Good Beer Guide 2008
Alan Edwards offers another selection
of good beer inns for the faithful
D
iscussing binge drinking related swing of St Mary Bourne Street. Empha- range of real ales on offer. A pub for the
violence and its association with sis upon the excellent condition beer ecumenist as its festivals celebrate blues,
fizzy ersatz lager and alco-pops, rather than food, but, with the architec- jazz and beer.
a writer in the Daily Telegraph said ‘vio- tural and musical feast provided by St CROSS KEYS, East Marton, Yorkshire.
lence in a real ale pub is as unlikely as a Mary’s, who’s hungry? Where the Leeds–Liverpool Canal crosses
punch-up in a Jehovah’s Witness Hall.’ KING’S HEAD, High Town, Bridgnorth. the Pennine Way, by the famous double
A few years ago he would have made The base where 846–Edwards square- bridge. Named after St Peter’s church
the comparison to a vicarage tea party, so bashed has disappeared beneath a hous- (always open) round the hill. Copper
presumably the CofE’s recent brawls have ing estate, but The King’s Head would Dragon the best of the local beers.
given it a new violent image. Peaceable have been familiar to Richard Baxter who SUN INN, Feering, Essex. Up to six ales
FiF readers who shun fizzy lager in the was Master of the Grammar School. normally on offer, with micro-breweries
same measure as theological liberalism MASON’S ARMS, Norham, Northum- well represented. A few miles up the road
will seek real pubs serving real ale and berland. One for members of worship is Coggeshall, renowned in the past for
real food and, where possible, real cider. groups. Bring your flutes and play along the daft antics of its inhabitants, and more
The mixed chalice is soundly Catholic, with the ceilidh band which regularly seriously, as the place where the great
but not the new craze for cider over ice. rocks the century-old wood fittings. Puritan divine John Owen ministered.
So my third annual list of ‘safe’ pubs. NEW INN, Blagdon, Somerset. Sixteenth- SWAN & GARTER, Inkpen near Hunger-
THE ANGEL, Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire. century whitewashed inn with great ford, Berkshire. Said to have been visited
Despite the gastro-pub image, the food is views of the Mendip Hills. Alan Edwards by King James II and a lady friend. If they
sensibly priced and the beer range excel- skipped seminars at a local management dined as well as we now can, and were
lent. After lunch, walk off the pounds by training centre to get to this pub and treated to the range of perfectly kept ales,
visiting neighbouring Gelli Aur, home, for Augustus Toplady (‘Rock of Ages’) min- they’d have become permanent residents
a time, to royalist poet Henry Vaughan, or istered in Blagdon Church. and the Glorious Revolution would never
the National Botanic Garden of Wales. RAILWAY HOTEL, Faversham, Kent. have happened.
THE BLACK BULL, Edgworth, Lanca- Opposite station. Shepherd Neame beer WHEEL & COMPASS, Weston by
shire. One in which FiF misogynists (are at its best, as befits a pub in ‘Sheps’ home Welland, Northamptonshire. Its motto is
there any?) can weep for former days. town. Excellent food. For spiritual food ‘We don’t serve fast food, but good food
Until recently, women were banned from nip across railway bridge to St Cather- as fast as we can.’ Family friendly. Young-
the main bar and had to use the ‘nanny ine’s. Reader Margaret Tilley an FiF voice sters will be intrigued by nearby Stoke
pen’ kitchen. In these happier times the in General Synod. Dry Church (off A6003). Medieval wall
kitchen serves superb food. STROMNESS HOTEL, Orkney. Roaring paintings possibly showing Red Indians
FOX & HOUNDS, London SW1. A vil- fire and snuggle-into settees to drive away shooting St Edmund! Did the Vikings
lage-style pub translated to a thurible’s any winter chill should it defeat the wide beat Columbus to America?
ND
Touching Place BURLINGHAM ST ANDREW, NORFOLK
A
s the Middle Ages drew to an end, say in these parts). Edward is scratched away). Here is the
even the humblest villages throughout In their wills of 1525–37, several donors Reformation in microcosm.
England strove to extend and beautify left money for the screen, including Give thanks and pray for those who stand
their churches. Little Burlingham began its Edward Lacy and Robert Frenys; an up for the faith in the face of persecution,
campaign around 1460 with a new tower inscription names John and whether in first-century
in the latest Perpendicular style; small, but Cecilia Blake, Thomas and Rome, sixteenth-century
elegantly proportioned. By 1469, they were Margaret Benet and Robert England, or twenty-
planning to glaze the west window and Frenys as donors. Compare first-century Zimbabwe.
to make the battlements to top it off (not the donors with the saints and Consider Matthew 5.11:
finished until about 1485). you see that, uniquely, donors ‘Blessed are ye, when
Fetch the key and go inside. Look up and chose that their patron saints men shall revile you, and
admire the exquisite hammer beam roof to would appear on the screen, persecute you, and shall say
the nave (1487–91). The last big job was to finished in 1536. Just two years all manner of evil against
be the finishing touch, a carved and painted later, Henry VIII ordered that you falsely, for my sake.’
roodscreen. Painted and gilded figures of Becket’s images were to be ‘put Reflect: Do you connect
local saints Withburga, Etheldreda and down and avoided out of all with the saints, as the
Walstan appear, as do Cecilia, John the churches’. Iconoclasts removed people of Burlingham did?
Baptist, Edward the Confessor, Thomas of over half the figure of Becket Grid ref: TG 365101
Canterbury and Benedict (or Benet, as they (compare, just the face of St Simon Cotton
December 2007
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