St Patrick's Day

In the Albatross Club (RAFA) in Bexhill, the St Patrick's Day decorations are already up (see above), as they are in many other places too, for example in the Tower, London Road, which is selling Guinness at £2.69 a pint from today until Sunday! But, what other St Patrick's Day specific events are being held on Saturday 17th March, well, not forgetting that many pubs and clubs will be showing the England versus Ireland 6-Nations Rugby Union match during the afternoon...

From 3pm to 5pm, the well know local Gary Blakeley Band will be playing a St Patrick's Day Afternoon Session at The Palace, Palace Court (see website), and from 6pm to 8.30pm there will be 'shenanigans' with the Wessex Pistols at the Jenny Lind in the High Street, Hastings Old Town (see website); the music is advertised as being hillbilly style Irish punk, so a wee bit more than a traditional ceilidh!

Then, from 8.30pm to 11pm, the Stag Inn, All Saints Street (see 1066 Country website), is holding a St Patrick's Day Special with Shamrockanore! Now, I've never heard of Shamrockanore, though it sounds very Irish and Hastings at the same time... Oh yes, and if you still have energy to keep on partying, The Brass Monkey, Havelock Road (website) is holding The Big St Patrick's Day Party from 10pm!

Whatever you do, enjoy the craic... and maybe snow!

Hastings Week... end!

Hastings Week nears its climax tomorrow, when the Bonfire on Pelham Beach will be lit, and whatever the burnt offering (?My guess = Trump?) will be, well, burnt... plus fireworks galore, obviously. See above image of when the building of the bonfire commenced this morning, however, SO MUCH MORE! Today until Sunday, there are guided walks, lectures, music galore in addition to the usual venues, a town criers competition, vintage vehicles run and show, and more; see website for more details.

Of course, the culmination on Hastings Day tomorrow (14th October), organised by the Hastings Borough Bonfire Society (HBBS), is the annual torchlight procession and fireworks, and burning of the effigy (I did get it correct last year, though it was pretty obvious what it would be, last year being the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings!). The procession begins at White Rock near the Pier; full details and safety advice can be seen at the HBBS website.

In addition, to all the merriment in Hastings, not so far away in Bexhill, at the (RAFA) Albatross Club, is a beer festival, from today until Sunday; see facebook page.

Enjoy the weekend!

He's on a Quest, and another interesting discovery!

By Steve the Beermeister...

Following my recent consideration of beer price increases in Hastings pubs since the Chancellor's budget, and breweries annual price increases, I've been on a bit of a quest, because most breweries are at it, not to mention the middle person, and the tax collector indeed! Also, an interesting development regarding paying by debit card... So, here's a few in Hastings and nearby, and, OK, it is a chore, but I prefer to say it's really a calling.
                                                     

I walked to Bexhill the other day, to the RAFA Albatross Club... OK, it is cheaper because it is a members club, but their 4 real ales, whatever strength, are all priced at £3.20 a pint. For another comparison on keg beers, I checked on their Guinness price too, which is £3.50 a pint, not bad, but, as I said, this is a club.

I also popped into the Dripping Well, just up towards Bohemia Road from the old Post Office. Here, two real ales were on sale, the session bitter being Wadworth Henry's IPA at just £2.90 a pint, and their stronger bitter, Youngs Special at £3.30 a pint; the Guinness here costs £3.70 a pint, all very good value for a pub so close to the town centre.

Back into the old town and, in Rock-A-Nore Road, the Dolphin Inn today put up their prices following all breweries and other suppliers price increases, and the 2% increase in beer duty. All 6 of their real ales continue to be priced the same, strengths from 3.8% to, usually, no more than 6%, ie now £3.70 a pint, and Guinness now costs £4.10 a pint.

I shall visit a few more pubs and bars around town, and continue to report on price variations, probably coming to an overall comparison in a month or two, but! An interesting piece of information came to my attention this morning, ie, if you pay for your drinks by a debit card (as customers are increasingly being encouraged to do, but what's wrong with cash, I say?!?) at the London Trader in the old town, they charge you £1 on top, effectively, say you pay for 2 pints with your card, increasing the price of each pint by 50p!

Interesting, indeed! I shall continue my quest...😉

Congratulations to The Albatross Club!

By Steve the Beermeister.

OK, a 4-5 mile walk along the seafront from Hastings (depending on where you start to walk from), but very warm congratulations to the (RAFA) Albatross Club for being selected the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) NATIONAL Club of the Year 2016, beating more than another 28,000 competitors in the process! Which reminds me, I need to visit there soon and collect my RAFA membership card... 

Nice one, cheers! 

A walk or two away from Hastings...

OK, actually I've enjoyed two long walks this week, on Thursday, along the seafront to Bexhill and back, about 10 miles, and, yesterday, twice that distance, starting from Battle, then along the 1066 Country Walk to Pevensey Level... 

The magnificent 1930s fusion of art deco and modernism, the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill (website), always a pleasure to visit, and I also had a couple of pints at the Royal Air Forces Association Albatross Club nearby (website), before returning to Hastings.  

Yesterday, together with my brother, Dan, we caught an early train to Battle, with it's twee station, then walked along the 1066 Country Walk from just below Battle Abbey, using a compass and Ordnance Survey map to guide us. I shan't bore you with a mile by mile transcription of the meandering 'walk', but shall mention a few of the more exciting sights, and pubs of course! 

I've seen this before in Catsfield, but a rather old twee (word of the day) cottage, 16th century I do believe, just before you reach the 19th century White Hart (facebook page), which does some remarkable deals, as you can see from the photograph below. We have imbibed here before, but were way too early to have a drink on this visit, as in, the pub hadn't opened yet... 

It was a gorgeous day, and started getting quite warm (my turn to carry the backpack probably made it appear even warmer to me!), and we stopped to admire the beautiful East Sussex countryside every now and then. Whilst enjoying the view below, we were drinking a wee coffee and eating a topic bar, hadn't had one of those for a while!

Then we reached Brownbread Street near Ashburnham, and were still 50 minutes too early to have a pint at the 17th century Ash Tree Inn (website) sadly. We had a chat to a lass who had been walking the wee pub dog, some special breed of pug, so Dan had to take a photograph to share with his youngest daughter, who loves such wee creatures! Anyway, no pint again, though we definitely shall return when it is open in the (hopefully not too distant) future, but here is the pub... 

... and here is evidence Brownbread Street exists, amused us! 

After dragging our boots through much mud, we finally reached somewhere we could enjoy a pint of Harveys, in their first ever pub, I do believe; ie at the 16th century (buildings are getting older as we wandered back in time!) Bull's Head in Boreham Street near Herstmonceux (website). 

   

Not long after leaving the Bull's Head we came upon some primroses, the first I've seen this year, and usually the harbinger of Spring, a wee bit early indeed! 

Anyway, whilst near Herstmonceux, we carried along by the quite delightful Herstmonceux Castle, built between 1440-1441 of brick, indeed, one of the oldest buildings in the country built in brick, the Saxons not using such materials, I have been told! For more information visit the Sussex Castles website.  

  

Next we reached the even older All Saints Church (For more local history, and about this church and the castle, visit the Parish website). Parts of the church remain from the 12th century, including the Tower and West Wall (below), and the rest has been gradually rebuilt or added over the centuries since. 

  

Well, we carried on down to Pevensey Level, but darkness was threatening, and we still had about 5 miles to go before we would reach Pevensey itself, we thought about it, but walking through the wetlands in the dark didn't seem such a great idea, so we walked back up to Herstmonceux to catch the 98 bus back to Hastings... Next time!  

My weekend, and much walking...

My brother visited at the weekend, and, as ever, we walked a fair bit, hence my not being around so much to write blogs, sorry...

Started off at Battle on Saturday (train from Hastings to Battle) and walked south to Crowhurst and St George's, the parish church (website), where we ate our first sandwich of the day, before going to...

The Plough, where we drank a pint of the decent 4% Long Man Best Bitter (website).  

Then we carried on towards Bexhill, though with a couple of deviations, due to the building of a Bexhill/Hastings link road (website), that added a few miles to the walk! This photograph was taken from a grid reference of about 756106.  

Anyway, we finally reached Bexhill, and saw our first Cornish flag of the day...

And, at the house I call the Bexhill Flag Raiser's, saw this ensign, presumably because of the 2015 Eastbourne Air Show (website), of which we spotted quite a few planes towards the west, including the Red Arrows...

We then returned to Hastings, where we searched for somewhere to watch the football on television, to no avail (though I today discovered that it was on at the Wellington in the High Street), but Dan wanted to try the FILO Pirate Gold (5.8%) anyway, so we visited the First In Last Out, where we enjoyed a nice pint or two before heading home.  

On Sunday, we just walked to Cooden Beach and back, as Dan had to catch a fairly early train home, so, passed the ever-developing Pier (website)...

Then saw this new cafe, by the old lido, that I'd never seen before (so new, obviously!). 

At Bexhill, we saw even more flags, no idea what this is about!

We had a coffee each, and an excellent piece of carrot cake, at the wonderful Art Nouveau/Modernist De La Warr Pavilion (website), always a delight to visit, sit on the balcony, and watch the world go by, not to mention the boat races this Sunday!

Then we headed off to Cooden Beach, before returning to the Albatross Club (RAFA club) at Bexhill seafront, of which I happen to be an Associate Member, so reasonably priced ale, and free roast potatoes on a Sunday, thank you very much!

And another excellent local ale we enjoyed too, the 5.5% Franklins New Zealand IPA!

And the Dutch tricolour had been added since the morning!

The new cafe was now open too... Anyway, Dan caught his train home, and I visited the Dolphin Inn yesterday evening, but that's another story, cheers!

Wander to Bexhill...

By Steve the Beermeister 

I had a nice wander to Bexhill on St George's Day, beautiful weather, and I hadn't visited the Albatross Club (R.A.F.A. Bexhill) for quite a while, indeed, I still had to collect my 2015 membership cards! It's a 10-mile round trip, and you can walk along without undulations, unless you fancy tackling Galley Hill once or twice. It's easy to forget how nice it can be walking along with the sea lapping at the nearby beach...    

One of the first sights on entering Bexhill is what I call the "Flag Raiser's Home", always a flag flying, unsurprisingly, it was the Cross of St George, but I've recorded many a different flag flying here... I always take a photograph, I have so many images of the owner's roof! 

I reach my destination (website), collected my cards from the pigeon hole, and had a wee drink there; some lovely ales at just £3 a pint (4 different real ales and a good range of bottled and real ciders). As an Associate member, I can enjoy a drink and a chat here, and, of course, I may sign in non-members. As a member of CAMRA, I was allowed in anyway before joining. A suggested donation of £1 is requested of non-members. 

The Bar is now run by the new (ish) Head Bar Steward, Karen, my mate Geoff having wandered off to run his own pub in Kent. Karen is ably supported by her Assistant Head Bar Steward, Peter, with whom I chatted yesterday. I was a little apprehensive of what ales would now be served following the departure of Geoff, but shouldn't have been concerned, because Karen and Peter are still stocking some wonderful ales, cheers!  

Anyway, time to leave Bexhill, and, as you can see, the sky was still clear, and a wonderful walk home ensued, a venture I would always recommend. 

I will be writing about the ales on my own blog very soon...