The Hopbine and the Halfway House - a visit that nearly didn't happen

West Kent CAMRA bus trips have a horrible habit of going wrong, and Wednesday’s journey out to two rural pubs was no exception. As I discovered a couple of weeks ago, when I set off on a bus trip to Lewes, gas main replacement works on a major road leading into Tunbridge Wells have caused absolute carnage on the town’s transport system.  This has forced beleaguered bus company operators to terminate all services that would normally approach the town from the south or the west, at the bus interchange outside the area’s main hospital in Pembury.

A shuttle service is then supposed to operate between the hospital and the town centre, following a torturous route through the local industrial estate. Despite knowing this I decided to take a rare day off on Wednesday, partially because both the Hopbine and the Halfway House, are hard to get to without a car, but more importantly because I wanted to catch up with friends who I hadn’t seen for some time.

Although the journey from Tonbridge to Pembury Hospital is theoretically unaffected by the gas main replacement, I thought it wise to catch an earlier bus. The plan was to meet up at the Pembury bus interchange and then take the 297 Tenterden bus, operated by Ham's Travel, as far as the edge of Brenchley village. We would then walk to the Hopbine, enjoy a few pints plus a bite to eat, before walking, across country, to the excellent Halfway House. Another benefit of the earlier bus service was the chance to grab a coffee at the hospital, whilst waiting for my friends to arrive. This was in sharp contrast to my earlier trip to Lewes, where the connection only allowed time for a pee stop, and nothing else.

Rather ominously, the 219 bus from the top of my road, was 20 minutes late in arriving, so I was rather surprised that the other local CAMRA members were not on it. In theory the later bus would still have got them to Pembury in time for the connection, even though the 297-bus pulled up at the stand 20 minutes early. It was then I that I noticed a WhatsApp message asking if anyone was at the hospital, because the Tonbridge contingent were stuck waiting at the bus stop for a bus that showed no signs of turning up.

With no sign of a bus, and nothing showing on the Arriva bus company app, the group from Tonbridge decided to abort the trip, leaving me thinking that I’d be visiting the pubs on my own. it was then that I received a WhatsApp message from a friend who lives in Pembury village, stating that he was intending to get on there, although from the sound of the other messages, it might only be him and me on the trip. After chatting to a group of people waiting at Pembury, I discovered that a lorry had got itself stuck beneath a narrow railway bridge, close to High Brooms rail station, and this was adding to the traffic chaos.

Knowing the cause of the problem was little comfort, but with our driver now clued up as to what had occurred, he departed the bus interchange, and we picked up Dave in Pembury. We then headed out along the A21 towards the villages of Matfield and Brenchley, although on the way, some additional messages came through from the WhatsApp group, advising that two members were cycling to the Hopbine and would meet us there.  Dave and I left the bus at the top of Brenchley Lane and walked along this quiet and secluded country road towards the attractive Hopbine Inn, at the top of a hill on the edge of the hamlet of Petteridge.

Before going any further, apologies for this long and rather drawn-out introduction, but it does illustrate the type of problems that seem to beset our CAMRA bus trips. It’s almost as though there’s someone up there who doesn’t like us!  Returning to the main narrative, we entered the Hopbine with a king size thirst, and surveyed the beers on the bar. They were Tonbridge Traditional, Harvey’s Best plus a house beer brewed specially for the pub by Cellar Head. My friend went for the Tonbridge beer, whilst I decided to give the house beer a go, even though Cellar Head are not my favourite brewery.

The girl behind the bar asked if we wanted to sit outside, and we thought this would be a good idea, especially as there is a nice shaded terraced area at the rear of the pub. She also asked if we would be eating, and thinking this was a good idea, so after looking at the rather limited options (pizza or burger), we both went for the latter. I knew I would be eating later on in the day, so I asked if I could have mine without the fries. “Yes,” was the answer but when she tried charging me the same amount (£14.95), I asked where was the deduction for the leaving off the fries. Unbeknown to us, the rather scruffy person, sitting in the raised area to the left of the bar, happened to be the chef (we should have guessed, really), so she shouted across, "How much for the meal, without chips?" “Knock a fiver off,” was the answer, which was fine for me, as I obtained a rather nice gourmet burger, at a far more realistic price!

We took our drinks outside and found a nice shady spot. There are three terrace levels behind the pub, each one lower than the one above. This is due to the Hopbine being built into the side of the hill. We were sitting there chatting, whilst enjoying our beer and food, when we saw one of the intrepid cyclists puffing up the steep hill below us. It happened to be branch chairman, Tony. I nipped up the steps to advise him of our presence, just as Lycra-clad Martin, the other cyclist arrived from the opposite direction. So in a short space of time, we had doubled our numbers.

Our newly arrived companions decided they wanted some food to go with their drink and after eating, the four of us sat there trying to make contact with other people we thought might be coming. We hadn’t done this earlier, as being on the O2 network, both Dave and I had no mobile signal, but fortunately one of the new arrivals was able to pick up a series of messages that had come through on the WhatsApp group. This indicated that two other members, having spent ages sitting on the shuttle bus to Pembury hospital, had managed to get a connecting service as far as Matfield, and would be walking from there.

We waited for them to arrive and were surprised at how quickly they turned up, as we weren’t expecting their presence so soon. In a short space of time our small party had trebled in size and made a nice little gathering. 

I switched to Harvey’s for my second pint, and after I newly arrived companions that whetted their whistle, we decided to move on to the second pub on the itinerary, the Halfway House a mile or so outside of Brenchley. Unfortunately, the late arrivals had missed the 2pm cut off for lunch and were doubtful of their chances of eating at the next pub either, but regardless of this, we departed.

The two cyclists set off by road, whilst the rest of us followed on foot, along a well-trodden route, across country. It’s a pleasant half hour's walk between the two pubs, through some a series of former orchards, and then down into a valley that is home to a number of fishing lakes. We eventually emerged onto a winding lane that runs in an easterly direction and brings one out, almost at the rear of the Halfway House.

This was my first visit to this attractive, destination pub, since before the pandemic, and the improvements that the owners had put in place, to enable trade to continue outside, during those periods when COVID restrictions were partially lifted, have added to both its charm, and versatility. These additions obviously came into their own, when the Halfway resumed its twice-yearly beer festivals, and the large, semi-covered area overlooking the garden offered some much welcome shade from the fierce, early August sun.

The Halfway House needs little in the way of introduction to pub connoisseurs, particularly as it majors on cask beer. Casks are kept in a temperature-controlled room, immediately behind the bar, with extra-long taps that protrude through the dividing wall, and out via false, wooden barrel ends, set into the wall. The result - beer kept at just the right temperature and served in the most natural way possible – straight from the cask. 

I headed for the Gents, as soon as we arrive, after foolishly neglecting to go before leaving the Hopbine. I didn’t dive into the bushes, as I was walking in mixed company. The rest of the group were waiting at the bar – the cyclists having arrived first, but there was one beer on the list that would really hit the spot, and that was Goacher’s Fine Light. The Halfway House also features a couple of “house beers”, one brewed by Cellar Head and another by Kent Brewery, but being something of a purist, I have never been keen on such brews.

We had around 90 minutes before the arrival of the 297-bus, that would take us back to Pembury, so we sat outside chatting and enjoying the well-kept beers. One of the cyclists (Martin), was off to the famous Cropredy Festival, early the next morning, so he didn’t stay too long, but with plenty of time for another beer, the rest of us stayed. Kent Session Pale was my second beer, pleasant, but not as good as the Goacher’s.  

We stood out in front of the pub in plenty of time, as whilst the bus will stop there, it is not an official stop, and it is necessary to flag it down. With a steep descent towards the pub, and the temptation for the driver to put his foot down, that isn’t always the easiest, or indeed the safest of tasks, and somehow that job fell to me. Fortunately, I managed it OK, and we boarded the bus back to the hospital. Dave alighted, just outside his house, and the rest of us didn’t have long to wait for our connections. Presumably the morning’s chaos had cleared by then, but never let it be said that West Kent CAMRA bus trips lack drama or are uneventful!