Oldest Pub in Hastings

I've been writing a separate blog recently about Hastings and its environs, having been challenged to work out which pub is the oldest local pub, it hasn't been as easy as I thought it would be! I shall add the odd article here, certainly this one, following my visiting The Bull Inn (website) in Bexhill Road. 

Very soon after passing the sign welcoming you to Hastings & St Leonards you reach The Bull Inn, 530 Bexhill Road, Hastings, East Sussex TN38 8AY (website). Some may argue this is really in Bexhill, but The Bull falls within Hastings Borough Council's boundary and is licensed by Hastings, and is on the Hastings' side of this sign... 

The main building, bar area and kitchen of The Bull Inn is Grade II listed, built in the late 18th century, with an early 19th century extension added to the eastern side, ie to the right as you look at my photograph of the pub. According to licensing records, this building was first licensed to James Kenward in 1795, though records show a license for the pub in 1622, obviously for an earlier building.  

A couple of hundred years ago, the sea came up much closer to the pub and the port of Bulverhythe, but nothing now remains of that port except the ruins of the Church of St. Mary, which is virtually in the back garden of the only other older building in the area, The Bull Inn. There is evidence to suggest that stone used in the construction of the pub is very likely to have come from the ruins of the church; church cornerstones, windowsills and window tracery are all in evidence, and much old stone work can be seen at the rear of the building. 

Stories of tunnels from the pub and smuggers abound and, almost certainly, the earlier Bull Inn played host to the investigators of the wreck of the Amsterdam, the Dutch East Indiaman that was beached the other side of the railway bridge (which was built much later of course) in 1749, and which can still be seen when the tide is out, notably at Spring and Autumn tides. Though the last time I walked out to it, the deck was virtually full of silt and sand (see below). 

The Shepherd Neame website mentions this premise too, and says that "in the eastern part of the old pub, John Keats sat and did his writing while looking out to sea. Part of the pub was used as a court house and in the basement under the bar were the cells where condemned prisoners were held before hanging at Gallows Hill." 

You can take it from this that The Bull is a Shepherd Neame pub, though with an interesting alternative more local ownership and brewery linkage over the years. Indeed, Thomas Breeds bought The Bull Inn a few years before establishing the Hastings Brewery in 1828; The Bull becoming one of the first pubs to trade under the Breeds’ name, as was the Duke of Wellington in the High Street, Hastings. 

The Bull was later sold to George Beer and Rigden of Faversham in 1931, then Beer and Rigden was taken over by Fremlins of Maidstone in 1949. In 1967 Fremlins became part of the Whitbread group before Lord Young's Beer Orders from 1989 restricted the number of tied pubs that could be owned by individual breweries to 2,000. Shepherd Neame bought up many of the Whitbread pubs in the Hastings area, including The Bull Inn and others I am researching for this project.  

A year ago, The Bull Inn was faltering, but the return of the present tenant, Dawn, and her daughters, has brought life back to the pub and its restaurant trade. When I walked into the pub yesterday, I immediately warmed up, with the 2 real fire-places no doubt helping, then I noticed the beer handpumps, a few photographs above, which I imagine are late Victorian, art nouveau methinks! 

Anyway, The Bull is now a Shepherd Neame tenancy, so 3 of their beers are served from the handpumps, and it is open all day, except on Mondays during the winter, when it closes at 3pm and for the rest of the day. Food is served 12-2pm every day, and from 6.30-9pm Tuesday to Saturday, with an impressive looking choice of 3 roast dinners at Sunday lunchtime. 

To ales! I tried 2 of the 3 on offer, the Spitfire (4.2%) and the very good Kent's Best (4.1%), which was nice and bitter, and both were in very good form, and well served by the affable chap behind the bar, Steve; as was the rather eatable BLT with salad on the side I enjoyed for just under a fiver. The other ale was their Masterbrew, and they have plans to replace the Kent's Best with the brewery's 'micro' 3.9% Whitstable Bay Pale Ale, a very pleasant session bitter, I usually find. 

I also had a nice chat with Dawn, and I wish her well, my only suggestion would be to have a 'guest ale' from a more local Sussex brewer, but what do I know? Dawn's the person making a success of The Bull Inn, not me! 

My thanks to John Hodges for suggesting I investigate The Bull Inn, and for sharing some of the historical information with me; more about the pubs of Hastings can be found on my Steve on Hastings blog, cheers!  

Scarlett Arms - Walliswood, Surrey

Last Thursday, my brother Dan (The Routemeister) and I walked a rather muddy clay-like walk from Warnham to Ockley, got lost a couple of times (I forgot my compass and we had no proper map), but we did find this treat at Walliswood, The Scarlett Arms (website), and, not by chance, we actually found the specific hostelry we were looking for as a watering hole!

A fine looking 16th century pub this is too, and we received a warm welcome, despite being the only two customers when we arrived; though a lucky lad, with 2 very fine looking women, arrived before we left for lunch, as in food. However, because we'd already lost significant time, getting lost etc, we'd already eaten our provisions, so were too full up already to sample their menu, which looks very good indeed.  The landlord, Oliver served us 2 pints each (not at the same time!); though we did not have the pleasure of meeting the female side of the management, Samantha, we did meet Tracey, I believe her name is, and I think it was Hannah too, but not being a regular visitor, just guessing from the photograph on their website.

The ales are from Hall & Woodhouse, whose beers I first sampled when I moved to Exeter in the 1980s, and I seem to remember staying B&B at a pub in Frome a while ago, where I drank a few too many pints of Tanglefoot, a crackin' ale!  However, Oliver advised that they do not have Tanglefoot as a regular, something to do with the strength (4.9%) and the beer not getting through the pump quickly enough, though they do have the same beer in bottles, should that be your tipple of choice.

They do sell as regular Hall & Woodhouse ales, Badger (4%) and Sussex (3.5%), and a changing seasonal ale, for our delight it was Firkin Fox, at 4.3% a fresh easy drinking quite pale bitter, labelled as "amber". We enjoyed it very much, hence not changing our ale when we had our second pint. The name brought back memories of my past work at Lewisham Hospital and drinking at the Fox & Firkin, and my favourite t-shirt of the time I bought there bearing the legend "For Fox Sake Give Me A Firkin Pint", they don't make them like that anymore... 

Not only were they extremely friendly, but Dan's mobile phone/computer thing had run out of juice, and Tracey went out to her car and brought in an adapter he could use to charge it up, and Oliver allowed Dan to plug in at a socket behind the bar, now that is service, many thanks! Oh, and there are 6 or 7 real fires here too, scattered round the rooms, one of them photographed here.

Well, we left, envious of the chap and his two lovely ladies chomping their lunch, and, well, frankly, we got lost again, but not until a couple of miles later, but that's another story for another place...

This is a pub I definitely recommend if you are in the area, cheers! 

I received an update from Martin Farley, today (19th August 2013), many thanks Martin. Tracey is now the landlady at the Scarlett Arms, and has carried out work on the interior and garden of the pub since taking over. Martin has praised her work and recommends this as "the 'inn' place to be!"  Cheers!!

Friday 18th January, Pissarros, Hastings, real fire, and more...

Managed to get to Pissarros today, even though I hadn't planned to drink this Friday, but an error with my heating meant I didn't really want to sit in a cold flat, and I was very happy I did visit.  Pissarros now has 3 real ales served from handpumps, sells decent food, part of the building being a restaurant, as well as being able to eat in the bar area, and accommodation, which looks comfortable, and good value for Hastings (see website).

The ubiquitous Harveys Sussex Best (4%) was available, as usual; a guest ale at £2.95 a pint, all the way from Cheshire, the 4% Beartown Brewery's Kodiak Gold, a pale 'gold' coloured bitter; and my choice for the day, as I've had it before at the Dolphin, in Hastings medieval 'old town', Long Man Brewery's (see website) Old Man.  This was excellent, a dark, deep red coloured 4.3% old ale, with a strong roasted malt flavour; and it appears to be a semi regular at Pissarros too, I'll have to watch out for it more, as I do often walk by this bar on my way to and from the railway station, the only negative being it's relatively expensive price at £3.50 a pint.

I also took advantage of my CAMRA membership at Hastings' Wetherspoons, the John Logie Baird, with my 50p voucher that knocked the price down from an already good value £1.99 a pint to drinking my pint of Spirit of Kent having spent just £1.49, cheers Mr Tim 'spoon!  This is a 4% "XXX Pale Ale" and it did what it said on the label, it's a decent pale bitter from Westerham Brewery in nearby Kent (see website).

I finished off the day drinking in the Dolphin at Rock-a-Nore, by the fishermens' huts at the seafront below the 'old town', insufficient snow for me to get a decent outside shot, but a nice photograph of the fireplace, which was very welcoming, the strong wind making the sub-zero temperature feel even colder. Of course, being very obvious, of the 6 cask ales available, I mostly drank the Dark Star (see website) Hophead, talked about many times previously, pale, hoppy and bitter.  I  also had a pint of the only change to the beer menu from my last blog, ie the Loxley Ale being replaced by the 5.2% Laughing Frog, brewed by the Sussex-based 1648 Brewery (see website); 4 of the 6 ales on offer coming from local Sussex breweries.  The Laughing Frog is a far too easy to drink full-bodied bitter, nice one.

 

Then, back out in the cold... Cheers! 

Saturday 10th November - Fires and pubs, Pett, East Sussex

The Routemeister had visited me for the weekend, so Saturday meant a fairly long walk, this time across the top of the cliffs and Hastings Wildlife Park, a fairly arduous trek to Pett Level, where we hoped to drink at the Smugglers, which we had sat outside looking at the beach virtually a year ago to the day. Sadly, it's temporarily closed, but soon to re-open, I have been reliably informed by one of those taking over the pub, when I spoke to her this Tuesday, there being just a few technical problems, so, fingers crossed!

Addendum and update, even, The Smugglers deal has fallen through, it is now rumoured to not be re-opening before Easter at the earliest! 

Anyway, we headed uphill, through fields (along a right of way) to Pett Village, only a mile or so away. Our first port of call there was the Royak Oak, which has 3 or 4 ales on at a time, today was Hopback Summer Lightning, Morlands Golden Hen and Harveys Sussex Best; a little disappointed that we just missed Triple fff Brewery's Jabberwocky coming on, which was soon to replace the Summer Lightning.  All these ales are either well known and/or already reported on by me, so I'll get onto the fires...

We sat right in front of the smaller fire, note our Beermeister caps drying out and warming up in the photograph above, we had been walking through rain for about 3 hours by now!

The larger fireplace is pictured above, though we'd have been hogging a table nearer to people eating if we'd sat there, so we relaxed in front of the previous fire, well away from people, though two older women did come and sit to the left of that fire; we're obviously not intimidating people.

We then walked along the main road to the Two Sawyers, a favourite of my brother's I believe, and one of mine too.  Here was Ringwood Fortyniner and Harveys Sussex Best, both well reported ales, and Harveys Trundle Bitter (3.5%) and Isfield IPA, a 4.2% pale bitter, with a biscuity flavour and dry aftertaste; from this you can guess this is what we drank there, and I've been reasonably impressed by the ales from this new brewery so far. 

Of course, it being a cold and wet day, a fire was lit at the Two Sawyers too.  Cheers!

Real Fires in Pubs - The Dolphin, Hastings.

I thought I'd add a photograph of any real fires I see in pubs this Autumn/Winter, so starts with the fireplace in the Dolphin, Hastings.  Ales on? Haven't changed much since my last blogs, the two guest ales are currently, Harveys Bonfire Boy (5.8%) and Nelson Powder Monkey (4.4%), already mentioned when drank at the Bricklayers in Putney a few weeks ago. 

 

Soon to come on is Wadworths 5% Swordfish, which has Pussers Rum added to 6X, apparently, and a seasonal ale much loved in these parts, certainly went down well last year...

 

Cheers!