Episode 1 Liz at the Welly

Here we go! A strong start with our first guest Liz Blackford Sutton, Landlady of the Wellington Arms, or the Welly - the flagship freehouse in Bedford flowing with fine cask ales and more. A great local worth checking out…This episode includes; jukebox confusion, pickled eggs, stagediving bananas and so much more…

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Hello and welcome to the first and proper episode of Dead Pubs of the Shower. We begin with a pub that is alive and kicking, the Wellings in Arms at aka the Welly, a Backstreet Victorian freehouse pub in Bedford Town, where I interviewed convivial landlady Liza Blackford Sutton. Here's a few facts. The pub was originally four cottages and opted out to become the pub. The cellar was tailored to the space, but limited to four and a half foot high due to the water table, and therefore Ewoks had to change the barrels. This episode covers jukebox confusion, pickled eggs, stage diving bananas, and so much more. Some of the dead pubs on the same street included the Belgian arms, a corner pub that closed in the early 20th century and was demolished in the 1960s. A picture of the pub can be seen in the welly. There was also a beer house circa 1920s with no apparent name. Perhaps best known was the Wolsey Arms, which sat opposite the Welly, a modest two-room Benskins pub, hosted by the flamboyant Stan Russell, a well-known barman in other Bedford pubs over the years. The pub was demolished in the 1990s and replaced with flats. Right, hello, we're at the Wellington Arms, and I'm here to interview uh legendary local landlady Liz Sutton.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Hang on, my name's Liz Blackford Sutton.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Beg your pardon. Good start.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Blackford Sutton, sorry. That's fine.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

I got married. Uh okay. Um so yeah, do you want to tell us a bit about the park? Like how long you've been here?

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Yeah, actually, we were I was having a conversation with some locals the other day trying to work out just how long I've been here for. And we think next year is my 20th year of working at the Wellington. So then I've been here a while. I started off as a barmaid, well, bar staff, obviously. Then about six years ago, I became the manager for Banks and Taylor.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

Ah.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Then when Banks and Taylor shut down their shut down the brewery, shut down the business, um, I was given first dibs on taking the pub over as my own business. So obviously I did that. Yeah, brilliant.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

So that was an opportunity that arose.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

Oh yeah. Yeah, it's very much if you hang on long enough, yeah, hopefully.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

No, I mean it's a great setup. So um how many well I'll say guest beers, how many sort of beers do you have on tap, like uh car scales?

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Well, it very like obviously Monday, Tuesday we tend to drop it down to about four or five.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

And then by the time Wednesday because I'd rather have four really good beers on than eight beers that aren't going to last. You're not going to sell eight different car scales in a you know on a Sunday or a Monday. Um so that but then by Wednesday, Thursday we do tend to go up to eight beers and then they run out. I mean, we've got six on today, it's a Monday today, we've got six on today. Um, and see how they go. It is very much uh we can play it by ear, and all the staff are pretty well, you know, well versed in, you know, if there's only three people in here, there's probably no point in putting another beer on. No, no. But then if a load of people come in, then there's always the seller has always got a lot of beer in it.

SPEAKER_02 3:29

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

There's probab there's probably 40 car scales in there at the moment. Gosh, yeah. 40 maybe? Yeah. Yeah. But obviously, only a couple of them are tapped and ready to go.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

Um yeah, there's always there's we've always got something in stock, you know. Brilliant, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

And you've got a few the keg ones as well, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

We do have a few, we started doing a few more guests. Yeah. The more the str it's difficult. We can't have anything too wild. No, no. Because they don't tend to be session beers.

SPEAKER_02 3:57

No, no.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Um, but so we do try and have a f we we we've just I've just had a delivery from Burnt Mill Brewery. They've got some good kegs. Um yeah, so we're just trying to you know, we change they change. Yeah, you know, the that's a nice mix, couldn't it? Yeah. I think that Lionheart one, is that a Sharmbrook one? It is unusual. Well, that's right. We um did the Sharmbrook brood with brooding collaboration with Woodford uh Woodford in Norfolk. Okay, and it was when we put it on yesterday. I went we went obviously because I put something on we've never had I've never had it before. So I have a little Google and discovered they were from Sharmbrook, so it's unusual to have a brewery so close to here. I didn't realise there was a brewery in Sharmbrook.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

I didn't know I was aware of it and I'd forgotten about it and I saw it, but yeah, yes. So we'll um move on to my little list of questions. So have you got a a favourite a favourite beer or favourite drink? It doesn't have to be an alcoholic drink, I mean or a go-to or there's a lot of things.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

There's a lot of things I like to drink. Unfortunately, I can no longer drink wine anymore. No, it disagrees with me terribly. Right. So I've started actually I've started drinking the peach jubile, which is it's a it's a low AV, it's only four percent, you know, it's not too strong, it's quite a lot of it. It's kind of um fragrant, fruity, it's like peach, isn't it? It is peach, yeah. Yeah, it's like um it's like a seltzer a little bit. Do you know what I mean? Like it's it's quite light, it's quite refreshing. I have had low ABV, and it's gluten-free as well. Oh, right. Yeah, so I suppose that's a good thing. Yeah, I quite enjoy that. But I mean I do quite enjoy some of the the porters, I prefer the darker beers actually. Yeah, more malty kind of taste more like a digestive biscuit. Yeah, I had a multi bump. Yeah, rather than a super hoppy bit of beer. That's not really not really to my taste. But that's it. I am lucky that I get to try such a wide range of beers. Yeah, yeah. You know, I get to try everything before we put it on. And you know, what's similar to something else, and you know, what beers are alike or what what what sells the best, you know. Yeah, yeah. Um you know, what people prefer. Some people, you know, super hoppy beers. Yeah. But we're, you know, we do always tend to have a dark beer on, whether it's a mild or a porter or a stout. And that tends because I don't a lot of places if they haven't got as many hand pumps as us, no, don't get to put on as many dark beers as we, you know, like we we get to, so yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

That's good. I suppose it's a little bit seasonal as well, isn't it? Practical habitat towards dark ones in the winter and whatever.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

People do always prefer in the summer time the dark beers do slip out of popularity, but um but you know, we'd we'd always try and have something on to try and keep everyone happy all the time is always difficult, but yeah, I do my best.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Difficult question, maybe. Have you got like a favourite brewery or breweries?

SPEAKER_00 6:56

I know it's difficult because diplomatic. No, well, I mean, I guess if if I don't like a brewery, I don't order from them. Fair enough. That sounds a bit bit mean. No, I mean the thing is I because I did I speak, you know, I speak to all the breweries individually, so I obviously I have my favourite people that I like to talk to. Relationships. Yeah, the the especially the Andrea from Bateman's shout out to her. Cool. She's uh you know, I always enjoy having a bit of a chat with her and end up 25 minutes on the phone, excellent, which was always quite nice. But I mean I was because we have a few nether gates on, and nether gate the the thing that the nether gates are always consistently, consistently good, and they always turn up at the same time every week. That's helpful. When you have six or seven deliveries in a week, yeah, it's really nice when people turn up at the same time every week because or it could sometimes it can be a window between 7am and 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and it it just you know, it means that you can't get on, you're just constantly looking out of the window, waiting for your delivery driver.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Yeah, the Navigate alcohol-free ones, great, I think. It is, yes. That's one of my favourite ones.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

That's been a surprise actually in the last year, is just how good the non-alcoholic beers have suddenly become because previously they were dreadful. Yeah, oh yeah. Um, and it was wasn't an incentive to you know help people stop drinking. So uh, but no, the Adnams, Ghost Ship, The Venture, and the Guinness Zero, they're uh all really, really good. And we've seen the sales of those really rockets.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

I bet, yeah, because I mean different people drink for different reasons, don't they? I'll drive in order to be healthy. Yeah, absolutely. There's room for it, and you can just mix it up a bit. And I suppose it fits in with the big picture, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_00 8:43

It does, you know, and if if it helps people, you know, people should still be able to come to the pub and not drink, you know. Yeah, it doesn't have to revolve around having an alcoholic drink, you know. No, it's there's still a huge social aspect coming to the pub, and just because you don't want to drink alcohol shouldn't stop you from socialising. Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

And like you say, they're a lot better than they used to be. Yeah, they're actually palatable now. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, right. Uh have you right, this can be either or. Have you got a favourite bar snack like crisps or whatever, or a pub meal?

SPEAKER_00 9:16

Well, I have to say a go-to, yeah. We did, so there was a period when we sold pickled eggs and it was a real like it was a marmite. People loved it, people hated it. Um when we had the new bar done, unfortunately, because we had so many more, we put some more keg lights in. We don't really have any room for pickled eggs anymore. And I have to say the staff are thrilled about it. Yeah, we all are because the smell of a jar of pickled eggs when it hasn't been open for a few days is really quite ripe.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

Yeah, I've got I'm doing the lid and yeah, just that woof.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

So it's quite it's quite intense. So um I always quite enjoyed a pickled egg, but I can live without them and I can live without the heartburn that they give me. True, yeah. So uh I mean we I have to say, we do pride ourselves on our snack collection.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

No, um it's good.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

When Emily, Emily, um, when she goes to do the snap run, she always tries to get a new different crisp in every other week.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Well I get I get bored of the ubiquitous pipers crisps, you know. Yeah, but it's nice to have you look like you have things like knick-knacks and things. Yeah, quavers.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

I have to say quavers and uh we crunchies. It's got tuck shop vibes, it does, it does, but it does make you know, people really do. People do really enjoy it. We have got a little bit bored of you know, salt vinegar and plain. Yeah, let's have something that really does it. And none of them, no, none of them go with a beer. No, you know, that there's well there's rarely a crisp that complements a beer, no, but it doesn't stop people eating the punter forges on, yeah. I mean, good pork scratching, I think that we've also honed down on what who does the best pork scratches. Oh, right, yeah. And the ones that we have, I think, are probably the finest. Yeah. But also again, they do smell quite and you can hear people crunching them and think, ooh, that might be a tooth gump.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Sensory smack.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

Crunching. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

Well um but yeah, but we because we don't do food, but you know, um, which I'm pretty happy with because I don't because the the smell of grease can often be quite overwhelming enough. Oh yeah, absolutely. You know, yeah. But then also the smell of a smell of a you know a fried chip is can be quite tempting. It can be, yeah, yeah, yeah. But sometimes that heavy gravy waft it hangs, doesn't it? We don't we haven't got the space to do food. Well, luckily well, we're very lucky that we don't have to do food. We can s you know, we're we can we're a wet lead pub, we don't we don't thankfully, because uh you don't want me to cook for you. My customers do not want me to cook for them, I can tell you that much.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Now, have you got what would be a go-to song on a jukebox? Not that they exist much anymore, but on the well, I'm flipping it.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

What is a go-to song on a jukebox?

SPEAKER_01 12:10

If you have more than one to be fair, you can have three for 50 percent.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Yeah, it's in the 90s, you know. Um well, I mean, I haven't been in a pub with a jukebox for so long since the jukebox left the bear. That's the one I was thinking of. Yeah, since the jukebox left the bear, I haven't been in a pub with a jukebox.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

No.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

Um, my goodness, the bear jukebox was pretty legendary. It certainly taught me, showed me most of my, you know, when I was when I was a teenager, introduced me to so much music. Yeah, that jukebox was an absolute godsend, really. It was good. Um then they updated it to one of these modern ones, yeah, which I really struggled with. And I was in there one night, I was trying to put some music on, and and everything kept playing the wrong song. And luckily, somebody 20 somebody 20 years younger than me came up and said, You're putting Sister Sledge on, not the Sisters of Mercy. I went, This is why so near, but so far. I'm trying to put the Sisters of Mercy on, but all we're getting is Sister Sledge. Oh, that's brilliant. So that kind of sums up why I um technology isn't my friend. No. Um, and after that, I've never touched a jukebox since.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

But the the digital ones that have like a big database, they have everything on it. Really is incredible. You can find like or something. It's like, what's this? Normally it's like you know, 30 vinyls, you know, 70.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Yeah, and that that's kind of cool, but I mean I don't I don't know any pub that still has them. And I mean, obviously, we you know we it's quite well known that well, probably we don't have a jukebox and we don't have piped music. We don't have piped music, no, that's a thing that you don't, isn't it? We don't, and we have just we have um denard about it for maybe the quieter times, yeah. But I always say that nobody wants to listen to my music, and I probably don't want to listen to their music, so I think that's you know democratic. And I think also one thing I you know, our our hearing isn't getting any better. No, that's true, and we do you know, when we do have live music here, we do struggle you know to hear, and when it gets busy in here, it can be quite loud, you think.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

For myself, you know, uh hearing in parts of acoustics with certain noise because you get the the talking noise, and then if there is a band, it I'm finding it harder to tune in nowadays. Yeah, absolutely. I am no, I am absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

So when you're working, you're just like, Well, I can't hear you. Yeah. So I think that not having music in our in the background is probably doing everybody's hearing a hearing a favour.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

Yeah. Time time and place, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

Yeah. Also, nobody wants to sit here and listen to Lenny Cohen all day, so you know.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Might have an affair.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

I know, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

So um off the top of your head, uh, what's the best band you've seen in a pub? I mean, not in a venue or club, but in a pub.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

Best band I've seen in a pub. Well, I guess I'm quite biased because I really love skimming to rides. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Um, I went to see them at the King's Arms the other day. They played on St. Patrick's Day. Yeah. Yeah, and but you know, um, there's there's quite there's a few logos, certainly in Bedford. Yeah, I'm very lucky that I get to pick what bands that come play in the welly. That's true, you can cherry pick, yeah. Yeah, um, but yeah, I mean there's there's quite a lot, there's some decent local bands. Um but I think I have to say Skimmington Ride are my favourite.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

So you can have them in your pub, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

I can't all to be the we do have the pride occasionally as well, yeah, which is absolute chaos. There's eight of them. Oh right. Or nine of them. There's so many of them. Like a brass section or something. Yeah, they have, and they take up a third of the pub. So again, but actually there's quite there's like I think there's maybe five or six that's giving to ride, but yeah. They manage to condense themselves. Because the double bass is upright. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

So they're sort of folk-unk, right? Foky punky, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

Irishy folky punky, aren't you? Sing and are. Whereas the the pride are kind of more scar reggae, yeah. And uh yes, like I say, there's a lot of them. And but we when when both when either of them play here, it's always our busiest nights. Yeah, it's always very busy in here when either of those bands play because because they're really, really good local bands.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Yeah, they are excellent. So yeah. That's what you see. They were in-house bands, really. Yeah, almost. Well, Skimming Tride actually played at our wedding.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

We like them so much that they uh they they are great, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

They capture it well at sound. Yeah, raucas, that's what you want. Yeah, yeah. What's the best pub or a big bar you've been to on holiday that you can recall? So it could be a pub in England or a bar, or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Well, funny, I I have to admit, when I go on holiday, I try not to drink very much. No. Um I try to I you know, I try to obviously because I live and live and work and my entire existence is being in a park and you go away. Yeah, I do try to cut cut down on my alcohol consumption. But I mean, yeah, we always manage to find decent bars. Yeah. We always will find, you know, we tend to maybe look for a nice cocktail bar, yeah, um, or a dive bar, or you know, something different. Something, you know, something more to our taste, you know. But I mean, we went when we were in Prague, we go to Prague, I visit Prague quite a bit. Nice. And they have got they've got some great little bars. We went to the Absinthe bar, which nearly killed us. I mean, you know, it was it was it was wild. Yeah, I bet. It was wild. Um yeah, that was yeah, but that was I really yeah, veered off my no drinking too much on holiday rule for that, and really felt that the next day.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

That's full on, isn't it? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

So you might do the odd tea room.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

Yeah, I do. Well, I do like a good tea room. Well, I like you know, the in most major cities there's always like the the grand tea palace or whatever. Yeah, or you know, it's all lots of golden gilt and you know, yeah, like a hot chocolate that's just made purely of melted chocolate.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

Oh gosh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

And then you have to go and have a nap afterwards. Yeah, it just takes it out of your life. It's so rich, yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

Oh, that's good.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

Yeah, right. Um not necessarily here, but maybe here. Have you have you ever seen a ghost in a park? Or if not heard a good story about a ghost in a party.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Well, I mean, so the Wellington, yeah, Wellington's a pretty old building. It's four cottages knocked into one.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

Ah, okay. Right.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

That's why it's so eaggledy-piggledy. Right. Yeah. I'll show you the layout in a bit.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

But um, so it was a ha you know, it was four cottages for for a few years. Right. Uh it wasn't originally built as a pub, then it obviously became a pub in about 1870, 1880, I think it was. Okay. Yeah. Um and it only piece by piece.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

But I and do I believe in ghosts? Not necessarily, but do I believe in like some sort of residual kind of feeling left behind? I I think that you know, people come to the pub, they're very happy to celebrate, or they're very sad. Yeah. When you've had an awful day, you think I'm gonna go to the pub. So people bring a lot of feelings into a building, right? And and I think that there's something maybe sticks around a little bit. It's like when you walk into a room after an argument and you can feel it in the air. Yeah, you feel there's been an argument even though you don't know. And I think that that you get that in pubs because it just there's there's been a lot of energy here.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

It's so concentrated, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

Yeah, a very concentrated amount of energy.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

And I suppose yeah, I suppose it's sort of poignant and notable once you get a room full of people, then the next thing it's silent and it sort of resonates a bit, it's a bit odd.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

That's exactly right, exactly right. But now I'm I mean I've been here, I've been here a long time, and of course it's an old building. It creaks, yeah, it clanks, glasses do fall off the shelf for no reason. I got rid of the hand dryers in the toilets because they kept going off when there was no one here. But that's that's just probably just dodgy electrics more than anything else. But um, but I mean, I've you know, there I mean the rumour is there's supposed to be a something funny going on in this corner over uh where the where the new TV is. Some poor ghost is haunting the gents toilets, which I have to say, as good. What what have you done to deserve that? Yeah, why are you hanging around there? To spend eternity trapped in the gents. They might be happier now it's been done up, but nevertheless, yeah, it's not brilliant, is it?

SPEAKER_01 20:42

No.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Um but so people do say that there's that's that's the place that they get find a funny feeling, and it's the actually upstairs with the room. There's a this there's a funny vibe in this bit of the bit of the flats. But I can't really I can't say for certain. Nothing my husband is completely skeptical and says absolute nonsense. Right. I'm very much in the middle ground. Yeah, there are other people who are like, yeah, no, there's definitely something going on here.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

I'm fairly interested in it, but yeah, not really nothing conclusive in there.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Well, no, we did have there were a group that drank in here a few years and years and years ago. Yeah. They were like local Ghostbusters or whatever. Yeah, right, yeah. So they popped in before we opened and they took their little clicky clicky meters around. Brilliant. And they were like, Oh, there's something over here. I said, Yes, that's because there's a massive there's a massive air conditioning unit underneath your feet. That's probably what's causing it. Yeah. So um they were like, well, can we go in the cellar? And I the cellar, our cellar is not a very nice place to be. It's not built uh the building's not built as a pub, so it's not it's basically dug out of the ground. Is it quite a nose? It's four and a half foot high. I'll show you it in a bit.

unknown 21:53

Brilliant.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

But um but they asked if they could go in it and I said absolutely I don't feel it's no, I don't feel safe for doing that. So they so I said I'll do it. So I took these dowsing rods. Oh yeah. And you hold them very, very loosely in your hands. So I went down and they started moving. I tell you what, I have never moved so fast in my life. I was like a wrap the drain pipe out of there. I was I and as somebody who is, you know, quite sceptical, I was like, I am I'm not happy about that. No. But what does it tell me? It could tell me there's water, it could tell you there's electricity or something. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

Nuclear water use them and they say that oh they work, and I'm like, how does that work? I know.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

That's right, how does that work? And they're like just everyday people with their sticks, you know. It's so yeah, and but but because yeah, feeling them move with my hand and knowing you know, intrinsically knowing that I wasn't moving them was was yeah, certainly gave me the heebie jeebies.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

Yeah, it's not like well, I suppose it's maybe comparable to a magnetic thing, because yes, that's you know, mag magnets, that's not magical boozy, that's just magnets, it's it's physics, isn't it? But that's maybe it's an equivalent.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

Yeah, no, I don't. And do you know what? I got I it freaked me out for a week or two and then I had to get over it because I have to work down there. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Well, they're funny spaces, I suppose it's more your imagination, isn't it? Yeah, it is fellas are funny spaces.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

It doesn't, yeah, it does feel quite, you know, it's quite simple. Yeah, it's not you don't linger, you don't linger down there. Yeah, having to give when you have to give it clean on a Monday morning, you've got to be down there for a couple of hours. It can be it can be quite tend to ache a lot on a Monday, is it doubled over down there?

SPEAKER_01 23:38

Yeah, so have you got a a favourite life pub as in a pub that's still going?

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Yeah, I mean well, I mean I mean, obviously there's there's the welling. And obviously, I have to say I've I'm not as good as getting out as much as I used to. I I what you know, the last couple of years I have just become quite insular with and that's yeah that's not great, you know. I know it's not great, but I mean, you know, we do we do pop to the Devonshire Arms on occasion. There's the bear. To be fair, but I haven't really got out that herd. I do like we like to go to Herd and a Squise. I know that they're not No, no, that's all right, that's fine, yeah. They're not pubs, but you know that's a good place to go, yeah. Um they're still you know, you can still get a drink now.

SPEAKER_01 24:25

Yeah, yeah. But um still establishments it's still a squise, it's it's a bit more fine-tuned, but it's still a good place to go, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 24:33

Absolutely, absolutely. So yeah, I do yeah, sorry, I definitely can't really I would love to be like, yeah, I go to all these pubs all the time, but I have to say I'm not that great at doing that at the moment. So no, well Dev is a good call, that was a good sort of backstreet pub. I mean, yeah, it ticks all the boxes up to the side. Well, I've got friend Simon who does Crown and Heel burgers, he does them here, and he'll often go and do them at the Devonshire, so then it kind of gives us a reason to go somewhere else. Yeah. Or a beer fly as well, actually. We don't yeah, in fact, actually, I think the beerfly, although not classed as a pub. No, no, that's fine, yeah. Beer fly is probably the place that we visit the most because it is only just round the corner. Yeah, it's convenient, yeah. It is, and they sell a lot of really, really interesting, well, strong ones as well. Yeah, really unusual selection of stuff. So um there's always something different on there, so yeah, it's nice to nice to go in there, but we can only visit for an hour because anymore and we get yeah, it's too strong and we get too drunk.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

True, yeah. So sort of nursing a third of a pint, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:32

Well that you've nursing a third of a pint and then realising it's 12.5% and going, oh rightly. Oh, I need a nap. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

Yeah, I guess that's more that front of the fire bear, really. But yeah, yeah. Um what about have you got a favourite in a dead pub or a pub that's gone?

SPEAKER_00 25:47

Favourite dead pub? Well, um, I guess I would probably say, and this is a bit of a probably be the turnpike that was at East Cox Road. Good choice. Well, because that was where I got my first bar job. Ah I worked there when I was the landlady body gave me a job when I was 18, and I left school with no qualifications of anything to talk about, and I didn't really know what on earth I was going to do, and the job centre sent me that was the job centre sent me there. Yeah, and luckily she very kindly gave me a job, even though I was terrified of people at that point. I had no communication skills whatsoever, and I was quite nervous. Well, very nervous, yeah, but it totally, you know, it was it was a really odd old place.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

Yeah, I used I used to go there. I think I'm in it. I mean, it wasn't the prettiest of buildings, but I think it was a flat roof. It was a flat roof pub. It was a proper local pub. I mean, I I used to work up the road and play dance there at lunchtime sometimes. And so I think it had a bit of a bit of a community feel.

SPEAKER_00 26:55

Yeah, and a pool table, and on the other side you had all the grumpy old men playing dominoes.

SPEAKER_01 27:00

Yeah, yeah, classic setup, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

Yeah, it was, and it was, you know, it it it helped me, yeah, you know, it taught me a lot. Yeah, taught me a lot.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

It was quite an education, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 27:09

I think totally behind a bar.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

It was an education life, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

Yeah, totally very different. You know, they weren't the people that they were part of my social group, so I was really throwing in at the deep end, but actually it all turned out that they were really nice people.

SPEAKER_02 27:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

Yeah. Yeah. Really enjoyed my time there. So yeah, when the turnpipe went, that's you know, I mean they built like 25 flats in its place now or something. Yeah. That's flats.

SPEAKER_01 27:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's flats.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

And that's that. Just one more thing. I've got a wildcard question, um, if you want that. Go on. Uh a fancy dress outfit of choice.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

Well, I've more Tisha, obviously. Uh fair enough. Because I don't need to make any effort whatsoever. Um generic witch, you know, that's always a good one.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

But you say you're not gonna have something like Snowman or something different. No. No, you can't.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

I'm gonna be enough. Generic witch, I've already got all of that in my wardrobe and there is a broomstick over the bar, so I don't fancy dresses and although I do like it when there's like 20 bananas all dressed up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

I do find that it's especially on yeah, en masse. En masse, yes.

SPEAKER_00 28:26

You get like ten guys dressed as seagulls. That is, you know. I like that. I mean if I was gonna do anything, I'd probably I'd probably have to be as a group as a bunch of bananas.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

A collective group of bananas or seagulls. Went to a gig not so long ago, and there were people dressed up as bananas. I was gonna say for no reason, but it was uh grilla biscuits, so it was a banana ramp. No, it wasn't banana. So it was grilla biscuits, so I guess that's why they're bananas. But one of them was stage diving, so it looked quite good. Yeah, yeah, stage diving banana. Yeah, I've not seen that before.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

Also, quite if they if you do miss, then it's not gonna be a softer landing.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

Yeah, but it might be a slip hazard. Oh god. But um the other thing my friend said about um she was in Shep she's from Sheffield and there was um a load of Elvises dressed up, people dressed up as Elvis, and it ended up in a fight. Oh my goodness. All these weak Elvis weeks were flying and stuff. Oh yeah, it was the most surreal thing to Last orders at the bar, please! So that's the end of the first episode. Thank you if you made it to the end. If you would like to like and subscribe wherever you get your podcast from, and check out Dead Pubs of Bedfordshire on Facebook and Instagram for posts on l loads of lots of pubs. There are three books available from Eagle Bookshop Bedford or from Dead Pubs Direct.