Re-capturing a moment from the past

Back in the early 1970s when the Campaign for Real Ale was  founded, there were just four pubs remaining in the country that brewed their own beer. This might seem strange to today's drinkers, as pubs with a brewery attached are not uncommon, although perhaps they are less common than they might have been 10 to 20 years ago. On the other hand, it would have seemed strange to drinkers from earlier in the 20^th Century, and certainly before the First World War, that the number of pubs brewing their own beer could have declined, to the extent that they have, since those times.

The copyright on this image is owned by Chris Gunns and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.

Building on research, previously carried out by pioneering beer enthusiast Frank Baillie, CAMRA were able to list details of the four remaining brew-pubs. Three of the four majority were in the Midlands, an area where there was something of a tradition where the pub licensee brewed his or her own ale. That tradition seemed much slower to die out in that region, than it did in the rest of the country - much to the beer delight of the beer connoisseur. 

For those not old enough to remember those early days of CAMRA, the four brew pubs were, the All Nations Inn, at Madeley Shropshire, The Old Swan Brewery at Netherton, at Dudley known locally, as "Ma Pardoes," the Three Tuns Inn, at Bishops Castle, Shropshire and finally the Blue Anchor at Helston, Cornwall. I've only been to two of these established, both around the same time, and both in the company of the same friend from university.

The first of these brewpubs was the legendary Blue Anchor, which we visited, whilst holidaying in Cornwall. The other was the Three Tuns, and it's the latter pub, or rather the beer brewed there, that I want to write about. It's more than 40 years since that visit to the Three Tuns, but the pub, and the location were such special places, that they stuck in my mind. Unfortunately, Bishop’s Castle is in a rather tucked out of the way location, in the south west of Shropshire, and not far from the Welsh border.

The town of Bishops Castle is a sleepy little place, but the drive that my friend Chris undertook from his parent’s home in Rugeley, Staffs, is something of legend. There were three of us crammed into the car that afternoon, and whilst I can't remember how long the journey took it was quite tedious. This was before the M54 motorway was completed, so much of the journey was on slow-moving A5 trunk-road. Looking at the map, we would have turned off the latter at Shrewsbury, and headed south-west on the A488. It doesn’t look the most direct of roads, as it has to skirt around various areas of high ground, including the famous Stiperstones Ridge.

We eventually arrived in Bishops Castle shortly before opening time, and found our way to the Three Tuns Inn. From memory.  the pubs seemed quite basic, but that only added to its appeal. The home-brewed beer was something else, with the XXX Bitter a real stand out pint. There was also a mild available, which I tried, but it wasn’t a patch on the bitter. We had a good look around the pub with its various rooms, and also went outside for a look at the exterior of the impressive brewery. This is a traditional tower brewery, but almost in miniature, although it still extend upwards for three floors. It was a memorable evening, and it's always been in the back of my mind as a pub I'd like to return to. Fortune and fate conspired against me, although if I'd been dedicated enough, I’m sure I could have made a return visit, it would have taken some organising.

That was my first, and also last experience of XXX Bitter until 40 years later, when I saw it on sale at the 2019 CAMRA Great British Beer Festival. Then, just three month’s a later, whilst attending my first “Proper Day Out,” with members of the Beer and Pubs Forum, I came across XXX again, in the unlikely location of Shifnal. This was a town I'd never heard of, but had been chosen by the forum, due to its selection of different pubs, offering a wide variety of interesting beers. In the last pub of the day, when it was almost time to catch the train home, we notices, standing proud on the bar, a hand-pump offering Three Tuns XXX. Despite the surfeit of ale, I’d already consumed, I had to have a pint, and I’m glad that I did, because as with pint at GBBF, the Shifnal pint was equally good and brought back pleasant memories of that trip to Bishop’s Castle.

Fast forward to the beginning of last week, when looking through the beer list for the forthcoming Tonbridge Juddians Rugby Club Beer Festival I noticed it included three beers all from the Three Tuns – XXX, Solstice and Cleric’s Cure. This seemed too good an opportunity to miss, and any reservations about attending beer festivals went out the window. I subsequently made plans to attend the Friday evening session and arrived at the clubhouse shortly after 7:00 pm. I was pleasantly surprised to find the place relatively uncrowded, unlike previous years when the event had been standing room only. This time around, there were several free tables, and numerous spare chairs.

Despite the lack of punters, there was a good turnout of friends, many of whom are CAMRA members, with representation from both West Kent and Maidstone branches. There were also several neighbours from our street. I stopped to exchange at few pleasantries before heading to the bar, and then I was straight in on the Three Tuns XXX and a pint of it too, for good measure! The beer was pale in colour, very well-conditioned, and with an attractive natural head.  I raised it to my lips took a mouthful and it was pure nectar. It's no exaggeration to say it's one of the best beers I've drunk for a long time but finding such a good beer at the start of the festival, meant the bar been set very high and anything else was going to struggle to come near it.

The 3.9% Solstice made a valiant attempt, as did the 5.0% Cleric’s Cure and I must say the latter beer tasted like a stronger version of the XXX.  I don’t believe that either of these two beers were brewed, back in 1976, so they must be more recent additions to the range, but whatever their history, acquiring these two beers was quite a scoop for the festival organisers. Chatting to one of them later on, it transpired that Three Tuns beers are available from one of the agencies which the club uses, so knowing their pedigree, they were a natural choice for the festival.

Despite my reservations about festivals, I enjoyed this one, and not just because of the choice of ales. It was a chance to catch up with people, some of whom I hadn't seen for a long time, and with attendance being lower than in previous years, there was less overall noise in the clubhouse, as well. Several of us, who are a certain age, commented on this, as with its barn-like interior, and lots of hard surfaces, sound tends to reverberate around the building, making it difficult to pick up on what was being said and conversations in general.

The reason for the decline in numbers may have been due to the strike, called by train drivers that Friday, although having said that, it didn’t deter CAMRA members travelling over by bus, from both Tunbridge Wells and Maidstone. The other thing that was quite noticeable, and commented on by several people, was the festival attendees were almost exclusively male, and aged 50 or over. I did find this surprising, as normally there's a fair number of ladies there as well. Who knows what the reasons were, but the organisers were expecting a bit much larger turn out Saturday, when several of the games from the Six Nations Rugby Championship were due to be shown in the clubhouse.

Renewing my acquaintance with the Three Tuns beers has made me even more determined to pay a return visit to the pub where they are brewed. Any visit would involve an overnight stay, either in the town of Bishops Castle, or somewhere within easy travelling distance of the settlement, but that only adds to the attraction. It would almost certainly involve driving, as whilst it may be possible to visit Bishops Castle by public transport, it would take some doing. Until such time, I shall continue to look out for Three Tuns beers on my travels around the UK.

A well-deserved reward for finally finishing the North Downs Way

A couple of posts ago, you may remember me saying that bad weather had forced me to postpone walking the remaining two miles of the official route of the North Downs Way. The idea was to try again in a few weeks’ time. Previously, I had travelled to the Three Horseshoes pub at Knockout Pound, by bus from Orpington station, but with a couple of rail strikes called for the end of the week, that means of reaching the pub was untenable.

It was then that I had a brain wave, why not drive to Knockholt, and follow a circular route that involved the missed section of NDW, and then a return, along the road, to the Three Horseshoes. I knew my previous at this section that there was a pavement all the way to Knockholt Pound, so providing I could find a suitable spot to park my car, where it wouldn’t get hit or cause an obstruction, then it was game on. A few clicks on Google Street View, confirmed that the small area of green, opposite the pub, would be the ideal place to leave my vehicle, and so on Thursday morning, off I went.

Half an hour later, I was pulling up opposite the Three Horseshoes, relieved to find my chosen spot was empty. I’d dressed slightly differently from my usual walking attire, especially with regard to my footwear. Rather than my tried and tested Meindl hiking boots, I wore an old pair of gardening shoes instead, as it stood to reason that heavy and rigid walking boots, would be unsafe to drive in. Also, I didn't fancy faffing about changing footwear, after parking the car, and then having to changed back again, on completion of the walk. Without giving too much away, I'm not as subtle, or indeed as flexible as I once was, and bending down in a confined space whilst attempting to tie intricate boot laces, was not a good idea.

Fortunately, given nearly two weeks without any significant rainfall, the ground under foot was just right for the type of footwear I was wearing, and whilst there were still muddy patches in places, these were quite easy to avoid. There's not too much to say about the walk itself, apart from confirming involved a walk along Chevening Lane to the top of the escarpment, and then turning right, onto the footpath that is the North Downs Way. Most of the route followed the edge of several fields that skirted an area of dense woodland. At one point there was a narrow break in the trees, which afforded a keyhole view down towards Chevening House. This impressive retreat is the official residence of the British Foreign Secretary - whoever he or she might be, at the moment!

Later on, the path veered to the right, again following the field boundary, before plunging into an area of woodland. this was the same wood where I became lost and diverted away from the official route, nearly two years ago. Fortunately, this didn't happen this time around, although it might well have been that the NDW direction signs were clearer, for those walking east to west, as last time I’d been walking in the opposite direction. Upon entering the wood, I stopped to take a few photos of the snowdrops which were quite prolific in certain areas. Their tiny while flowers contrasting against the carpet of dried leaves on the woodland floor. They looked lovely, and a real herald that spring might soon be on its way.

Eventually I reached Sundridge Lane, where I turned right and followed the road to the T-junction at the end, where it joins with the aptly named Main Road that runs along towards Knockholt. Fortunately, the road has a pavement, so I followed it, in an easterly direction back towards where I had parked the car. I stopped on the way for a look at Vavasseurs Wood,  on the opposite side of the road, as this small wooded area looked vaguely familiar. It was of course the place I had ended up in last time, when I stumbled out of the trees onto Main Road, almost by accident. I was obviously very disoriented, back then, but this time, and just 10 minutes later, I arrived back opposite the Three Horseshoes, where my car was waiting.

I then set off to drive to the village of Cudham, the home of the mystery pub I referred to in that last January post. I claimed that it was the pub that most members of West Kent CAMRA would not have been to, although I obviously did them a disservice with that statement. Most of them are well travelled, and I know that two of them formerly lived in the Bromley-Orpington area, and would be pretty familiar with the surrounding villages. This was my first time in Cudham, which was further away from Knockholt, than I thought. It was a spread out and rather lengthy settlement of cottages, the odd farm house plus a number of large, well-to-do properties.

It was all very rural in nature, so I was surprised to see a sign warning motorists that it lies in the recently expanded Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ), although not until August, as subsequent research revealed. I don’t want to get into the pros and cons of expanding this zone, but Cudham at least, along with the surrounding areas, seemed pretty rural to me. Local residents, with an older, and non-compliant vehicle, will have to pay a fee of £12.50 each day they take the car off the drive. One could perhaps understand this in a built-up area, but in the middle of the countryside?

The Blacksmith's Arms, lies at the far end of the village, and is situated on high ground amid some attractive countryside. The pub's website details the history of the building, which stretches back to 1628 when a farm house and stables were erected. It became an alehouse in 1729 and was owned by a blacksmith's family business. An old photo inside the pub, shows that it formerly belonged to the Dartford Brewery, but in more recent times, it was a Courage house, as evidenced by the signage both externally, and internally, above the bar.

I successfully negotiated the rather tight entrance to the rear car park and was surprised by the number of cars already there. I accessed the pub via the rear entrance and once inside, the number of customers explained the nearly full car park. I approached the bar but as I couldn't see around the corner where the hand pumps were, the girl behind the bar informed me that Doom Bar and Harvey's were the beers available. I naturally opted for the latter, and also asked about food. There was bit of a wait due to a large party of ramblers who’d arrived earlier, but as 15 minutes seemed quite reasonable, I went ahead and ordered a ham and mustard baguette.

The pub extends quite a long way, to the left of the bar, into what appears to be almost a separate room, but I managed to find small vacant table in the corner, close to the fire. I sat down to enjoy my beer, pleased to see that the pub was so busy, in fact I’d say it was buzzing. The largely “senior” clientele seemed a similar age to myself, or perhaps slightly older. Judging by their footwear and back packs, quite a few were ramblers, and it was good to see they were responsible ones. I say that because last autumn, whilst out for my usual lunchtime walk, I witnessed a party of walkers, quite brazenly sitting in the, admittedly empty garden of the Little Brown Jug, eating their sandwiches and knocking back cups of tea from their Thermos flasks. A colleague noticed them too, and neither of us could believe the bare-faced cheek of this group!

I didn't have to wait too long for my food, which for me was just the right portion for lunchtime. The baguette contained some nice thick slices of ham, although if I'm honest I could have done without the grated carrot and other fancy pieces of salad. There wasn't time for another pint, and I was driving anyway, but more importantly, I had to get back to collect Mrs PBT’s from the farm-based office, where she works, on Thursdays. Before returning to the car, I crossed the road in order to take some photos of the front of the pub. The aforementioned Courage sign was still proudly on display, adding a touch of nostalgia.

My route back to Tonbridge involved cutting across to Westerham Hill, before taking the northern relief road, known as Beggars Lane, which bypasses the town. Westerham Brewery is off this lane, but
with no time to stop, I was aiming for the A25, and then the A21. I arrived at Mabledon Farm with 5 minutes to spare, but then of course Eileen wasn’t ready to leave! I was delighted to have experienced the busy and buzzing Blacksmith’s Arms and can understand the reasons for its popularity. As I said in a previous post, the Blacksmith’s Arms is reachable by bus, from Orpington station, and that is the route by which I shall return next time I decide to visit.

So, apart from having enjoyed this rather fine village pub, my trip out also represented the culmination of five years walking the North Downs Way, and whilst the rather annoying, two-mile section that I’d missed was, if anything an anti-climax, it was still the end of what had been, quite an epic walk. As for the actual completion, that had already occurred – certainly in my heart, if not my mind, because my NDW adventure actually ended last September when I arrived at the official end of the trail, in the attractive Surrey market town of Farnham.