I admit to being slightly, but just slightly, geeky about London transport. Buses, trains, trams, underground services all hold some excitement and I’ve been following the introduction of TFL’s Superloop services. I decided to wait for a short while to get service SL9 which is the orbital route from Harrow to Heathrow Airport.
And here it is, the SL9. Admittedly, this isn’t really that exciting, it’s a standard bus that until recently was just branded the X140. For anyone further interested there’s more on Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Superloop, with the new system being a little complex if I’m being honest. Or, at least, it seems complex to me which might be a different thing.
For the purposes of the trip to Bucharest, it took five minutes to get into Heathrow’s central bus terminal and the service wasn’t too crowded.
Emma, from the formidable Boudicca Brewery, kindly invited Alex, Julian, Gareth and myself to the trade session of Beccles Beer Festival where she had donated a barrel of beer. We were confronted by quite large crowds at Norwich bus station which transpired to be because the bus before hadn’t turned up, which was acceptable since it was caught up in a bomb incident outside Lowestoft Aldi. Sub-optimal for all concerned.
The bus appeared and Emma and I managed to get seats. Unfortunately for Alex, the bus soared past him at his bus stop as it was so busy, but Emma made sure he knew we were on it by jumping up and down whilst waving out of the bus window. I didn’t say anything.
Safely in Beccles, we thought we’d get some food. I got a battered sausage and chips from Beccles Fish Bar and I have to say, this was really rather lovely for just over £4. The sausage was a proper butcher’s one rather than some plastic arrangement which is all too common in chips shops, whilst the portion of chips was generous and I only just finished them. I was also impressed at the way they were wrapped, but I’m easily pleased. The service was friendly and I was pleased to be able to explain that they were surprisingly busy with unwrapped orders because the beer festival was taking place a couple of doors down.
The beer glasses which took me back to being on glasses and tokens at Norwich Beer Festival a couple of weeks ago.
The glass was £3 and I later decided to keep it, even though I’ve evidently got enough glasses. And paying £3 in total didn’t seem bad value to me. There’s a free programme that comes with it, although I accidentally left that behind which I didn’t mean to.
Hmmm, a blurry photo of the bar area. Anyway, the set-up was that the beers were all free as they were donated by the brewers. The event is independently organised and takes place at Beccles Public Hall and Theatre. It got quite busy later on and everything felt well organised.
The green ones were free, whilst the yellow ones were only being put on for the main part of the festival this weekend.
Gareth turned up with sweets, he’s very reliable at that. Julian also drove due to some earlier car purchase issues, which had the advantage of meaning we could get a lift back and stay at the festival a little longer.
Cheers! As for the beers I tried, they’re listed on my Untappd account for anyone interested. Form an orderly queue and all that. The best beer was of course Emma’s Golden Torc, but I was also quite impressed at the Beccles Best, a very sessionable beer with a pleasant toffee finish.
Julian decided he’d treat himself to a sausage roll, freshly microwaved.
And back in Norwich, I was frogmarched into the King’s Head by Emma and Julian, just in time to wish Oli a happy birthday and watch Oscar acquire himself a bottle of wine. Emma and I quickly played two games of bar billiards, with the final score being 1-1, so that seemed fair. As I wrote about the other day, my own bar billiards league career is over for the year. Then there was much gossip and crisps to take me into the early hours of the morning.
All told, a lovely evening at the beer festival and many thanks to Emma for the invite! That’s three things she’s taken me to this year, Cambridge Beer Festival, Peterborough Beer Festival and Beccles Festival and I’ve loved them all.
Over the last few months, I’ve visited all 29 of the food stalls at Norwich market, initially with my friend Nathan and then my long time market food eating friend James took over to assist. This was all a marvellous idea, the variety, quality and value of the stalls has really surprised me and made me feel just a little guilty for having gone to same chip stall for the best part of twenty years. There are dessert stalls, Chinese, Indian, Mexican, cafes, chips shops and plenty more besides. I fully recommend a visit to Norwich market for any visitor, or indeed resident, of Norwich to see just how much variety is here.
Honourable mentions first. There were many friendly figures at the market, but the one that stands out for me is back in week three when our social butterfly Nathan got chatting to the really lovely owner of Chimneys. Given that he had just picked me up from Luton Airport (Nathan, not the guy running the market stall) I was impressed at his socialising skills. Unfortunately, Chimneys is the only stall that has closed during this process, I do hope the lovely guy running it thinks about another similar project in the future. Back to Nathan and his socialising, when we went to the Taste of Shanghai he already knew the owner as he had had a chat with him in the street or something. Who chats to people in the street? Also honourable mention to Deb’s for making a bacon sandwich just I like it, namely not what I consider to be raw as some places serve it. And, to the venue that might have surged into first place if they had offered us hot pies with gravy, Walsingham Farm Shop. The theatre of the Go Crepes stall was also a delight to watch.
After much ruminating, this means that the results are in and I’ve decided to name my favourite three outlets as my two loyal readers have been waiting for this. I haven’t consulted Nathan or James on this as I’ve decided it’ll all be about me 🙂 For anyone who wants to see all the photos from every visit, they’re at https://www.flickr.com/photos/julianwhite-uk/albums/72177720305738387. I’m also conscious that some new stalls have opened recently, we’ll visit them in 2024.
I had to think about this for a while given that there were so many positive moments. I liked the friendliness, the variety of the menu and also the depth of flavour of the food. There were positive little touches here, including the free water for customers and the comfortable seating area. The empanada I ordered was generously filled with pieces of chorizo and chicken, all very tender.
In second place is a stall which means quite a lot to me since I’ve visited so much, Lucy’s Fish and Chips. Their customer service is on point, they manage to deal with their queues in an efficient manner which is a challenge given how busy they are. The food is of a consistently high standard and it’s always a delight to come here. Their prices are some of the lowest on the market, there’s a seating area and they have scraps to put on top of the chips.
Just look at that, a packed pastrami sandwich which tasted as good as it looks. The service is friendly, efficient and it feels all very on-trend and customer focused. It’s not necessarily the cheapest option at the market, but the quality is so high that it justifies its price. For extra excitement, Toby’s Beer is located just one market row away to enjoy this decadent sandwich with a craft beer. So very lovely.
Many thanks to Nathan for his help, always merrily chatting to stall holders and selflessly going for a different option to broaden out the reviews, whilst although James has often been inspired to have the same food as me, his photos have added a huge amount to the blog posts. Thanks also to everyone on the market, I’ve very much enjoyed this project.
Here we are with the final instalment (for now) of my plan to eat at every food stall at Norwich Market, this time it’s Go Crepes.
There was a friendly welcome from the smartly dressed team member, who added some theatre to the whole proceedings with his style, not just in terms of his appearance but also in how he was preparing the food. There’s a choice between sweet and savoury crepes, with plenty of choice in terms of the ingredients. They accept cards and cash here, with everything looking spotlessly clean.
I went for sweet and here’s the start of preparing my Nutella, banana and coconut crepe.
Flipped over.
Here we go, neatly presented and generously filled with ingredients including lots of Nutella, a whole banana and plenty of coconut.
James went savoury with cheese, pepperoni and egg. This is his photo, as the better quality of the image perhaps makes obvious. That’s his hand too.
James was suitably impressed, with the fillings being of a generous amount with his, plenty of cheese, four large slices of pepperoni and an egg. If I’m being honest, this isn’t necessarily my go to type of food as I find it a bit stodgy, but it was one of the best crepes that I’ve had. I felt that they represented very reasonable value for money, they tasted of a good quality and I liked the engagement and theatre from the team member. This was a marvellous visit to end of this project and there will shortly be a final results post 🙂 Oh the anticipation for my two loyal blog readers.
Another post in my series of what was happening in Norwich 200 years ago this week.
In November 1823, the Norwich Mercury published this letter:
“Sir – We beg to request your attendance at a Meeting to be held at the Shirehall, at Norwich, at Two o’clock, on Saturday, the 22nd November, for the purpose of forming an Association for saving the Lives of Shipwrecked Mariners on the whole line of the Coast of Norfolk.
The object of this Association will be raise Funds sufficient to place Life Boats and the Apparatus for saving Life, invented by Captain Manby and others, on different points where they may appear to be likely to be serviceable, and sufficient to give due recompense to persons as shall assist in cases of Shipwreck. Should you be unable to attend, may we beg that you will signify whether you are disposed to support such an Association by letter addressed to JJ Gurney, Esq, Norwich.
Signed by John Wodehouse, Thomas William Cook, Edmond Wodehouse, Suffield.”
The Norfolk Association for Saving the Lives of Shipwrecked Mariners was successfully founded and it became part of the RNLI in December 1857. The first lifeboat had been designed by Lionel Lukin in 1785 who patented what he called the world’s first unsinkable boat. There were some forward thinkers in Norfolk, as the RNLI wasn’t created until 4 March 1824. The readers of this letter to the newspaper in 1823 helped to create an institution which has saved hundreds of lives along the Norfolk coastline over the last 200 years.
And we’re in the final week of eating at every food stall at Norwich Market and today’s visit was to the Walsingham Farm Shop. James and I are visiting the final stall tomorrow and our job here is done.
As a spoiler, I think it’s fair to say that this stall managed to confuse both James and I. Initially we thought that this display was misted up because of the warm pastries and pies inside.
The team member came over to clean the front of the display for us, which should have made it obvious to us that the food inside would not necessarily be warm as we thought it might be. But, look at how tempting this food selection is, this is all very me and my expectations were high.
I went for the turkey, stuffing and bacon pie which cost £4.95 and it was served cold. It’s fair to say that I had managed to be confused with the hot food signs at the unit. I’ve looked back at photos of this stall (and noted another customer has had this issue in a review that I hadn’t noticed earlier) and there appears to be a separate display board at the rear of the unit. The moral of this story is that don’t assume your customers aren’t idiots 🙂
And here’s the photo that James took, which is notably better than mine and so I’ll use this as the thumbnail once again.
The pie was of a high quality but we did think just how good this would have been hot with gravy. There’s a small seating area at the stall and everything was clean and organised with some condiments available. Anyway, the pie was packed with the promised ingredients with the turkey being tender and the bacon adding flavour, and some cranberry sauce at the base of the pie. All really rather lovely and I felt that I received perfectly reasonable value for £4.95.
Anyway, we were just about to leave when someone came with a hot pie, gravy and mash. They must have either been cleverer than us, more aware of their surroundings or it might have been explained to them differently. The shame about this is that if they had sold me a hot pie with gravy this would have been a contender for the best market stall when I announce the results to my two loyal readers tomorrow. But they didn’t, so they’re not.
Jonathan, Julian and I popped into this JD Wetherspoon operated pub in Tewkesbury which is also listed in the Good Beer Guide. It was a relatively brief visit to this historic venue, an intriguing former coaching inn.
It’s a long building, with wood panelling seemingly everywhere, which dates to the fifteenth century although has some eighteenth century additions to it. It’s been a sympathetic renovation by JD Wetherspoon and it’s also one of their hotels with 28 bedrooms available. The Royal bit to the pub was added after Mary of Teck visited in September 1891. The pub was also mentioned in Charles Dickens’s Pickwick Papers:
“At the Hop Pole at Tewkesbury, they stopped to dine; upon which occasion there was more bottled ale, with some more Madeira, and some port besides; and here the case-bottle was replenished for the fourth time. Under the influence of these combined stimulants, Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Ben Allen fell fast asleep for thirty miles, while Bob and Mr. Weller sang duets in the dickey.”
In fairness, some of the old world charm has been lost, but that’s perhaps inevitable in a busy and modern pub. I’m fascinated by coaching inns as they provided entertainment, hospitality and comfort of some sort to generations of travellers. Tewkesbury was an important location as it was a stopover for travellers from London, Manchester, Bristol and God’s own city of Bath. There were once four coaching inns in Tewkesbury, but this is the only one which remains trading. The railway was the start of an economic boom for some locations, but not for Tewkesbury, the coaching trade came to a near immediate halt in the 1830s.
We visited during the pub’s beer festival, so I went for a third of three different beers. The Quiet Shadows from Fyne Ales was a drab affair with little depth of taste to it, but the Scallywag from Hop Union Brewery had a decent toffee flavour to it. Continuing on that theme, the Steel & Oak Easy Stout was a pleasant 4% beer with flavours of toffee, chocolate and coffee. It cost around £2.50 for these three, it’s hard to deny the value that they’re offering. Jonathan and Julian went for food, but I found some heavily reduced sandwiches in One Stop over the road. I know how to live the decadent life….
As a sense of scale, the rear entrance to the pub is just to the left and the front entrance is all the way back on that road at the rear. It’s a formidable building in terms of its size.
The pub goes back to the River Avon. It’s one of the best reviewed pubs in the chain that I’ve seen, although with such a beautiful building it would be rather a shame if it wasn’t. Some angry or upset reviews include:
“Didn’t like it. It felt rundown. We wanted a hot drink and they give us a mug to fill up in a drinks machine but could have as many refills as we liked. It was just under £5 for 3 of us. Perhaps that is one of the reasons the place looked like it had had better days as it was cheap.”
I’m not sure that warrants a 1 star review, but each to their own I guess.
“Absolutely crazy place to go always spent loads of money and there 14 of us as a family and the pub don’t like big families after 3 drinks were refused a drink even though we spend £300 at a time not a friendly or peaceful place to be what a shame in a little town this could. Be a nice place to go as pricing in good but this place is awful to go with a big family”
Perhaps it’s wrong of me to suspect that there’s a noise related issued here….
“Today I visited this Wetherspoons with every intention of using the app. When selecting Fish & chips it asked me how I wanted my steak done.”
Seems reasonable 🙂
“Food was good but the sign said no dogs, well our cat wasn’t a dog, she was in a cage and we were in the garden but were still abruptly asked to leave!”
There are numerous complaints from people who were annoyed that their dogs weren’t allowed in, but this is the only angry customer that had their cat thrown out.
Anyway, I digress. There were seven real ales, the venue was clean, the team members were friendly and the building was full of period charm. Quite rightly in the Good Beer Guide and a seemingly well managed JD Wetherspoon.
Albert Place is a small road located off of Telegraph Lane West, which is visible on the above map coming off of Albert Road, but the top section is no longer there and is underneath some more modern housing.
This is all that is left now, so there’s not much that I can write here.
But, there is a story about two former residents of this street, Mr. W. Scott and his wife, who both incurred head injuries from a major railway accident which took place on 10 September 1874. An express train running from London to Great Yarmouth hit a mail train from Great Yarmouth to Norwich at some speed near Thorpe Junction, given some communication confusion caused by a telegraph clerk. 25 people were killed, including both sets of drivers and firemen, with a further 75 being injured. The disaster led to the introduction Tyer’s Electric Train Tablet, a token based system which made it impossible for two trains to be on the same section of track.
And, as another story, John Abel advertised in the Norwich Mercury on 7 September 1896 the below:
“This is to give notice, that on and after this date I will not be responsible for any debts contracted by my wife, Charlotte Abel.
John Abel, Albert Place, Albert Road, St. Leonard’s Road, Norwich.”
The next pub on our tour around Hereford was the Good Beer Guide listed Orange Tree which is operated by Black Country Ales, a chain that I know from my previous visits to Birmingham. The Orange Tree is Grade II listed and the front section was built in the seventeenth century, with a more modern section at the rear of the venue. For reasons unknown to me, it was called the Firefly for a while, but the older name returned in 2019.
Then, in 2020, the pub got national publicity when the landlord posted on social media:
“There’s a lot of young chavs, or roadmen, with bum bags in Hereford, if you know what I mean, been frequenting the pub and they don’t know how to behave. The youngsters don’t know how to handle themselves in a pub. A lot of them turned 18 during lockdown and are just misbehaving to be fair, and putting off other customers.”
To reinforce his point, he then banned hoodies and anyone in Stone Island clothing. Oh, and banned under 21 year olds on some evenings. Any pub which has to resort to banning people based on their clothing choices is unlikely to last long (unless it’s so good that it decides that it wants a decadent dress code, but how many city centre pubs are realistically going to be that extravagent?), and it was the inevitable course of events here. It was sold just a couple of months after to another operator, but then, two years later, Black Country Ales purchased the pub and admitted it had been failing for years, before they steadied the ship. They removed the upstairs commercial kitchen to put in a larger manager’s flat, but they restored calm and balance, with a swift entry in the Good Beer Guide coming soon after.
“If Jacko the landlord had doubt about your age, he used to open your mouth and check your teeth like a vet checks a horse’s.”
Interesting…. I don’t think that will catch on instead of the Check 25 age verification policy.
Looking towards the more modern rear of the pub, much of the wood panelling in the venue has remained in place. There used to be bagatelle played at the pub, but that habit no longer persists. More pubs need bar billiards tables and a bagatelle arrangement. Writing about matters of the past, I liked the article in the Hereford Journal in July 1860 given it covers the subject of pubs and walking:
“VISIT OF JOHN MOUNTJOY – THE CELEBRATED PEDESTRIAN, TO HEREFORD.
On Monday last, it was advertised by public bills, that John Mountjoy, the celebrated pedestrian, whose wonderful feats have been heard of far and near through the medium of the sporting papers, had visited this visit, and that on Monday morning last, he was to perform the following wonderful feats three days in succession – the more wonderful as the pedestrian is now in his 60th year. The bills stated that he was to start from Mr. Hewitson’s the Orange Tree, in King Street, and walk to the Green Man at Fownhope, and back again to the Orange Tree, four times in the course of each day.”
The walking though was just the start of it:
“The other part of the programme was that he would perform the following nine feats in 40 minutes :- To walk forwards half a mile and backwards half a mile; to run half a mile; to hop on one leg for 100 yards; to run backwards 100 yards; to pick up with one hand 30 stones, placed one yard apart, and to deposit them singly in a basket; to pick up 20 eggs in his mouth without touching the ground with his knees or the eggs with either hand, and to deposit each in a bucket of water, without breaking it; and, finally, to leap 20 hurdles, each ten yards apart, with the last egg in his mouth without breaking it”.
Perhaps we should add this extra element to LDWA events….
The bar with its extensive range of real ales, including several from Black Country Ales. With regards to the team member, he was engaging and personable, offering a positive and warm welcome. We were visiting the pub towards the end of the evening, but it was evident he was content to serve until the advertised times. This might not sound particularly notable, but there are a few pubs who do ignore their opening hours and shut early or open late.
They’re not Untappd screens, but they’re useful ways of seeing what beers are available. A well curated selection of beers, with the prices being reasonable.
I went for a snack and the Old Mill Stout from Little Eaton Brewery from Derby. It was a well-kept plum porter and it was smooth with an edge of decadence, a more than acceptable way to end the evening. I was, once again, pleased with my food pairing choices.
All credit to Black Country Ales for this comfortable, friendly and laid-back pub, especially given what the venue has gone through over recent years. It’s done well to get into the Good Beer Guide and from my visit, it seems well deserved. All really rather lovely.
The next pub on our evening meander around Hereford was the Good Beer Guide listed Beer in Hand. It’s got the atmosphere and ambience of a micropub and it has won numerous CAMRA awards over the years.
There were real ales available as well (although apparently the number of these has been reduced from previous years), with this being the keg and cans list. I like nicely presented boards which make things simple for me to understand rather than some rickety board that I can hardly read perched precariously behind the bar. The beer list was well curated with a range of beer styles to choose from, as well as an up-to-date can list by using printed versions of it. The service at the bar was friendly and timely, all suitably relaxed.
Bottles, cans, real ciders and all rather exciting. I liked the inviting atmosphere of the pub and the atmosphere felt comfortable, informal and safe. They don’t sell food, but they are proud of not just their beer and cider but also their craft spirits.
I went for the Dream House from Left Handed Giant brewery from Bristol. I like this brewery, I’ve been to their brewpub in Bristol and they make some particularly decadent stouts. This beer was a NEIPA, with a decent fruity and hoppy flavour.
Julian, who is a natural sporting sceptic (despite my attempts to get him to play football), was convinced to play Jenga. Just wait, I think he might move onto bar billiards before you know it.
Then, for reasons unknown, Jonathan brought over some Russian dolls. What was also evident was that there was an element of community about the venue with that micropub tendency to have plenty of events going on even though the opening hours might be a little limited compared to traditional pubs. There’s a debate about that in the latest CAMRA magazine, but I won’t go down that rabbit hole at the moment.
Anyway, sport aside, I very much liked this pub and am pleased that it’s listed in the Good Beer Guide. The choice of beers is impressive, the pub was clean, the service was friendly and they had a number of different pub games. The on-line reviews are positive and I’d merrily recommend a visit here.
