on display were all purchased for Norfolk Record Office at public auction following donations made by NorAH and the Audrey Muriel Stratford Trust.

I do like knowing what’s behind a door like this.

And thanks to Luke and his guided tour, I was able to find out. These are the bottom of those stairs, where the prisoners would trudge up to the court and then back down again after having found out their sentence.

All told, a rather lovely evening and it’s positive to see documents being acquired that can be read and accessed for free by anyone who visits the King’s Lynn Borough Archives. It was also a highlight of course to see this historic building and to get a tour of it, I’m very pleased that no-one has ever turned it into a restaurant, hotel or bar in the way that some of these venues are repurposed. Also, for anyone interested, here are details of the NorAH Supporter’s Scheme.

April 20, 2023
Harwich – Kindertransport Memorial

I’ve seen a few Kindertransport sculptures and memorials around Europe, not least in Gdansk and at London Liverpool Street railway station. This memorial in Harwich is titled Safe Haven and was sculpted by Ian Wolter (https://ianwolter.com/safe-haven/), having been unveiled at Harwich Quayside on 1 September 2022.

It’s located here as nearby on 2 December 1938 a ferry docked which included 200 mostly Jewish children from Germany, a Kindertransport designed to save their lives. Around 10,000 children, mostly from children’s homes, were brought to Britain as part of the process and many were sent to the nearby Dovercourt Bay Holiday Camp. The first transportation took place just days after Kristallnacht, the organised campaign of terror against Jewish communities across Germany.

It’s a beautiful and touching sculpture with an information board nearby to explain the concept of the Kindertransport. The imagery is powerful, these five scared children walking down a plank to a new world which would have no doubt been frightening to them, but it was likely a journey that saved their lives. I’ve noted before that every time I write about this subject, I feel the need to mention Sir Nicholas Winton, one of the greatest humanitarians of the twentieth century. Some politicians today might perhaps be better served, or at least the country would be, by being inspired by his politics of compassion rather than deciding to opt for hatred and scaremongering.

The memorial has its own web-site which has plenty more information about its history and what the children involved went through.

April 17, 2023
Harwich – Ha’Penny Pier

I love a nice pier, there’s something quite exotic about walking out over the sea whilst peering (no pun intended) through the holes in the wood at the waves crashing below. Harwich’s pier doesn’t quite have the water underneath which is being flung against the sand by the power of the moon, but it still allows for a little walk out.

The pier has a kink in the middle of it, towards the right is where the entrance is located and off to the left is where the landing area is for the ferry across to Felixstowe. There’s a little cafe located at the entrance to the pier, as well as small tourist information facility which is operated by the Harwich Society.

This is what the pier looked like at the end of the nineteenth century, but today the spur going off to the left is missing which is because it burnt down in July 1923. A fair number of sources give the date as 1927, but it was Friday 13th July 1923, perhaps there’s something in these omens. This section of the pier had been closed off during the First World War, although fishermen often jumped the barrier, but the planned repairs caused by a lack of maintenance were aborted when it caught fire.

There’s Felixstowe in the background.

The pier’s information sign and it mentions that it opened on 2 July 1853 and originally cost ha’penny to enter, hence the name.

Some of the artwork located, or perhaps temporarily dumped, on the bridge. It’s Esturiana and is a community artwork which is apparently a sign of local creativity. I can’t write that I’m particularly engaged by it as I’m struggling to understand the story it’s trying to tell, but everyone likes different things and at least they’ve put a sign up to explain to visitors who created it.

More recently, there was nearly another disaster when in August 2020 there was a fire which fortunately didn’t spread as the fire brigade were alerted promptly and they were able to quell the flames. There’s been some recent restoration work to stop bits of the pier falling down, so its future seems secure. These are really not ideal structures to have to look after, they are quickly damaged by the elements, but at least this pier has survived albeit not as much as there once was.

There’s more information about this rather charming little pier at https://www.harwich-society.co.uk/maritime-heritage-trail/hapenny-pier-visitors-centre/.

April 16, 2023
Harwich – Harwich Library

I’ve decided that I can establish a reasonable information about a town or city by the sort of library that it maintains. This one, located opposite the town’s JD Wetherspoon pub, is open five days a week including until 19:00 on one evening. For anyone who likes challenges, guess what this building used to be. The answer is further down the post.

It has tables, so that’s a win for me, and there’s also a relatively substantial local history collection. There was quite an argument going on between a visitor and the librarian, the former claiming they had paid a book fine and the latter stating very firmly that their system showed that they hadn’t. I was a little disappointed not to see the matter resolved, but there’s a limit to how long I’m prepared to wait in a library to see how a customer service issue unfolds. I like a bit of drama with my library visit, it adds something just that bit intangible.

There was some sort of recycling display in the corner to add a little something to the whole arrangement. As for the library, it seemed quiet and comfortable with plenty of books, I didn’t have much to complain about at all. Nothing overly inspiring, but it was open when I wanted to go in it, so that’s sufficient given the current national cutbacks.

There’s an interesting story that I can’t quite understand which is that the denizens of Harwich in 1903 rejected a £3,000 sum from Andrew Carnegie to build themselves a library. This philanthropist funded 3,000 libraries around the world and I haven’t come across an instance where his offer was rejected, although I’m sure it must have happened in numerous locations. The local newspaper commented that “Andrew Carnegie must sometimes feel sad at the inexplicable conduct of some unenlightened people” and that seems a fair summary of the situation. A local vote showed that 235 residents wanted a library and 536 didn’t. I assume that’s because Carnegie required the local ratepayers to take responsibility for the institution and the taxpayers didn’t want that hassle. The local newspapers show that for the next thirty years there was anger from residents writing to say they needed a public library and why wasn’t the council providing them one.

And, for the answer to my question earlier on, it was a bus station. Congratulations to anyone who guessed from the frontage of the building.

April 10, 2023
Harwich – Breakwater

I pondered, as this is the sort of thing I decide I need to think about, the problems that councils must have with signage such as this. They have to make it so that the breakwater is clearly out of bounds, but not so much that people have to walk around the signage and risk falling in getting onto it. This does seem a genuinely dangerous thing to walk on, there are photos of the waves pounding it from both sides.

Whilst I’m making reference to danger, I was interested to discover that a fair few sailing craft have hit this breakwater when the tide was high, which seems far from ideal (or sub-optimal as other Julian says). The port of Felixstowe is visible in the background of the photo above.

There’s more Felixstowe, which takes me back to when I walked 50 miles as part of the LDWA Shotley Peninsular walk.

And here’s some more sea photos….. What a treat for the end of a Easter Bank Holiday for both my readers.

Someone like Dave Morgan would decide that he’d go for the option on the left as there would be a nice walk to them……

April 10, 2023
Harwich – Cox’s Pond

An entire blog post about a pond, but if there had been more Good Beer Guide pubs in Harwich then I might have been otherwise distracted…. The ducks on this pond have had a challenging time over recent years, they went mysteriously missing in 2011 and had to be replaced with a new cluster of ducks.

I think it’s an interesting pond though and not just because of its duckhouse, a word perhaps forever synonymous now with the late Conservative MP Peter Viggers and his Parliamentary expenses. I was intrigued as it has some heritage to it, the pond was once part of the ditch that surrounded the medieval town of Harwich.

The location of the pond can’t be made out in this early eighteenth century drawing of the town, but it gives an indication of how the ditches were used to help defend Harwich.

April 9, 2023