The dragon roars again

 

It’s always good to see a closed pub come back from the dead, especially after the two, very tough years endured by the licensed trade, due to Covid. The pub I’m going to write about here though, had closed prior to the pandemic, and the encouraging thing is its new owners made full use of the time when pubs were not allowed to trade, to carry out a complete renovation and restoration of the pub in question.

The pub in question, is the George & Dragon at Tudeley, although for the pedants amongst us, the pub is actually between the villages of Tudeley and Five Oak Green, on a bend of the busy B2017. It’s an attractive weather-boarded pub, and one that I have been familiar with since moving to Tonbridge, 37 years ago. Despite this familiarity, it is not a pub I have visited that often, partly because it is not the easiest pub to get to on foot, but also because it has been overshadowed somewhat by the Dovecote Inn, at nearby Capel, as a destination, when cross-country walks out from Tonbridge, were being considered.

The George & Dragon dates from the 15th century and has the typical low ceilings and inglenook fireplaces that one might expect from a building of this age. It is located in some attractive countryside, next to a stream and surrounded by orchards. When I first moved to Tonbridge the pub was a Courage house (remember them?), but a decade or so later, it passed into the hands of Greene King. This was at the time when the latter first acquired a presence in Kent, following the purchase of pubs from the likes of Allied Breweries and Courage. Apart from the beer, nothing much changed.

Fifteen years, and several jobs later, the company I was working for at the time held their annual staff Christmas party at the George & Dragon, and from memory the Greene King beers were very good, as was the food. As alluded to above, visits to the George & Dragon, were fairly infrequent, and prior to my most recent one – at the end of January, this year, the last time I recall setting foot in the pub, was in April 2015, whilst walking back with a group of friends from a visit to the aforementioned Dovecote.

I wrote about that visit briefly, on the blog, which is why I was able to establish the date, and I reported that I was pleased to discover that not much had changed at the pub. On that day, my companions and I based ourselves in the saloon bar, which is larger than the public and, at the time, was less busy. We sat down by the window, glad to take the weight off our feet for a second time that day, but not before ordering a beer each.

The choice was restricted to Greene King Abbot, or Fuller’s London Pride, with the latter being the selection of all four of us. It was nice to sit there observing the goings on in the bar against the backdrop of the view of the fields from the window. The pub had only recently changed hands (this seems to be a recurring theme), so it was good to see it nice and busy. As an added treat, there were hot roast potatoes in dishes on the bar, and these were most welcome seeing as we’d had little else to eat apart from the odd packet of crisps or nuts.

One final thing worth mentioning, before I describe the brief visit son Matthew and I made at the end of January, is the traditional Kentish game of Bat & Trap that used to be played at the George & Dragon. Not long after I moved to Tonbridge, I became involved with re-establishing the former Tonbridge & Tunbridge Wells branch of CAMRA (today’s West Kent branch). One activity designed to attract new members to the fledgling branch, was a game of bat & trap with neighbouring Maidstone CAMRA. This was my former branch, so there was little difficulty in persuading them to accept the challenge. I’m not sure whether the bat & trap pitch is still there, behind the pub, so I won’t go into the intricacies of the game here, but the link here, will reveal all, to the morbidly curious.

Returning to the present day, the George & Dragon re-opened in September 2021, after a year of hard work by its new owners. The pub was closed for the first four months of the year anyway, due to Covid, and following the recent renovation, the pub’s weatherboarding has been renewed, where necessary and painted an attractive shade of pale lime green. Matthew and I called in at lunchtime, on a quiet Thursday, more from curiosity than anything, but also with a desire to witness any changes and to show our support for the new owners.

We sat in the raised area, to the right of the counter, overlooking what used to be the public bar. There were sufficient customers in to preclude me from taking photos – a subject that Matthew gets quite wound up about. What I can report is the George & Dragon has been redecorated internally, as well as externally, with the walls and exposed woodwork (but not the large beams), painted a light pastel shade of blue. The other bars appeared quite busy with diners, so again I felt I couldn’t go taking photos, without the risk of upsetting people.

As mentioned above, the pub seemed quite popular with diners and the menu appeared competitively priced for the area.  Taylor’s Landlord and Tonbridge Traditional were the cask beers on sale, and I am pleased to report that the former was in good condition.  So, just a fleeting visit, but as the G&D is a pub I can now access using my bus pass, I’m sure I will be back. The main thing though is the pub has been brought back from the dead and, judging by January’s visit, and the number of cars parked outside when I have driven past, appears to be doing alright.