The Chequers, Laddingford - a beer festival for the whole community

Regular readers of this blog will know that I am no longer a fan of large-scale beer festivals, although by this, I mean events held in large venues, where lots of different beers may be sampled. In the main these festivals tended to be CAMRA organised and CAMRA run events, and whilst this isn’t always exclusively the case, it’s a good enough description to convey what I am referring to.

My reasons for avoiding these events are many and varied, and also well-documented, so I won’t go into them here, but there are certain beer festivals, such as those organised by a local pub, that I am more than happy to attend. Pub beer festivals tend to be relatively small scale and combine the atmosphere of a traditional pub with the chance to sample a range of beers that the pub wouldn’t normally stock. They invariably attract a wide and varied crowd, which adds to their appeal, and often feature live music as well.

Such festivals sometimes take place within the confines of the pub, but more often than not, they are held in land adjoining it, such as the garden or sometimes a neighbouring field. This is because they are normally summer events, and to my mind, there is nothing finer than enjoying a few pints in the great outdoors. The beers and the serving area will normally be located in a marquee, or possibly an outbuilding, for both security reasons, and for protection against the vagaries of a typical English summer.

It is to just such an event that I went this Sunday, the day that happened to be the final one of my recent 11-day mini break. Although I’d enjoyed a couple of hikes over the course of the break, we hadn’t been out as much as a couple as I originally intended. Apparently, I’d picked the “wrong week,” as Mrs PBT’s was snowed under with tax and VAT returns, all courtesy of a motley collection of builders and tradesmen who seem to work for last minute dot com.

As my tax affairs are controlled by the company’s pay roll department, I don’t need to concern myself with such matters, as like it or not, the tax is deducted at source. Like most people on PAYE, I have little or no say in the amount of tax I pay, the upside being I don’t have to file a tedious tax return each year. This is not the case in the world of the self-employed, where tax owed, is paid on account, six months in advance and six in arrears.  To make things worse, HMRC can levy fines for late returns and/or payments, but this doesn’t seem to bother you average jobbing builder.

I mentioned before, carrier bags stuffed full of crumpled invoices and receipts, all liberally sprinkled with cement dust, being left in the front porch, just days away from the final deadline. Mrs PBT then has to pull out all the stops, to disentangle the mess and get the county’s finest tradesmen off the hook, sometimes with just hours to spare.  She does charge appropriately for this rushed, and at times quite fraught work, but as she points out, it feels like she is working solely for HMRC rather than the contractors concerned.

The long and the short of it, there was very little free time for us to go out somewhere as a couple. I had made tentative plans for a day trip to Salisbury, as a sort of post birthday treat to myself, but this was scuppered when realised the gas engineer was calling on the Friday, to service the boiler. All boring domestic stuff, but essential too, especially as our boiler is approaching the end of its serviceable life.

So, with time fast running out, I was determined to at least go somewhere before the 11 days were up and a fast-looming return to work. One idea was to knock off a further section of the North Downs Way, but that would have meant an early start on Sunday morning. Also, my knee was playing up again, the result of spending too much time out in the garden last week, and this is where the idea of attending a local beer festival came in.

I had it in the back of my mind that the Chequers at Laddingford were running their regular beer festival in honour of St George’s Day. This annual event takes place in the pub itself and also in the extensive garden behind. Despite the festival having run for “years,” I had never been before, so Sunday was the perfect opportunity to make amends. The Chequers is an attractive oak-beamed building dating from the 15^th Century, and it is no exaggeration to describe it as the heart of village life. The pub hosts a variety of events, including the aforementioned beer festival. Matthew and I made an evening visit there, at the beginning of December and enjoyed a nice, home-cooked meal, but Sunday was the first time I have been there in daylight.

The entry in What Pub, states that Beltring railway station is just 20 minutes’ walk away from the pub, so deciding to put this to the test, I boarded the 12.33 train from Tonbridge. Beltring is the first stop after Paddock Wood, on the Medway Valley Line, and is little more than a halt. It was constructed primarily for the army of hop pickers who arrived yearly, each autumn, to work at the nearby Whitbread Hop Farm, but today sees very few passengers.

There are two very basic and rather bare looking concrete platforms – and up and a down one on either side of the tracks. The only concession to modernity are the steel and glass shelters – one on each platform. There is no car park, and barely any room for a vehicle to pull in and drop someone off. To my surprise one other passenger alighted from the train, apart from me, although having stopped to take a few photos, I didn’t see which way he went.

After crossing the tracks, I headed off along the road, in the direction of Yalding, with the intention of taking a cross-country footpath to Laddingford. The road was much busier than I anticipated, but fortunately, in most parts, there was a verge where I could take refuge from on-coming traffic. It was nowhere near as bad as the recent “Hampshire experience” described by GBG ticker Simon, aka BRAPA, but I still needed to keep my wits about me. I was rather relieved therefore to reach the shady, tree-lined footpath and branch off towards Laddingford.

Towards the end of the path, there was a narrow concrete footbridge, over a stream, and it wasn’t long afterwards that I could hear the sounds of people enjoying themselves. The path enters Laddingford at the side of the pub and so, true to the What Pub description, I’d arrived in the village 20 minutes after leaving Beltring station.

The festival was in full swing, with an ample crowd of people sat at the front of the pub, and dozens more at the rear, occupying the extensive garden. Two women, sat at a nearby table, asked if they could help me. I’d already twigged that the event operated on a token basis – easier for the organisers, as the cash is concentrated in one place, but something of a pain for punters, as you have to guess in advance, how many pints, or halves, you are going to consume.

I opted for £8 worth to start with, plus a £1 charity donation. All beers were priced at £2 per half, regardless of strength and, as is normally the case at such events, a printed sheet giving details of beer, brewery, style, along with tasting notes, was available to all that wanted one.

I had intended to stick with pints, but with a good selection of interesting beers available, all good intentions were quickly, abandoned, and I reverted to my normal beer festival habit, of drinking halves. My excuse was, I could try double the number of beers, but can beer really be tasted by drinking half pints?

Charles Dickens famously said that beer cannot be tasted in a sip, and he was right, of course. The Great American Beer Festival with its (in)famous, 1 oz pours, begs to differ, but a twentieth of a pint amounts to not much more than a sip, whereas a half pint equates to ten such thimbles! The majority of the beers were stored in an old oast house, at the side of the pub, which looked as if it may have been a stable block, back in the day. There were 11 in total, dispensed straight from the cask, in true beer festival fashion. For those who prefer vertical drinking and standing at the bar, three more cask ales were available inside the pub.

There were also a couple of semi-permanent, marquee type buildings at the rear of the pub, with a band playing country & western numbers in one of them. I found myself a seat, plus a table at a sheltered spot, outside one of these tents, and made myself comfortable in a position where I could watch the goings on, whilst enjoying a few of the beers. I tried four in total, two of which would have been preferable in pints, but all decent brews in their own way. I also grabbed myself a cheeseburger, because it would have been rude not to have done so!

I stayed for around an hour and a half, chilling out whilst soaking up the atmosphere of this community-oriented beer festival. I allowed 30 minutes for the walk back to the station, arriving in plenty of time for the train, and was the only passenger to board at Beltring. 

As for the festival itself, it was a nice, friendly, well-organised, laid-back, and chilled out event. The brief snapshot I experienced of it, was sufficient to convince me to return next year. I had floated the idea of attending amongst the Beer Socials WhatsApp group I am a member of, but no one else was free that day. The photos I posted on the group attracted some positive feedback, so I think there might be a few of us heading over to Laddingford next St George’s Day.