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!  

Hastings updates and some excellent ale

So, where haven't I visited for quite a while in Hastings? Oh yes, the Cinque Ports, All Saints Street, in the medieval 'old town', rather than post another photograph of the outside of the pub, I decided to post this photograph of a model of the bar constructed for the crackin' Greek barmaid, Andee, and it's not a bad likeness to the bar either!

Ale-wise, they're selling up to 3 ales now, the usual 2, ie Fullers ESB (5.5%), an excellent darker full-bodied ale, that I usually imbibe here, and the ubiquitous 4% Harveys Sussex Best, which I rarely imbibe, it's very drinkable, but lacks hops and flavour for me!  They are also trying guest ales, and I had a couple or three pints of the Otter Ale, a 4.5%, very nice, premium bitter at £3.30 a pint, enjoyed the visit and seeing Andee again, cheers! 

 

I had a meeting at The Windmill, Seddlescombe Road North (A21), the 'Brewers Fayre' part of the Premier Inn in Hastings, a couple of miles inland, and up the hill from me, so I thought, have a drink (I got there earlier than I thought I would).  As they only had Shepherd Neame Spitfire (4.2%), that's what I drank a pint of, not bad for £3.14 in a hotel bar, and not bad to drink either, maybe I should drink Sheps a bit more...  

 

Anyway, rather than turn down towards the award winning Alexandra park, more directly to home, I carried on down London Road after my meeting, and visited the Tower, and what a great spontaneous decision that was, with the excellent Sara behind the bar, good banter, and a great ale or 4!

 

The always good Hopback Summer Lightning (5%), an early example of the pale hoppy ales I drank many years ago, and 3 Dark Star ales: Summer Meltdown (4.8%), always good American Pale Ale (APA), a 4.7% pale hoppy ale, and a new one to me, a bit of a rarity, a darker ale I loved, the, also 4.7% Genesis, an excellent dark, porter coloured bitter with a lighter taste, and at only £2.60 a pint, loved it.

 

Many thanks to the landlady for the choice of ales, Louisa, and to Sara for the excellent service on the day, cheers!

 

A walk in the country, starting and ending at Robertsbridge, Sussex, 5th April.

As I say above, this started at Robertsbridge, a bit of a hike through muddy fields ensued, with our final drinks at the Salehurst Halt, about a mile from Robertsbridge.  It was wet, cold, strong winds, snow, sleet, let's face it, not nice walking weather, but each of the following pubs had real fires (I'll post some more photographs soon on my facebook page @ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Steve-the-Beermeister/220910834601992), so not so bad...

Our first stop was at The White Horse Inn (site) near Hurst Green.  Shirley was behind the bar, a font of information about Hastings, in particular, and very happy to share her knowledge, as we (my brother, the 'Routemeister' and I) were happy to hear. A lovely big pub, with a great looking restaurant area, and, we were assured, excellent views out the back in better weather, but only selling the ubiquitous Harveys Sussex Best (4%) ale-wise, which we all know by now, but it was still greatfully imbibed, and a big CHEERS to the great barstaff! 

We then walked the long way round (avoiding roads whenever possible) to Bodiam, it's late Norman castle, and The Castle Inn (site).  This is a Shepherd Neame pub, and a fine example of one, though, sadly, not much call for Bishop's Finger here, as most patrons are drivers... One real cider, Thatchers Heritage (4.9%) and 3 ales from the Kent brewer, ie the paler Early Bird (4.3%), Spitfire (4.2%), and we drank the Master Brew, a typical Kent session ale at 3.7%, and still with more flavour than the Sussex Best!  The lady behind the bar, not sure if she was the landlady or not, but very amazingly, didn't complain when the Routemester took his walking boots off to dry his feet, very friendly and a nice one to 'boot', cheers! 

Our favourite pub of the day was our last choice of the day, the Salehurst Halt (site), which used to be a railway station, but is now a nice 'free house', a mile away from our destination, Robertsbridge, and not as bad a walk between the two as we'd worried about, and the weather had improved significantly by now. This was a very friendly establishment, a helpful barman/landlord (forgot to ask), who let me try the excellent cider, cheers!  This was obviously a popular pub, being Friday evening by now, people had already booked tables for dining and it quickly became quite busy. 

The 1 real cider was East Stour's 6% Traditional Cider, and the three local ales included their 'regular', Harveys Sussex Best (4% and yawn!), and two guest ales. The first was Pig & Porter Red Spider Rye (5.5%), which I've seen elsewhere very recently, and our choice, OK, I'm not too original, but I do love the stuff, as does the Routemeister, ie Dark Star Hophead, 3.8% of lovely pale hoppy bitter, and in fine fettle too, we didn't try the suggested (by the barman) 8 pints extra, but did stay for a lovely second pint.

I'll be back, as indeed, I'm sure Dan will, cheers!

13-14th December, back in Hastings

On the Thursday morning I visited The Albatross Club at Bexhill on Sea, five miles walking there, along the front, and 5 miles back, for a pre-Christmas drink and to meet up with the folk of the RAFA, as, in my capacity of being a CAMRA member, I am allowed to imbibe there, thankfully. As ever, great company and Geoff had 4 excellent ales on, including old favourites Dark Star Hophead (3.8%) and Youngs Special (4.5%), both of which I've written plenty about before.  There was also the excellent stout from Anchor Springs, the 5.2% Black Pearl, and Franklin Citra IPA (5.5%), both very good beers! A merry Christmas had commenced...

That evening, and the following afternoon, I had missed the Dolphin, so I attended the quiz on the Thursday night, then just a 'normal' visit in the pouring rain on the Friday, following a bit of a beer drenching too at the Hastings Arms, which I shall add about at the end of this blog.  Didn't do too bad in the quiz, our team came third, in a very difficult pre-Christmas Quiz Christmas Quiz, yes... Ales on were the usual Dark Star Hophead, Youngs Special, Harveys Sussex Best and Old Ale, and Wadworth Swordfish (5%) and a not a bad little pale beer from Isfield, their 4.1% Straw Blonde.

On the Friday afternoon, I popped into the Hastings Arms to try one of Shepherd Neame's seasonal ales, and to dry-off in front of their fire, and found out the latest news of the Smugglers at Pett Level, which sadly isn't now re-opening soon, the once prospective 'deal' being off, it is now rumoured that it will not open until Easter at the earliest and no-one knows who will be doing the opening, if it happens at all, sad, that pub needs some loving!  Anyway, Shepherd Neame ales, the well-known Spitfire (4.2%) and Late Red (4.5%) were on, but a much lesser known ale from their 'pilot' brewery, which I cannot find out about on the internet, and I've noted as South Downs Premium Ale (4%), a nice 'ordinary' bitter, and the very seasonal Christmas Ale (5%), which I thought would be a dark beer, but was a very easy to drink reddish brown ale, I do enjoy being seasonal! 

Oh yes, I was nudged by a friend whilst he quickly turned in the pub, hence the ale down my fleece and trousers, and me smelling of beer until I got back in that evening, I suppose drinking ale helped too...

I returned to the Hastings Arms on 20th December to find the Late Red replaced by Bishop's Finger, 5% of dark strong flavour, always loved this beer, certainly my favourite of their ales ever since I drank it in my youth at a pub that was nicknamed "The Bishop's Finger" and was situated at the edge of a thriving Smithfield Market, I cannot remember the real name of the pub, but just looked it up on the internet to find it is now called "The Bishop's Finger", well well! 

Oh yes, and Sue of the Hastings Arms was involved in the brewing of the South Downs Premium Ale at the Shepherd Neame's pilot brewery in Faversham, so it really is a one-off, so if you want to try this good session bitter get in quickly, nice one Sue.

Cheers!

29 Feb - Le Gothique Revisited

After seeing my brother, and my two nieces today, and having a crackin' drink of Naked Ladies at the Crooked Billet earlier, despite the disappointment of no money making, I did have a great day... to be finished off by walking up to Clapham Junction station via Le Gothique, situated within the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building on the edge of Wandsworth Common.

This photo (taken on my last visit as it was dark today) is of the main door of the building, with St George slaying a dragon above, as he did, apparently. This door will be the used entrance (usually you go round the back of the building for Le Gothique) for the 4th Wandsworth Common Beer Festival, 29-31 March 2012, which will be located in the courtyards of the building as well as Le Gothique; go to www.wandsworthbeerfestival.eventbrite.com for more details.

I have talked about the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building and Le Gothique before, on this blog, and also on facebook, so no more here, but if you want to explore further, try www.legothique.co.uk which may whet your appetite...

So, what was Le Gothique like on my second visit, alone this time? Well, it appeared to be thriving, certainly in the early evening, when up to 40 people were present at any one time during my visit, a number going to a play being staged somewhere else in the building. This included women and men, people who had come in after work and locals, and young and not so young. Excellent atmosphere, not too loud, not inhospitable, but easy to cope with alone (not that I'm too shy a person).

Many were eating, some just chatting and drinking, sitting at tables, by the bar on stools, upstairs dining, and with a good service from bar and kitchen/serving staff. Comfortable...

Ales on today included Sambrook's Wandle and Junction, though the Junction ran out during my visit, and Spitfire from Shepherd Neame brewery. The landlord, Mark, is a great character to chat to, and was what I am coming to find his usual friendly and interesting self, yet very business-like, which are good credentials for a publican.

Saw the first half hour of the England v Holland football match on tv before I left, unobtrusive, not too loud, but replacing the nicely volumed music that is usually being played. Then, off up the Junction... Cheers!