In reference to Mirelle's earlier recollection of the days when mere yachtsmen dare not enter the Butt at Pinn Mill for fear of the bargemen, I have to report that things are (almost) worse than we thought.
Popped along for lunch at the request of a friend, and joy of joys, and most unusually for a Saturday lunchtime, we found a table in the cosy "Smoke Room", a sort of snug they set out for smoking diners. A pint of Broadside before me, I lit up a comforting cigarette.
It wasn't long before my quiet puffing was interrupted by the pointed coughing of a just-pubescent teenager, the audible whispering of her younger sibling ("mummy, they mustn't do that"), and, last of all, a request for us to desist from their parents. I naturally refused, observing that if you will sit and order your lunch in the clearly-labelled "Smoke Room", you can jolly well put up with it. One tries to be a considerate smoker, but in a public house where they specifically nominate an area, it's beyond a joke.
I should like to see them insist on a bar-full of bargies extinguishing their pipes. Not the pub's fault, but just another example of tedious home-counties gentility trying to absorb a quiet country pub into it's safe and spotless innerverse. Damn their eyes.
"tedious home counties gentility", well maybe, but I have impeccable working class credentials, and I hate smokers too! A "considerate smoker" has to be the oxymoron to end all oxymorons. All drug addicts are egotistical and selfish, no matter whether their drug of choice is legal or otherwise.
It's good to know there are some intelligent "pre-pubescent teenagers " around. You should listen to them.
I am all in favour of smoke rooms in pubs, to save the rest of us from your filthy orally-fixated habit,but often the area so designated is marked only by an imaginary line between one table and the next. Where exactly is the smoke room at the Butt and Oyster? I haven't been there for about 6 months and I don't remember one. I rarely go to pubs (because of the smoke) unless I can sit outside - the sooner there is a total ban on smoking the better.
I never thought I'd hear a yachtsman criticising someone else for being middle class though! I thought that was a necessary qualification for going sailing.
The Butt only has four things in its favour nowadays - Location, Location, Location and its history. I enjoy the view of when I'm sailing past, but tend to feed and drink at the nearby Schooner at Woolverstone Marina where the fare is good and cmuch better value, and the company is normally good. The views of course are breathtaking, especially at sunset. Trouble is, the beer's so good at the Butt (OK, that's five things), particularly since the last last change of Landlord which is when I think Adnams arrived. Previously it was the only place where Tolly tasted good.
Smoking - if you can't smoke at a pub, where can you smoke (apart from at my Mother's /<ristal)? I no longer smoke, but only mind others smoking if they're actually sitting beside me when I'm eating.
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Barbican Bill the Sailor
Formerly known as Little_Knot, and before that as Francis_Fletcher.
One of the few things worse than millitant non-smokers are born again Christians- " So tell me, have you given yourself to the Lord? Hm?"
I generally stub my fag out in their left eye.
And non smoking pubs? Fine,,,,, build one if that's what you want, with bars marked "Smug Gits"and " People like Us".
Otherwise don't go to places that make you uncomfortable.
"Mummy, Mummy. That man is having a tattoo!" Well yes dear, this is a tattoo parlour but I'll get Daddy to tell him to stop before we all get passive hepatitus."
Born-again non-smokers are quite the worst - and if a pub has smoking and non-smoking areas, I'll happily stick to the smokers area. Don't even get me started on militant Christians - as a sort of Christian myself, the only time I lose all sense of moral responsibility is when faced with an evangalistic, usually ill-considered, onslaught.
Sadly, I get more and more disappointed with the Butt every time I go - whilst the cellar is well-kept and the staff mostly pleasant and helpful, the food becomes less authentic and more poncey with every passing year, and the interior is slowly becoming cleaner and less cluttered. I like cluttered pubs. The view is as always spectacular (although there were a number of boats on the hard which failed to right themselves on an exceptionally high tide and filled up with water at the weekend) but I must admit I spent more time looking at the staff - some quite delightful creatures were working there, some wearing flowers in their hair and everything... lovely...
But I'm afraid I'm in love with the ideal of small local pubs which exist for the locals - the Butt & Oyster that Jim Brading would have had breakfast at. As Andrew says, they know they're sitting on a gold mine. Although I never met Pat, I understand he still lives at Pin Mill, so perhaps we should all press-gang him back into service...
And yes, a smoker will never have a finer reception than at FF's mum's house!!
The smoke room is a small, snug-type area aross the entrance hall from the main bar area (also quite rightly a designated smoking area), and well away from the large, non-smoking dining room (somewhat more antiseptic than the rest of the C16th pub). It has a door, clearly proclaiming the room's purpose, which can be closed to seal it off (but rarely is).
I fear I too would be decidedly middle-class if I had the income to go with it, but it isn't a matter of class - it's that everywhere families of this nature go, they expect the environment to conform to their 'wholesome' ideals, regardless of it's history, customs or traditions. They are usually shockingly self-righteous (even more so than myself), and are probably the type who are so determinedly healthy-living that their children will grow up without a developed immune system - quite possibly what caused the elder daughter's cough, now I come to think of it...
I wasn't making it a class thing - that would be as sweeping a generalisation as "all drug addicts are egotistical and selfish", which is, of course, utter nonsense. As far as listening to 'intelligent' pre-pubescent teenagers, I'll quite happily listen to them, but not in a Public bloody House. When I was very young, in a large, working class East London family, you wouldn't even have dreamed of going into a pub before you were at least 16, and then, anything approaching that level of impertinence would see you publicly clipped around the ear by your dad, grandad, uncle, landlord, local shove-ha'penny champion, or all of the above.
So if you can also smoke in the main bar, there is no escape for non smokers, who after all are in the majority - it only takes one person smoking a cigarette (don't get me started on pipes and cigars) to ruin it for everyone with a sense of smell. I would quite happily sit next to someone injecting themselves with heroin, because it doesn't affect me at all (I used to have a diabetic girlfriend who injected insulin as a matter of course, sometimes by necessity in public places), rather than breath in someone's smoke. I don't even object on health grounds, I agree with your point about immune systems. I just can't stand the smell, which makes me throw up , especially after a few days at sea!
I still maintain that drug addicts are selfish, as I have known quite a few - they are fine until there is a supply shortage, then the true nature shows.
I also share your opinion of the middle classes, as I spend my working life (as an electrician) pandering to the idle luxury and poor taste of such people (we are all whores). I have intimate experience of them and their precocious children. Again, there used to be children's rooms, as well as smoke rooms, in pubs; I spent many happy hours there as a child, with a bottle of lemonade and a packet of crisps.
Incidentally, the Butt and Oyster is best visited on a mid-week night in winter, when there are few yachts and fewer day trippers (of any social class). I once spent a winter living aboard, anchored off in the river (I couldn't afford a mooring), and it was lovely there in the pub, you could imagine Arthur Ransome himself popping in for a quick one.
...as I'm sure he did! Not a lot is said about how he spent his off-time, and I'm sure there are others here who know more, but it certainly used to have the feeling. It is getting a bit sterile now, though... which is truthfully more what I was getting at, rather than the smoking bit...
I would as soon breath diesel fumes as tobacco smoke. Its foul and well proven to be harmful to the health of non smokers in all kinds of ways. Sit near a smoker for only a short time and the sour smell clings to hair and clothes until they are washed or cleaned. Maybe as smokers always smell like this they don't realise how nasty and intrusive it is. Most of my adult life smokers had it all their own way. If you didn't like it you just had to put up with it. Now the tables are turned. I don't mind if people smoke or not - that's their business (although I do feel sorry for the children in their families) but, please, not around me. The total ban has worked well in Ireland and should be brought in here. If pubs want to provide facilities for smokers, that's fine, but general public areas should be smoke free, for the sake of the majority. Smoking is no more acceptable than chewing tobacco and spitting on the floor - a habit that was very common 100 years ago and would horrify people now. Its a sad addiction and a habit whose time has passed.
Not the issue. I don't disagree. But if you sit in a room called the "Smoke Room" where ashtrays are provided on the tables, you are likely to get what it says on the tin.
If you want to continue the "smokers are evil" thread, at least post something that we haven't all heard before.
/<
PS: I breathe Diesel fumes all the time. And parafin, turpentine, meths, white spirit... I also usually have antifoul in my hair at this time of year, and the place in which I live has a fine layer of wax and soot all over it. I happen to like it.
Don't care about the smoking debate (although its a habit I abhor) but will you stop talking about Adnams! Its about the only thing I miss living in Canada........!
Actually I wouldn't even go as far as to demand a total ban on smoking in public, although this will eventually happen - there is a pub in Kent which has seen a massive increase in business since they banned it, and when the all the other pubs and restaurants realise what they are missing, they will follow suit. I would favour proper smoking rooms, with a ban in the other areas of the pub. The smoking room should be a proper room witha closed door and strong ventilation to prevent leakage of smells. That way everyone will be happy.
I agree that the Butt has lost some of it's character, but the beer is still good! As I said before, if you avoid weekends you avoid the weekend sailors and the "isn't this charming " types.
It's one of the ironies of life isn't it. When our children were small pubs had family rooms which were spartan, cheerless places in unattractive parts of the building, rather like the Butt's Smoke Room which I know well, and admire Kristal for banishing hmself to. Now our offspring are of an age, it seems children are allowed anywhere, nearly, and, oddly, have become annoying rather than delightful.
I tend to expect a moderate level of smoke in bars, and although a BANS (ok, born-again non-smoker) I do rather like it. The odd passive sniff is wonderfully evocative (Railway station platforms have become another good source since they banned smoking on trains). I've tried to wean myself onto Stockholm tar as a nostalgia stimulant but it's just not the same.
Yes, I agree with careful scheduling - generally it's very nice after the kitchen closes, and at 11am - I particularly like a pint at this time of day because it's only the hardcore boozers in the pub then!!
I don't want to get dragged further into the general banning of smoking in pubs debate (maybe too late for that!!), but it stands to reason that a 'massive increase' in business for smoke-free pubs will only occur initially - if they all go the same way, I don't think there will be a tangible difference. I do suspect that pubs that choose smoking over food will find they easily make up for what they might lose in serving overpriced boil-in-a-bag rubbish to punters - although perhaps not eaily, on second thoughts, what with the disgraceful mark-up they attribute these days.
I have often thought about the pub trade as a future vocation, and with redundancy looming, some friends and I might well look for a small town inn which will strive to serve the best beer around, sod the food, and three cheers for hazy vision and stinging eyes.
I have to say, Peter, I know exactly what you mean - it's precisely the evocative smell that makes me so afraid of giving up (oh, and believe it or not, the advice of my doctor - yes, she advised not packing it in just yet!) The smoke room is even worse, since they have cleaned it, put the lovely clutter in a cabinet and, worst of all, taken away that grotesque sailors head! I really miss the old tar now he's gone...
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three cheers for hazy vision and stinging eyes.
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Fine if you like that. I'm a non-smoker who has never smoked. I don't particularly dislike smokers, but the "get-out-of-my-face" attitude some show is a bit neanderthal.
If I were to stand on stool and fart in their face, would they see that as my natural right and depite the watering eyes and feeling of nausea defend my choice to carry on doing so?
No; Of course not.
[ QUOTE ]
It's one of the ironies of life isn't it. When our children were small pubs had family rooms which were spartan, cheerless places in unattractive parts of the building, rather like the Butt's Smoke Room which I know well, and admire Kristal for banishing hmself to.
[/ QUOTE ]
Huh, when I was a small person, we seldom had family rooms and were banished outside to sit with a bottle of coke or R Whites to await father & mothers return from the hallowed sanctum within! Used to be fun, although of course you couldn't/would'nt leave your kids outside alone these days I 'spose.
I relish and miss immensely the traditional pub and a decent pint. Too many have changed into informal dining experiences. Even those with good food tend to make the drinker feel like he's intruding. As to those instance ambience from a packet, processed food, chilled real ale (cos its too difficult for the muppet pub manager to keep otherwise) places? Don't get me started.
[ QUOTE ]
Not the issue. I don't disagree. But if you sit in a room called the "Smoke Room" where ashtrays are provided on the tables, you are likely to get what it says on the tin.
If you want to continue the "smokers are evil" thread, at least post something that we haven't all heard before.
/<
PS: I breathe Diesel fumes all the time. And parafin, turpentine, meths, white spirit... I also usually have antifoul in my hair at this time of year, and the place in which I live has a fine layer of wax and soot all over it. I happen to like it.
[/ QUOTE ]
Exactly...the Butt has always had a smoke room, and whilst I don't smoke, and never have done, I have no problem with others lighting up and puffing away...it is their choice! Face it morons that sit in an area that is clearly branded 'SMOKE ROOM' can hardly expect it to not contain people smoking...having said that, god knows what will happen if Blair gets back in!
Sadly the character of the "Butt" is changing over the years, the days when the old bargemen sat and yarned will never return, and what we have now is a sanitised version with distant echoes of a long lost past.
Re: Just in case anyone has forgotten what a good pub is like:
I'm planning to be there on Friday night, and then take part in the Nancy Blackett fitting out party on the Saturday. Crystal will most likely be in the Tidemill marina for the weekend, if I don't hang her up on the cill - it's looking a bit neapy, and equinoxy...
Cracking pint, and lovely staff. What's yours, Andrew?
Re: Just in case anyone has forgotten what a good pub is like:
I thought I'd just add my two (new) pence worth as I live not far from the Butt and often walk there in the summer.
I wonder if poor Krystal just feels the subject for anyone who fancies putting the boot in. As has been mentioned, but as a reminder to anyone who hasn't actually visited the place, the smoke roon is just that a separate room beyond a corridor and without a bar. Whilst I do not like smoking, am well aware of the negatives, in my umble opinion it is not rocket science to expect to breath in smoke if you choose to sit in THE SMOKE ROOM!
Pertaining to the atmosphere and the food I've found that over the years it has moved from being and olde woldy pub that does pub meals, full of bargemen and sea shanties (am I romantic?) towards that of 'gastro pub'. This is less aimed at people following 'traditional' ways but the well heelled that drive out to quaint villages for dinner. This has gone hand in hand with the 'tidying' up of the foreshore... don't get me started (taxpayers cash...).
Unfortunately the old days have gone and pubs are far more business minded rather that community centres. In regard to the food, sometimes I feel it is excellent whilst othertimes it is disappointing, there seems no rhyme nor reason.
PS Don't the current owners also own The Maybush at Waldringfield? It has gone a similar way.
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Minds are like parachutes, they only work when open... [img]/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]
Re: Just in case anyone has forgotten what a good pub is like:
Thank you, Kristal. Unlike many people, I prefer Ordinary to Broadside, but Regatta and Explorer are worth a try...
As Uncle Bertie observes, whilst I mourn the passing of the real waterside pub, we are now in the era of the gastropub, like the Ship at Levington, where I hosted an excellent business lunch today. Sadly, the Butt and the Maybush (and the Wilford Bridge, which they also own) don't get near the Ship in the kitchen department.
This matters less to me as I only enter the Wilford Bridge and the Maybush on alternate Wednesday evenings in summer, due to the Deben Rowing Club geriatrics' coxed four heading either up river or down according to tide, and we are not going ashore to eat... [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]
Re: Just in case anyone has forgotten what a good pub is like:
Yes - they own the Maybush, and the Wilford Bridge at Melton.
The Maybush was spoilt many years ago. The Butt is going through the same process. Much of the profit comes from food, and logically is maximised in destination pub such as the Butt by charging as much as possible for food bought as cheaply as possible - clever that, I'm a bean counter. I've pretty well given up eating at the Butt
I think Jamie Oliver should be let loose on the British pub. Very rarely do I feel I've had decent value from a pub meal, let alone a good meal, in a pub. The Ramsholt Arms is another which promises much and usually disappoints. The Victoria at Felixstowe Ferry can be quite good though.
Our favourite eating place on the Orwell (Stour to be accurate) is the Bistro downstairs in the Pier Hotel, Harwich. It's a bit dearer than a pub, so we can't go more than once or twice a season, but we've enjoyed every meal we've had there. For value, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm a big fan of Ivan's cooking at the Woolverstone Marina Schooner.
I've had very good food in a couple of Yacht Clubs - Walton & Frinton and West Mersea.
Best of all is food cooked aboard of course - Mirelle does wonderful Sausages, Spuds and cabbage (perfect on a November evening), and I then repay his culinary effort by rowing him ashore to a pub for a pint and (Brake Bros.) pudding.
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Barbican Bill the Sailor
Formerly known as Little_Knot, and before that as Francis_Fletcher.
Re: Just in case anyone has forgotten what a good pub is like:
But as Kristal pointed out on page 1, the smoke roon(sic) to which you refer is not the only place in which you are allowed to assault fellow humans - you can do this in the bar area too. My point is, that all pubs should have rooms in which drug addicts can be indulged in smoking a variety of plant derivatives, while non-offensive activities (such as injecting opiates) should be allowed anywhere. Then I wouldn't have to wash my clothes after a night out.
As far as your comments on "olde worlde" pubs; give us a break! The Butt has been trendy with the middle classes since the publication of "We didn't mean to go to Sea". If it ever was old world, surely that old world meant sailors risking their lives for next to no pay, at the word of a shipowner who would sack a man for joining a union or having the temerity to expect a decent life. I would rather have any number of gastropubs , than the sort of picturesque poverty that certain little englanders get a hard-on over. Of course pubs are businesses, when have they ever been otherwise? We live in a capitalist society, and have been doing so for at least 150 years in case you hadn't noticed. If you want real change start questioning that! ps, if you are a weekend sailor you probably haven't been there mid week, especially in winter - see my comments on page 1 of this discussion.
You want a pub where you will find the bar propped up by "sailors risking their lives for next to no pay, at the word of a shipowner who would sack a man for joining a union or having the temerity to expect a decent life"?
You need not go far from the Butt and Oyster; try the Felixstowe Seafarers' Centre.
Most popular feature; the telephone, and the store where they sell international phone cards.
The Missions to Seamen gets a fraction of what the RNLI gets and does a great deal of good with what it does get.
Re: Just in case anyone has forgotten what a good pub is like:
I fear you may have missed the gist of my comments;
1. I believe I was stating the way this pub has changed in recent years not a grandiose statement about capitalism in the last 150.
2. I did not say I was a weekend sailor, I said I lived within walking distance of it, therefore I have been going there (I would not say as a regular) for years and at anytime of the year, midweek, winter whenever.
3. I used the term 'unfortunately' because there did use to be the feel of a 'local' about it hence my comments about pubs as community centres.
This pub is just one example of many that because they are in a 'nice' location are brought by entrepreneurs, turned into 'gastropubs' (although I wish there was a better word) and thus invariable are filled by punters who have driven/sailed in from afar and do not know each other. Which may be fine for many people but it is undeniable that the atmosphere of the pub (which I described as olde woldy alluding to the community type spirit of the past, I hope your comments re sailors risking their lifes was a joke) has changed. That it was 'trendy with the middle classes' before being turned into a gastropub does not justify the change, I'd argue that it became trendy because it was one of the few places left that was quaint, a bit untidy and had a customer base of 'real' people (local bargemen and fishermen) and it is exactly this that has been lost.
I do not smoke but I can't be bothered to join with you in the further persecution of anyone who does (tongue in cheek or otherwise), their taxes may one day pay for my pension (in hope).
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Minds are like parachutes, they only work when open... [img]/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]
Try the pub in Chelmondiston at the top of the lane which leads to Pin Mill. Ten minutes uphill walk from the Butt, and you will be well rewarded with an astonishing menu, very well cooked.
I, for one, feel sorry for daveyjones having to "wash his clothes after a night out" because of smokers like me. I have to do this too, and oddly enough have done since I left home, as my mother tells me people start to keep their distance from you if you don't... [img]/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]
...although the point about "We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea" might well be a valid one.
I have often joked about leaving my vocation in the media to run a pub, painfully aware that I would be bankrupt within a year and dead within two. Now that smoking legislation is coming in, and that so far, it seems to hinge upon the preparation and service of food, it might be the time to actually seriously consider it. As has been stated above, it's rare to get a really cracking meal in a pub (The Cherry Tree of Mirelle's locality is an exception, definitely, in view of price and quality) and usually they are throwing out poor quality, boil-in-the-bag meals at a huge mark-up.
I think that if pubs choose food over smoking, I have a market ready and waiting for smokers who appreciate really good, well-kept and reasonably priced beer and are willing to go somewhere else to eat.
I'd invite you all, but non-smoking will be strictly forbidden...
/<
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Farewell, happy fields,
where Joy forever dwells.
Hail, horrors, hail...
Re: Just in case anyone has forgotten what a good pub is like:
Apart from my remark about weekend sailors, I didn't misread your comments, I merely sought to place them in a wider context. If you want pubs to be community centres, some other means of paying for them must be found, as they are subject to the same economic imperatives as any other business; that is, it is not sufficient merely to make a profit - that profit must be continually increased and maximised. If that wasn't the case, then Tesco would be happy with 1 billion profit instead of going for 2 billion.
Despite my cynical nature, I hope I would never be guilty of making a joke about seamen risking their lives! I was pointing out that the sort of merry england fantasy that a lot of visitors to the Butt (and elsewhere) indulge in , ignores the reality of the world they imagine they are celebrating. As for my persecution of smokers, I would refer you to my earlier remark (on this thread) about the need for proper smoke rooms to keep everybody happy.
One point that hasn't been mentioned in this long and interesting discussion, is the risk to bar staff who have to passively smoke for their entire shift. There is now clear proof of the damage this causes, and this fact will give added impetus for a ban on smoking. This is part of a general emphasis on health and safety in the culture at large, and before I hear the expression "nanny state" let me say that in my own work as an electrician, I often work on building sites which are now civilised places to be, not the filthy death traps my father had to work in. I am therefore in favour of such controls. Bring back the smoke room, it's simple!
Hmmm, I've edited this post as I realised I said something unfair.
Amusingly, my work bar is banning smoking "because of the risk to staff", all of whom, bar none, are heavy smokers. In my pub, which I am tempted to christen "The Aromatic Shag" to signal it's full-smoking status, we won't employ any staff who don't smoke, and any students desperate for a bar job will have to prove they can roll up a good thick Cutters Choice with one hand, whilst pouring a perfect Guiness with the other.
Krystal,
I have really enjoyed your balanced arguments on this thread - sorry if that sounds patronising - not meant to !
However
"pub trade as a future vocation"
Is an unrealistic ideal.
It would be a possibility if you have a private income, but you will find that the margins on beer do not allow for the expenses in running the Pub.
You need income - and that can only come from food.
But - why not come down to the West Country, where we do both - well !!!
Ken
I must say first that I do like the way Kristal turns a sentence. Always a good read.
Smoking. Hmm. Not quite born again, me; more like still in the womb and enjoying osmosing fresh smoke, even though I've managed five years of abstinance. I associate the smell of smoke as the aroma of easy social relaxation, and when I do realise I'm in a managed smoke-free environment, I feel there is something missing. Irish pubs, or perhaps that should be pubs in Ireland are truly weird places, these days.
However, there's the morning after the night before, and I didn't enjoy the stale reminder on my clothes when I smoked and after. Also, a slightly outfield observation. I play a lot of Irish sessions, and the smog in most of the northern boozers is beyond intense, and the lungs on my squeezebox really stink for weeks after. I'm just glad I don't breathe that much.
Pubs. Is the Sorrel Horse at Shottisham still going? I poled up there with a barge cargo of ILEA kids in '77 and have always meant to return. The Blue Boar still keeps a reasonable pint, and successive landlords have dared not mess with the sanctum of the tap room in the Queen's in D'Arcy. I hung around the B&O a bit in the 70s, but the 'simply wonderful' brigade were already there, and I never really fell for the place. I once went in misguided curiousity to Jack Rolfe's beloved boozer in Bursledon, and it had exactly the same quintessential charm of the Stock Exchange listed pub chain as the Butt exudes nowadays. Perhaps Charles Frere bought it?
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Sort out those fenders! Crossplys to port and radials to starboard!
For heavens sake please don't give /<rystal compliments - every time you do so I will have to insult him again publicly on this forum to stop him getting smug/big headed. I'm seeing him this weekend (Saturday evening for supper at the Cherry Tree, Woodbridge, if any other forumites are about), so perhaps I'll tell the one about the nude photographs again there.
The Jolly Sailor, Bursledon - indeed its also gone the way of most good waterside pubs.
It wasn't always so. It was my local when at Sot'on University. We had regular lock-ins, with 4am as the record. Stan (ex Sot'on footy left back) was the manager - we always bought him a drink with each round, and he always stood us a round when it was his turn. A really great guy.
One hot day Stan and the owner Lincoln were building or mending a wall outside when they saw us arriving for a lunchtime pint and game of darts - they immediately downed tools, got the dart board and a hammer and nail, and fixed it to a tree for us.
I married shortly after leaving the area, and they sent a telegram:
"Today's the day,
tonight's the night,
we've killed the stork,
So it's alright"
I also went there recently, and the little back bar where the darts board and fire had been was knocked through. I still have great memories though. On that last visit we caused a bit of a stir when a life jacket self inflated under one of our chairs.
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Barbican Bill the Sailor
Formerly known as Little_Knot, and before that as Francis_Fletcher.
The Anchor, opposite Woodbridge station, a couple of minutes walk from the Tidemill yacht habour, still has a very traditional boaty feel and is largely unspoilt. It has Greene King (pretty good, but not quite as easy to drink or as nice as Adnams IMHO).
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Barbican Bill the Sailor
Formerly known as Little_Knot, and before that as Francis_Fletcher.
Something of a CB forum meet on Saturday evening, as Mirelle, young master Mirelle, /<rystal and his lovely crew, Contributing Editor and I were all there.
As ever we all liked the way /<rystal turned his sentences. Always a good listen. Sadly he was not allowed to smoke our table as we were in the wrong zone, so he had to nip off to the other side of the bar periodically to feed his habit. At least he was allowed to smoke within the building.
It has to be said that the Adnams tasted as good as I think I have ever had.
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Barbican Bill the Sailor
Formerly known as Little_Knot, and before that as Francis_Fletcher.
The Butt & Oyster
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