White Horse, Neatishead

…and the closed pubs of Neatishead and Barton Turf.

White Horse

An 18th century pub with two bars, “the public bar on a lower level is virtually unaltered for 80+ years with its red quarry tiled floor… and impressive black-leaded range. The upper room has a hatch-style bar counter and bench seating” (CAMRA Regional Inventory).

We enjoyed a Woodfordes Wherry while talking to Ted, a regular who moved here from London when he retired, who raised whisky to his white beard.

Closed pubs:

Eagle Tavern

According to Ted, the Eagle Tavern on Irstead Road had closed by 1987. It is now a private house called The Old Eagle.

Barton Angler

We were sad to find that the Barton Angler Hotel closed in 2005. When we visited several years ago, there were bench seats next to a small hatch-style bar and mounted on the walls were specimens of large fish caught locally. It seems that this popular pub then changed hands and was turned into a fine dining pub – lack of success was enough grounds to change the use back to a private dwelling. Originally Irstead Rectory, only becoming a pub in the late 20th century, it is now called The Old Rectory.

Trowel and Hammer

A pub called the Trowel and Hammer existed nearby, at least as early as 1841 when an area was listed in the census as ‘Trowel and Hammer Common’. By the 1851 census it was known by its present name of ‘Three Hammer Common’.

Barton Turf

Hole in the Wall

The church at Barton Turf had a display which mentioned the former brewery and beerhouse at the Staithe. It had a license from at least 1846 and was one of the last beerhouses in the area when it closed in 1966.

Sometimes called the ‘Eel’s Foot’ but best known as the ‘Hole in the wall’… as an off-license, beer was obtained through a wicket (opening window) at the rear, and not to be consumed on the premises, which means that many gallons of beer have been drunk on a seat placed along the flint wall, and in the nearby area

Now called Staithe House, originally the building had been three cottages.

John Yaxley’s A Jam Round Barton Turf mentions a ‘hard old country character’ called Dank who lived locally:

Dank of Pennygate had been known to bang on a down pipe at 4:30 in the morning to waken the landlord to get him a gallon of beer. It is said Dank used to wear a clean shirt for a week, then turn it inside out for a second week. He walked the footpaths almost daily, past the Church to Neatishead Street and the White Horse and Eagle Tavern.

Update: Since writing this, the White Horse was rumoured to have closed at the end of September 2012.

Great Yarmouth Pubs – Southtown

Most visitors to Great Yarmouth head to the sea front; Marine Parade and the ‘Golden Mile’ of sandy beaches, two piers and the Pleasure Beach amusement park. Few would have a reason to cross the river at Haven Bridge and head to the terraced streets and warehouses of Southtown.

Southtown

Lichfield Arms
In the middle of the terraced streets of Southtown stands the Lichfield Arms. Only locals and some students from the nearby college are likely to come across this pub. The gates and railings around the yard aren’t inviting and it was with some trepidation that we entered, but inside it’s a welcoming backstreet pub.

The beers are mostly the usual lagers so we opted for the Greene King IPA

“Flat or smooth?”

“Flat”

When we visited during the Jubilee weekend there were locals of all ages, bunting along the bar and a DJ with an ACME Sound System playing pop classics. Inside it’s one open space with the bar in the main carpeted lounge area, a long lounge seat facing the bar, a wooden floored space to the left side for dancing and darts, and a room to the right leading to the outside yard. No ‘real ale trail’ would lead you here, but the beer was in good nick, a pleasant GK IPA.

Built around 1891 on land owned by the Earl of Lichfield, it was flattened by a bomb during WWII.

“Another time, this was about 7 in the morning, a German fighter bomber sneaked in low over the town and dropped his bomb on Southtown Railway station. But this time because the aircraft was so low, the bomb did not have the chance to turn vertical and hit the concrete at an angle, causing it to ricochet up, flying over our row of houses, coming down on the Lichfield Arms pub, about 200 yards from us, and flattened that, killing the landlord and his wife.”
www.gtyarmouth.co.uk

Closed pubs

Anson Arms (closed 2010)

The Anson Arms, amongst the timber yards and dry docks along the river Yare opposite South Quay, was established in 1814 according to Norfolkpubs.co.uk and originally stood at 243 Southtown Road. In 1958 the license moved across the road to number 73. That closed in May 2010 and is now a curtain and bedding shop. The two former pubs stand opposite each other.

Anson Arms could refer to the Earl of Lichfield, Thomas Anson, or his younger brother George Anson who served under Wellington at Waterloo and was an MP for Great Yarmouth between 1818-1835. Great Yarmouth History quotes Charles Palmer’s Perlustration of Great Yarmouth (1872):

Further south is a public house called the Anson Arms, built in 1814 by Samuel Paget, Esq., under a lease then granted by the Hon. Mary Anson, widow of… George Adams Anson and daughter of the first Lord Vernon

Further along Southtown Road, the last pub before reaching Gorleston is the Rumbold Arms, an early 19th century pub named after Charles Rumbold, an MP for Great Yarmouth three times between 1818-1857.

Gunton Arms, Norfolk

Gunton Arms, Thorpe Market, Norfolk

Situated in the large Georgian deer park which surrounds Gunton Hall, the building was formerly ‘Steward’s Farm’ and later Elderton Lodge, a coach house to Gunton Hall.

As a lodge it was regularly used by King Edward VII – at a time when he was the Prince of Wales – as a meeting place for liaisons with his mistress Lillie Langtry, a well-known beauty of the 1800s.
(North Norfolk News)

After an extensive restoration the building reopened as the Gunton Arms last October. It’s a wonderful pub in an extraordinary setting; herds of deer can be seen across the parkland from the beer garden.

The barman recommended the Green Jack Orange Wheat, which proved to be one of the nicest wheat beers I’ve tried, with a subtle marmalade flavour, very easy drinking. Also on were Adnams Bitter and Ghost Ship, and Woodfordes Wherry.

Closed pubs

Suffield Arms

Nearby at Gunton Station, the Suffield Arms closed at the end of last year. Built in the late 19th century, the freehold was up for auction in February this year with a guide price of £150,000 – £170,000 but at the time of writing, there’s no news on the fate of this pub:

Humpty Dumpty Big Sharpie

Humpty Dumpty are brewing their 500th brew and to mark the occasion it’s a special 5% ABV beer called Big Sharpie. It was sitting in these vessels when the photo was taken:

Humpty Dumpty brewery is located in Reedham, a village about half way between Norwich and Great Yarmouth, and began brewing in 1998 in premises behind the Railway Tavern (now closed and turned into Flats) before moving to their current home near Pettitts Animal Adventure Park. The Brewery shop sells a range of Humpty Dumpty beers, along with others from around the world – we picked up some Anchor Liberty, Brooklyn Chocolate Stout and Odell 5 Barrel Pale Ale as well as Humpty Dumpty’s own Double W IPA (formerly called Wherryman’s Way IPA until another local brewery objected), Cheltenham Flyer amber ale and some Little Sharpie straight from the cask.

They plan to have a move around at the premises soon with the brewery expanding and the shop moving across the yard.

When we visited, the nearby Lord Nelson was holding a beer festival so we sat by the river Yare with halves of Nord Antlantic and Reedham Gold, a special originally brewed for the 2011 Norwich Beer Festival.

And the voices of fishermen in an old pub
where a hand pours a White Shield Worthington
as clear as a bell and without a hint of mud

(from Reedham Marshes by Edwin Brock)

Castle Inn, Wroxham

www.norfolkpubs.co.uk records the following story about the Castle Inn, also known as the Castle Hotel, Wroxham:

It is said that at a drinking competition held in Wroxham in 1810, one contestant drank 44½ pints of porter in 55 minutes. His opponent defeated him by supping 52½ pints in the same time. The winner then took 2 more pints to his rowing boat, to assist the 6 mile river journey home.

The Castle Inn stood on Norwich Road, 300 metres from the River Bure, from at least 1794 when Faden’s Map was surveyed – it is shown as the ‘Castle Ale House’. In 1809 the death of “Mr Edward Clarke of the Castle Inn” is recorded in the British Register. It survived until the 1990s when it closed and was turned into private houses.

The only place for a drink in Wroxham now is the Shed. However, over the bridge in Hoveton, opposite Roys of Wroxham department store, is the large King’s Head hotel, dating from the 18th century. To the right of it stood the Horseshoes, a 19th century pub, rebuilt in the 1960s and now a boarded up building that closed around 1980. Hotel Wroxham, by the bridge, has a Waterside Terrace bar, with Adnams often available.

The Shed, Wroxham

The Brewery Tap at The Shed, Wroxham, Norfolk is a converted boat shed hidden away amongst the basins off the river Bure, nearly impossible to find but serving around 50 real ales from Norfolk microbreweries.

It manages to keep these beers fresh using a

temperature controlled Cellar (a 3 metre by 2 metre cold room), where we have the capacity to hold 3500 pints of beer using our innovative methods of storage preservation and dispensing (Patent Pending)

Apparently this involves decanting the beer into special plastic bag containers, adapted with one way valves to allow the carbon dioxide out during subsequent fermentation. Additionally, the beer is kept at around 9 C, a few degrees colder than a normal cellar, to further preserve the beer. They claim to have kept some beers fresh for over 4 months using these methods.

The patent application explains:

Brewing apparatus comprising a polymeric bag with a dispensing tap and a valve allowing gas to vent and a container to receive the bag. The valve should be a one way valve such as a check valve or Bunsen valve to prevent ingress of oxygen which might spoil the bags contents. The container should hold 36 pints, have a lid weighing less than 25 kg and prevent light from spoiling the bags contents. The tap may project through a hole in the container so that the majority of liquid can be drained but the sediment remains in the bag. A tap extension may communicate between the location of the bag and the serving location. The apparatus allows wine and real ale to undergo a subsequent fermentation stage during storing.

The local Panther brewery, whose beers are served at the Shed, mentions the technology on its website:

Panther brewery is now pleased to support the Fresh Ale Bag Technology Ltd. Fresh Ale Bags (FABs, Patent Pending) allow the real ale to stay fresh for longer once opened (minimum of 3 months) which has always been a problem with conventional casks (5-6 days). We believe this innovation will allow us to expand our business and provide a greater choice of ales for you when visiting pubs and retailers.

The beer selection is great for local brews, featuring some of Norfolk’s finest – Grain Brewery’s Bitter and IPA, Humpty Dumpty Wherryman’s Way IPA and Tipples Redhead when most recently visited – as well as beers from less well known breweries such as Bees from Walcott, Panther from Reepham and Beeston from near Kings Lynn. They also encourage ordering in food to be delivered to your table from local takeways. There’s a pool table, a good jukebox, and the ambience is unlike anywhere else we’ve been – where else would a heron wander into the bar looking for snacks? (a regular visitor apparently)

The Pubs of Ludham, Norfolk

Ludham is a village in the Norfolk Broads, between Norwich and Great Yarmouth on the A1062 and reachable from the river Ant at Ludham Bridge, the Bure at St Benet’s Abbey and the Thurne via Womack Water. (Google Map)

There are two pubs in Ludham, about a mile apart – the Kings Arms in the centre of the village and the Dog Inn near Ludham Bridge. There have been at least 6 other pubs in the village centre and the buildings still exist as private dwellings, all visible within footsteps of the King’s Arms. Another closed pub, the Chequers, once stood at St Benet’s Abbey. From the Dog Inn beer garden you can see across the fields to where the Chequers once stood.

Ludham pubs:
Kings Arms, Norwich Road
Dog Inn, Ludham Bridge (Johnson Street)

Closed pubs:
Bakers Arms, Yarmouth Road
Chequers, St Benet’s Abbey
Rose and Crown, Staithe Road
Royal Exchange, Staithe Rd, Sunnyside
Royal Oak, Norwich Rd
Ship Inn, Yarmouth Rd, opp. Baker’s Arms
Spread Eagle, Staithe Rd – Manor Gates/Croft

Ludham Pubs:

Kings Arms, Norwich Road The Kings Arms is in the centre of Ludham, less than 10 minutes walk from Womack Staithe off the river Thurne. It serves good pub grub and Woodfordes Wherry and Nelsons Revenge when visited. There was once a small lounge bar to the left which was primarily for food, but this has now been opened out to create a larger bar area. A 1973 pub guide describes it as a “real old village pub with all the things that one would expect to find in it” and this is still true, although there is no longer “a roaring fire for the winter months” (George Nobbs, Pubs to visit in East Anglia). There is no longer accommodation either; in 1922 when the bus service first came to Ludham, the driver slept at the King’s Arms before returning to Great Yarmouth the next day (Staithe Road, Ludham Archive). There is outdoor seating in the beer garden and at the front of the pub. Above the front entrance hangs a sign from the closed Norwich Brewery. Within a few footsteps of here you can see 6 closed pubs of Ludham.

Dog, Johnson Street, Ludham Bridge The Dog Inn is about 5 minutes walk from Ludham Bridge and the river Ant, on Johnson Street. There has been a pub here since at least 1689 when an entry in the church register records ‘the burial of Mary Thaxter from the Dog-house’ (Joan Snelling, Ludham, a Norfolk Village), although the present building is more recent. A free house with Wolf Straw Dog and Woodfordes Wherry when visited. The beer garden has views out towards St Benet’s Abbey where the closed Chequers pub used to stand.

Closed pubs:

Baker’s Arms The Bakers Arms was an early 18th century beer house with a public bakehouse at the rear. It closed at the end of trade on Sunday 19th April 1959. It stood on the corner of Yarmouth Road and the High Street, on the right of the present shop. The building has since been demolished and the site is now Bakers Arms Green, where the village sign stands. An old photo on www.norfolkpubs.co.uk shows the pub with a ‘Bullards pure Ales and Stout’ sign. The pub is shown in the 1954 movie “Conflict of Wings”.

Chequers, St Benet’s Abbey The Chequers once stood on the banks of the river Bure at St Benet’s Abbey. It is actually in the Parish of Horning but by land is only accessible from Ludham. The building is shown on Faden’s Map of 1797 but was much older. It burnt down in 1891 (Tim Pestell, St Benet’s Abbey) and nothing can now be seen, although some remains of the pub and other buildings exist under the soil amongst the ruins of St Benets Abbey. The images above show the curve of the river where buildings including the Chequers and the brewery to the left once stood – the model is on display in Horning Church. There are some wonderful paintings of the Chequers at Grove Farm Gallery. Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery has sketches of the interior of the Chequers in 1858, ‘whose cool recesses speak of ancient ways’ (G.C. Davies, Handbook to the Rivers and Broads of Norfolk and Suffolk)

Rose and Crown, Staithe Road The Rose and Crown, also known as the Crown, was a pub from at least 1752, closed by 1907. Part of the bar may still exist inside the building which is now called Crown House. There was a Post Office in the pub for over 30 years in the 19th century. It had ‘a large public room for auctions and meetings and a cellar’ (Staithe Road, Ludham Community Archive Publications)

Royal Exchange, Staithe Road A beerhouse in the 19th century, the Royal Exchange is now a private dwelling called ‘Sunnyside’. The building is believed to date from the 1600s.

Royal Oak, Norwich Rd A pub in the 18th century, this thatched building opposite the churchyard is now a private dwelling.

Ship Inn, Yarmouth Rd, opp. Baker’s Arms Discover Ludham, produced by the Ludham Community Archive Group, records that in 1794 the larger house in the row opposite Baker’s Arms Green was the Ship Inn.

Spread Eagle, Staithe Rd – Manor Gates/Croft The Spread Eagle, a pub for just over 40 years in the late 1800s, was in a building which had previously been the vicarage (it backs on to the churchyard) and later became a temperance hotel. It is now two dwellings, Manor Gates and Manor crofts with the small former communal bake-house to the right; a former licencee was also a baker.

Humpty Dumpty Brewery

The Humpty Dumpty Brewery, Reedham

I picked up a few bottles of Humpty Dumpty beer from Lathams of Potter Heigham during a recent visit to Norfolk. If you visit the Norfolk Broads, Potter Heigham is a good place for beer supplies. Lathams stocks a range of bottled ales (there’s more to be found at a shop next door) and the Falgate Arms pub is only 10 minutes walk away and worth the walk beyond the riverside Broadshaven pub.

Today I cracked open the Bad Egg, followed by the Lemon and Ginger. The Lemon and Ginger is citrusy as you’d expect, a refreshing beer, but the Bad Egg was even nicer, a malty beer with a hint of fruit and thankfully no egg.

The King’s Arms Norwich

During a recent stay in Norwich, I picked up a copy of the Norwich & Norfolk CAMRA guide ‘Real Ale Walks in Norfolk’, which refers to the King’s Arms as a ‘drinker’s paradise’, and we were soon heading in that direction! It’s tucked away just off Queen’s Road, about 10 minutes South from Norwich Castle and 5 minutes from the Travelodge.

A pub since 1830, its a traditional city pub now owned by Batemans, split on two levels inside, with a ‘shed of dreams’ out in the beer garden. As luck would have it, we visited during the 5th Anniversary Beer Festival, and so as well as a number of beers at the bar, their were many more casks in the shed.

We started with Grain Brewery Harvest Moon 4.5%, a fantastic hoppy ale that my sophisticated taste buds found ‘bloody lovely’, and which the tasting notes accurately described as ‘resinous’. I had to follow this with another Grain Brewery beer, Winter Spice 5.0%, a sweet (like candy) ruby beer that tastes like a quaffable Port! This is a fine winter drink, ‘flavoured with curaco orange peel and all spice berries’ according to the brewery, although their Harvest Moon got my vote for Beer of the Festival.

We also tried Beeston Brewery Worth the Wait, one of their regular beers on handpump, a refreshing bitter i’m told is the pub’s best seller and I can see why, I could’ve settled on this one for the evening. But in search of new tastes, I opted for a half of Festival Brewery Emerald which I found tasted cheesy and couldn’t finish, and finally Oldershaw’s Ahtanhum Gold, not quite as memorable as their smashing Caskade, but a nice hoppy bitter nevertheless.

I’ve tended to head into the centre for a drink when visiting Norwich, or out to the Fat Cat, but I’m glad to have found this welcoming pub just off the beaten track and now consider this a must-visit pub. Cheers!

Tipples Brewery Longshore

Another bottle from Tipples Brewery, Longshore 3.8%. There’s a great mix of flavours in this! A bit of sweet hops at first, then a brief burst of fruit, before a full malt flavour rolls in, ending with a citrus tang. Their tasting notes humbly describe it as an ‘ordinary bitter’. It’s not! They also call it ‘immensely pleasing’ and that I agree with.