My first visit to the
Nelson Arms since before
Christmas followed a late start, last
Friday morning. The delayed start was the result of
the type of misunderstanding that sometimes occurs between couples, and this
one, involving
Mrs PBT’s and me was definitely a communication issue. As I’m
sure many of you know by now, I have been working part time, since the autumn
of
2021, and for me this means a three-day week at the factory
(Monday-
Wednesday), and then
Thursday and
Friday at home.
Mrs PBT’s keeps herself occupied, and her pension topped up,
by looking after peoples’ books. By this I mean, she keeps a check on accounts
kept those who are self-employed. The majority of her clients are tradesman,
and in particular builders and other craftsmen. The work Eileen does is mainly
checking client’s accounts are in order, and advising them of when the next
income tax, and VAT payments are due. I’ve written before about the haphazard
record keeping of some of these characters and how she sometimes has to create
order out of the chaos of a carrier bag full of invoices and receipts, all
liberally sprinkled with brick or plaster dust.
She’d originally pencilled in
Friday, to sort out the
paperwork of one of these characters, which would have left me free to head off
somewhere, in search of a pub. By
Thursday afternoon the situation had changed,
as the carrier bag containing the necessary paperwork and not turned up, so a
joint decision was made to go out, somewhere together. With no buses or trains
to catch, we both overslept the following morning, although unbeknown to me,
the elusive carrier bag had turned up, on the front step!
By the time I’d showered, grabbed some breakfast, it was too
late to take the bus anywhere and more importantly, return on the same
afternoon. Plans to visit Westerham, Chipstead, or Hook Green were abandoned,
and instead I headed down into Tonbridge, leaving Mrs PBT’s to her bookkeeping.
Not long after leaving the house, I realised that I was overdressed for the
slightly milder weather we experienced that weekend. A few degrees Celsius can
make a significant difference to the warmth provided by a light fleece compared
to a heavy one, and as I’d pulled on the latter, I ended up being warmer than I
wanted to be.
As mentioned at the start of this piece, I was aiming for
the
Nelson Arms, Tonbridge’s multi award-winning, and carefully restored, back street
local. This would be my first visit since before Christmas, and I was looking
forward to trying something a little different. I wasn’t disappointed as there
were two interesting beers that took my fancy. These were,
Rother Valley Blue,
a porter with a rather bitter aftertaste, plus
Ripper, an
8.4% draught barley
wine from
Lowestoft-based
Green Jack Brewing. Given its high octane, the latter
beer was only sold in halves – although there was nothing stopping customers ordering
multiple halves.
The pub was fairly quiet, although there were some diners in
the snug. I managed a short conversation with
Matt the landlord, who seemed
quite surprised when I told him I was no longer a
CAMRA member, and even more
surprised when I revealed that I’d resigned at the tail end of
2019. I told him that despite
45 years of unbroken membership, I had no regrets about leaving - quit whilst you're ahead, as the saying goes! Talking about leaving, I was just drinking up, when my friend
Eric popped
his head around the door. I hadn’t seen him for a long time and had asked
Matt
earlier whether or not he’d been in recently. It turned out that both
Eric and
his wife had been poorly during the run up to
Christmas, so forgetting
Mrs
PBT’s instruction not to get too close to people I threw caution to the wind
and enjoyed a bit of a catch up with this old drinking buddy and walking
companion.
Eric informed me that the
Punch & Judy – a slightly
labyrinthine back street pub, behind
Tonbridge Police Station, is now serving a
first-class pint of
Harvey’s Sussex Best. My friend said that the landlady of the
Punch
had taken the eminently sensible decision to just stock two draught beers. So,
alongside the
Sussex Best, the
PJ serves
Foster’s Lager, and that’s it. What’s
more the pub is selling the
Sussex at
£4.75 a pint - cheaper than you’d expect
to pay in a
Harvey’s tied house. With just two draft lines to worry about, both
beers are in tip-top condition, although
Eric didn’t actually try the
Foster’s.
So, food for thought, and welcome news that there is another
Tonbridge pub offering
a decent pint of cask, and at a decent price as well.
The following day, I drove
Eileen over to the large
Tesco superstore
at
Riverhead. She didn’t have a lot of shopping to get, so there wasn’t really time
for me to nip for a crafty pint, although I did carry out a brief reconnaissance
trip. Instead of heading south from
Tesco’s carpark, I set off in the opposite
direction, towards
Dunton Green. Just five minutes’ walk away, and on the other
side of the road, is the
Miner’s Arms, a
19th century pub,
originally built for navvies working to construct the nearby railway. The
Miners is now a
family-friendly village local pub with a strong sense of community. Given its
proximity to
Tesco’s, I can see myself nipping in to the
Miner’s for a crafty
pint, the next time my wife is doing the grocery shopping.
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