Pubs of the Shire
Welcome! An Introduction to Pubs of the Shire, chatting about pubs, dead pubs, beer and beyond, Cheers!
Pubs of the Shire
Oyez! Oyez! It’s Bryan Bland of Ampthill
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I took off to the historic market town of Ampthill Bedfordshire to talk to ghost tour guide and newly appointed town cryer Bryan Bland. The town was and still is well furnished with public houses and Bryan is well acquainted with these as a local historian and story teller.
In this episode we chat ghost monkeys, buckets of blood and much more. Listen out for the church bells for a wedding that day, they ended up in the Wingfield Club...
Warning, may contain squeaky leather chair sounds.
Follow Ampthill Ghost Walks on social media and maybe do a walk…And please like and follow Pubs of the Shire wherever you get podcasts plus Dead Pubs of Bedfordshire on Facebook or Instagram - thanks
Oh yay, yo yay! Hello, and welcome to episode nine of Hobbes of the Show, where I took off to the historic market town of Hampton Peters, to talk to Ghost Hall guide and newly appointed town crier, Brian Bland. The town was and still is well furnished with public houses, and Brian is very well acquainted with these local establishments as a local historian and storyteller. In this episode, we chat ghost monkeys, buckets of blood, and much more. Squeaky leather chair sounds. Right, we're here at the grand surroundings of the Wingfield Club in Amber Town. And I'm here with Brian Bland. Um and he's going to tell us a bit about himself. Hello, Brian.
SPEAKER_00Ah, it's really good to see you, Lloyd. I um it's so nice of you to join me over at the Wingfield Club because it is it's a lovely old building, and I think a lot of people drive past and have no idea what's in here, really. So it's great to be up here today. But yeah, Tom blinding a little bit about me. Well, I guess what a lot of people know me as, uh, particularly online, is um the Amstel Ghostwalk guy. Because I started doing ghost walks a couple of years ago, yeah. Um, and it's just gone bananas, honestly. I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't imagine. I could never have imagined it'd end up being as popular as it has been. It's a bit like dead pubs of Bedfordshire, let's be honest. It's equally took off, and I yeah, I end up doing ghost walks every other Wednesday, and and and they've just gone crackers bringing a lot of people into town. Screaming success. Screaming success, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm dying to tell you about it. Oh, yeah, absolutely. But yeah, I mean that's what I'm most probably known for, but otherwise, I'm sort of a I'm a local local guy to to Amptill now, but I've grew up in Bedfordshire, sort of farming stock, really, my family. I've been there in Bedfordshire all my life. Um my late father always said we've been in the same village since uh records began and when he passed away. My brother and I did you know the family tree. We've been in Henno since the 1700s, and of course, my brother's still there, so I'm the black sheep because I live over at Amtill.
SPEAKER_01Ah, oh right. And you've you've taken on a new role, you've got a new hat?
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, new hat indeed, a trichord, absolutely, and it's not a pirate, yeah. No, I mean um it's quite interesting because Amtill's a lovely old Jordan town, the councillor, very keen to keep its traditions alive. Yeah, and uh we have a town crime, yeah, and Kevin, Kevin Horton, he retired recently, right? Um, and they advertise for New Town Crier. So you're right, I actually actually had to apply for it, yeah, uh, which is great. Yeah, uh, have a formal interview, would you believe? Brilliant, and stand up and do a test proclamation in front of uh in front of a an interview panel of four, including the mayor and a councillor. It was quite scary. I am now Antilles Newtown Cryer, yeah. Um all of my livery is being made at the moment. Yeah, it takes about 10 to 12 weeks. Two or three specialist suppliers.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_00Um ruffled sleeves that might clean. It's interesting because I've been I've been fortunate that I've been allowed to influence what I'm wearing, and I I've tried to tone down the ruffled sleeves and the buckled shoes. Okay. 21st century, yeah. I'm I'm gonna I'm hold the buckles. Yeah, hold the buckles because it's a bit pants of mine for me. Yeah. So I'm hoping that that I'm gonna well at the moment the agreement is I'm gonna have some really nice riding boots. Yeah, exactly. I will have a nice long waistcoat, beautiful red coat, and a big tricorn, but I'm gonna try and play down the ruffles and the back. I know what you mean, yes, yes. And try and try and modernise the role a little bit, absolutely. Did you have to do an O Yay in the uh I did, I did. So I'm I mean, you know, I mean you and I have met before, and I I I do enjoy I do enjoy performing, which is why I do the ghostwalks. Yeah, and um what I did is the brief was um to prepare a proclamation of no more than four minutes of a royal, a future royal event of your choosing, right, uh, for a community garden party. So what I did was I wrote a rhyming proclamation about the death of King Charles and the coronation of the new king and a garden party in the Alameda, which is a tree-lined avenue in Amtill. Yeah. Um and that was my proclamation. And I and I also took my own bell, believe it or not, the Victorian school bell. Personal bell I know, and that surprised them when I whipped a bell out of a bag, and an old beat nut beat nut top hat, and and I had this um sort of horrible nylon red coat that was an old fancy dress thing, and I took all these out of a bag and put it on, and they went, You're the only applicant who's dressed up. And then I then I got the bell out. I said, You brought your own bell. I said, Yeah, I don't know, I know. So I did this trial proclamation in this room, um and then I ended it by saying, and of course, it's for a future event, god forbid, it will happen. So you can have the script and you can use it in the future, whether I get the job or not, and I put it in front of the mayor. So it's that's showing willingness, yes, yeah. I I think it showed commitment, but a slight amount of brazenness, which I'm happy to admit. Yeah, yeah. I'm sure that's all part of the role, isn't it? Well, I think so. I would say so. So when's your your first gear? Well, well, I'm waiting for the gear to be made. Um at the moment, um uh because it's a civil role, uh working for the council, and you'll love this because of course people listening to this, and I know you do as well, love their history. Um, in the past, you couldn't harm a town crier, it was actually treason. And if you harmed a town crier, it was treason because the effectively worked for the king, yeah, announcing things like new laws and new taxes. Um, you also couldn't interrupt a town crier. If you did, it was possibly a knight in the stocks, believe it or not. I won't interrupt. What's up? I won't interrupt. You won't oh you caught me there, yeah. I was like, no, no, but I don't, but caught me there, I'm sorry. Yeah, so so it was all these things like so. It's actually quite a important was an important role back in the day.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So at first it's gonna be all of what they call their civic events, so it's gonna be Armistice Day and Remembrance Day, probably the first time I'll be doing Town Cry. So they won't be jovial, no, no, they'll be exactly formal, probably with a high sheriff from Bedfordshire and all this kind of stuff. Of course, when you're doing that, you've got to get all the addressing people right. I've got old books on etiquette, fortunately, so I'll dig those out. But yeah, I think my first gigs are gonna be in October and I'm sure it'll be fine, yeah. We'll see.
SPEAKER_01Rise to the occasion.
SPEAKER_00But um, so in the also did ghost tours, uh, here in Ampsil, yeah, and um I I I visit kind of haunted and horrific sites in Ampsill. Yeah, um, I've been collecting ghost stories ever since I was a kid, really. And I'm not really interested in the paranormal and particularly Bedfordshire ghost stories. I used to watch a lot of Hammer films and we'd lost Stephen King and and uh James Herbert and that kind of there. And then I started collecting Bedfordshire folklore and then ghost stories, and in the end, my wife said, after being married to her nearly 30 years, for God's sake, just get on and do it, right? So I started the Facebook page, yeah. I thought I'd do four weeks, four walks, and everyone would be sick of it. And here I've probably had 2,000 people through the door. I've got people from London, Lincoln, Peterborough, I've had people on holiday from Seattle, um, California, and yeah, it's it's incredible. So um I'm booked out till December. I mean, we're sitting here uh now in August, and I'm booked out till December. And I'm I'm I'm I'm thinking I might change the content from January because I've been doing the same stories for a while. But yeah, you're an asset to the town then, yeah. Well, it's funny. I I I I ended up in a uh the town council invited me to this. Was before I I expressed interest to be the town crime and got that job. Um uh they were looking to to to um uh get the town of culture, which the Department of Media and Sport had launched. Yeah, so they said, Oh, can you come and be part of the panel to help us write this submission, this bid?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I said, Well, why do you want me to do it? And they said, Well, you're Amtill's uh tourist industry. I said, Oh, come on. Really? They said, Well, you're the closest we've got to it, we'd like you involved, which I took as an incredible compliment, really. Um, because I mean that the Amtill Park's fabulous, and yeah, Amsterdam has a huge amount of people tend to. And I thought that was very, very complimentary to say I was Amtill's sole tourist industry. You might get poached by Universal. Do you know? Um I actually had I had a group booking from a lady, uh, American lady, and um often I get people wanted to kind of if you like jump the queue, what I normally do, and they do a group booking, which is fine. I'll do a group booking for people. And I said, Oh, is it is it you and a group of friends? And she said, Oh no, it's me and my friends from work, it's a corporate booking. I said, Okay, I said, Oh, what company is that? And she came, she came back and said it's Universal. About a month ago, so I had two of the directors of Universal and a load of most of them were engineers and PR staff who were working up at County Hall at Bedford at the minute. Um, yeah, and I did a ghost walk for them, um, and they were just very complimentary and it was all quite amazing. And yeah, they didn't ask me whether I could consult on Universal at Kempston Hardwick, but it'd be amazing, wouldn't it? Yeah, yeah. Um I am in contact with a couple of them still, so fingers crap. You never know. You never know, who knows? I think there's scope. We never know, who knows?
SPEAKER_01So I shall start with it. Questions if that's okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, please do. I mean, it's great.
SPEAKER_01Have you got a favourite go-to beer or priming now? It could be more than one if that's yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean, this I'll this is where I'm gonna I'm gonna sound, you know, it's gonna sound like I'm I'm I'm just an alcoholic, which is not entirely. But the reality is I really appreciate a good beer. Yeah. And I absolutely hate a bad beer. So what don't I like? I mean, let's knock out what I don't like. So I'm not a big fan of I like I like ales and I like IPAs and pale ales to be honest, um, particularly in the summer. What I've really got a um aversion to is pale ales and IPAs that are too citrusy. Right. So that's the first thing. They're all out, right? So that's the first thing, they're all out. So in the summer I'll drink an IPA or a pale ale, yeah, and I'll often look at something around about 4%. Yeah, because my problem is I like to have more than one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, once you've had one, it might lead to another one. I think that's fairly uh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So you know, so I don't want to be 5.7, 6.3%. Yeah, you wouldn't catch me at a Belgian brewery, right? That's a bit too much for me personally. So I like looking at that's what I drink in the summer. Yeah, yeah. In the winter, um, because um I'm quite a big rugby man, right? Uh support Amtel um and and and controversial, I'll also support Bedford Blues at times as well, but of course they're great rivals locally. Yeah, um, I support England and go down Twickenham now again. Yeah, I love my Guinness. Yeah, I I do like so in the winter I drink Guinness. That's the that's the rugby drink, isn't it? I know, isn't it? And it's become so personified as a rugby drink. But what I do like, and I also admire, keeping it local, is a part of Genesis, which is Brute Point, um Wells and cheese answer to Guinness. I do like Guinness's, it's lighter than Guinness.
SPEAKER_01It's a little bit there sometimes. The other ones are a bit more nuanced as well, it's slightly more smoky or more flavoury.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I like a good porter, like a really trickily rich porter, yeah? Um but I wouldn't drink that in the summer. No, no. I mean, I've got to be honest, and if if there's not an IPA, if all they've got is like um neck oil, which is one of my favourite hates because of that citrus, that citra flavour in it, right? Yeah, don't get me wrong, I love that. I love the graphics on the that they use in their marketing, yeah. Um but I can't stand a bit. If there's no IPA or pale ale on them, I'll just go for it, I'll just go for a lager. Yeah, I really will, I'll go for a lager a nice cold lager. So I'm not uh I was a member of Camera once, and I'd like to say I knew a lot of different beers, but yeah, that's where I'm at really. I like some of the little like independent local brewers and they do their little um car scales, and that's quite nice. Oh, we're really lucky here in Hampton because we've got Marves, which is a lovely little um beer house that opened last year in 2025, and they have you know freeze um fridges full of canned and bottled beers, and they do a fabulous IPA and fabulous live that's brewed just for them. Oh, okay. I think they've got a brewery trip from Marves coming up, going to the brewers that make specially their labelled beer. So we're very lucky in Hampshire that we've got that. And the Queen's Head in Hamtill serves a very good um uh Timothy Taylor bolt maker. Oh, lovely. And that is my go-to. Yeah, I must say, if I'm in the Queen's Head or even walking past, I'm known to slip in for a bolt maker.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, that's bolt makers. I like the name, it's a nice beer. Tim Taylor's quite renowned, they're good, proper independent. They are they're not kind of sub to solar or anything.
SPEAKER_00They haven't, no, they're a good brewery. Yeah, they are a good brewery, yeah. Yeah, I mean favourite favourite breweries are interesting because I mean, yeah, I've mentioned Brew Point, and you're right, Timothy Taylor. I mean the landlord, you can never go wrong with the landlord, and you'll find that all across London as well. Um Madonna was a fan, apparently. Um really? What was she with? Yeah, when she take that one by Richard, loving it in London. Yeah, she used to suck up Tim Taylor, apparently, yeah. So I do like Sam Smith though. Yes. As a range of beer, yeah. Um their um double X double X best or Drupal X best, they don't quite know how to order it, is a lovely pine. Okay. Um I quite like Sam Smith's, and of course that's a Yorkshire. Tag. So nice soft, yeah. Tag has a nice soft water. Yeah, you know, so I quite like yeah, when if I if I see a Sam Smith pub, which you don't see very much in Bedfordshire, that's for sure. So I just see them in London. Yeah, I'll go I'll go in, I'll go into a Sam Smith pub in town.
SPEAKER_01When you see the bottled beer, which isn't often either, but they do lovely labels on them, they're very sort of old-fashioned in a nice way, exactly, exactly.
SPEAKER_00So that's I mean, yeah, so I'm I'm I'm not too fussy on my beers. No. Um I will seek out, I will seek out a Sam Smith's, yeah. And I yeah, I'm a fan, I'm a I'm a fan. I mean, I think I think Brew Point is fabulous. The new brew point uh venue. Yeah, it goes there for a rugby match, it's absolutely banging site. We're very lucky to have that near Bedford.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and it's nice all the brew is built into it, and uh yeah, it's a nice big space, it makes nice contrast to a pub, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely. So have you got a favourite uh a pub snack or a meal? It could be evil.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I have this is now this is uh this is very this is very easy for me. Right. So the pub snack, right? Yeah, has got to be. I'm I'm telling like a right old traditionist here, right? Has got to be roast potatoes on the bar on a Sunday lunchtime. Yes, and and and preferably doesn't have to, I'm not Ponzi, it doesn't have to be sea salt, just a bit of salt on some really nice, crunchy roast potatoes on a Sunday lunchtime on the bar. I don't think you can beat that for landlord hospitality. Yeah, nice. And let's be honest, if you if you're doing that right, yeah, you might find some bits and cubes of cheese, cheddar, rest lesser. Yeah, again, nothing too fussy, um, and maybe a few little bits of salami. I mean here in Amtill, um the engine and tender sometimes does that. So does the old son, so does the Queen Kent. So you know, that Sunday lunchtime tradition of nibbles on the bar is still there. So that would be my favourite snack. I mean, yeah, otherwise I'm just a packet of crisps, a packet of beauty, yeah. But but but meal, you say as well. Now right now, yet again, there are there are several places still that will serve it, but that the best place for me, and it's local, I'm pleased to say, is the stone jug in Clockham. Oh yeah, and that's got to be liver and onions. Oh fashioned, yeah. I know, I know, I know, I'm so I'm sounding like an 80-year-old sound there, right? But liver and onions done properly with a rich gravy and mashed potato, yeah, um, and a decent pint, and I've got an ale or a Guinness, right? That has got to be my go-to meal every time. Yeah, if it's on the menu, it doesn't matter what else is on the menu. No. I mean, I'm just thinking, I went out this week, uh, I was at the Crown in Sherrington this week. Uh, went out with friends from Stockfold, and and yet again, I I am sounding very traditional. I have gammon egg and chips, right? You can't beat it. No, that's good.
SPEAKER_01And you don't see these things everywhere either. No, you don't. You know. There's a lot of trends and kind of um silly burgers and things, as it were. I know, but you know what I mean. What is a mash burger? Do you actually know? Smash mash, I don't know. I think I just bash it about a bit.
SPEAKER_00Because when it comes, it looks the same as a burger.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean that's what a burger is anyway, isn't it? I think so. Just another word, I think. Smash burger, yeah. I should have figured that out. Save out for the hipsters, yeah.
SPEAKER_00The hipsters, oh my yeah, no. Yeah, I don't think that's fine.
SPEAKER_01Oh, no, absolutely brilliant. Right, so you've got um you've got 50p. What song are you putting on the jukebox, or you can have three for a pound?
SPEAKER_00Oh, I'm gonna have to have three for a pound, yeah. So I'm about to have three for a pound. Okay. Um I love music. I've always found music incredibly inspiring. Yeah. Um and I've always had a very um kind of diverse uh kind of diverse uh taste in music. I mean uh my parents used to um my mum, she used to love things like uh Bin Crosby and Matt Telani and you know, you know, whereas my dad, you know, he was into kind of more more more modern music at the time in the in the sorts, yeah, at least it could have been in the in the late 70s. Yeah. But when I met when I met my wife, her parents were really super cool. Yeah. Uh and they were definitely into their rock and roll and all this kind of stuff. So I've always had quite a diverse range, including classical music. Yeah. So I'm not gonna say all of these are gonna be on a jukebox, that's the thing, right? So I definitely have three for them. Yeah, but yeah. But what where would I start? I would start with I'll start with something quite special to me, yeah. And that would be, and if you if if anybody listening's never listened to this track, you you mightn't have done and you might not realise what you're listening to. And it's Journey of the Sorcerer by the Eagles. Now it's a very long song, right? It's about seven minutes long, and like uh The Chain by Fleet McMack, it has a section of it used famously. So the chain by Fleet Mac is used famously in as Formula One uh music. Now uh Journey of the Sorcery by the Eagles is used by the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, yeah, BBC TV series. The books were written by Douglas Adams. I absolutely love that track. Um it's really ethereal, um, it's magical. Um I've always wanted to I've always wanted to do some kind of um some kind of ghostwalk video to it, right? Because I also think a lot of people wouldn't recognise it. I think that'd work quite well. No, it's a it's a great track.
SPEAKER_01It's quite yeah, it's quite a bit epic, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00I recognise that that intro bit, that riff or whatever is great.
SPEAKER_01And it's got like a is it a mandolin or something else in it? It's got a lovely sound, yeah, but it's quite um yeah, it's quite of a time and mystical. It does evoke memories and perhaps it's like you might similar age, sort of a lot of uh yeah, sort of 70s, 80s sort of yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00But what but I I was quite lucky, I was um uh in my day job, and I have a day job, I also go to Cambridge quite a bit, in my day job, and um uh sometimes when I was in the office I'd knit to a pub to lunch, of course. And um uh the mitre in Cambridge was where Douglas Adams, who wrote Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, yeah, uh he he was born in Cambridge and he went to Jesus College in Cambridge. Right. Um Douglas Adams wrote for footlights, for Cambridge Footlights, uh, for the lights of um uh Paleon and Bill Auddy and John Cleese and so on, right? Um but he also wrote elements and ideas for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in the mitre. Right. I was walking past the mitre about 20 years ago, and they were refurbishing it, and they were just taking down the pub sign and putting it in a skip. What? So the pub that Douglas Adams wrote, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, rover for footballs, it's the mitre. I'm standing there and I watched them take the sign down and put it in the skip. Watching the skip. I walked over and I said to the builders, come on out of the pub sign, please, before anybody else did. Yeah, of course you had. And it was bloody heavy. Yeah, uh I struggled back to the multi-story car park behind John Lewis in Cambridge and put it in the back, put the seats down from the back of the car. Brilliant. It's hanging in my garage.
SPEAKER_02Oh, lovely.
SPEAKER_00So I I'm very pleased. So when it comes to Journey of the Sorcerer, yeah, not only do I love the track, and I also quite like the Eagles, especially Hotel California, right? Yeah, but it also reminds me of Mitre, it reminds me of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, it reminds me of Cambridge, which is a city I love. Lovely reminds me of Douglas Adams, and of course, um in the 80s I loved watching Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as the BBC season, and the so forth Beagle Prox and the uh you know the gobble blaster copy, yeah, or the galactic gobble blaster. Yeah, well, yeah, I mean I've done it whether they're doing at the wiggy, but we can ask. Yeah, a slarty bar fast as well. Sloty drum designed all the fields. Funny what stays in the middle but I loved all of that. I've actually got it on DVD, I must watch it again now. I must be interested.
SPEAKER_01There was a nice uh documentary about him. I think it's probably on the iPlayer, and it's quite interesting. Yeah, he's quite a complex guy, yeah. Clever.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, very clever, um, complete, agnostic, hugist. Um totally before his time. I mean, Hitchhives Guard to Galaxy is basically a handheld access to the internet. It was a bit of a prophecy, wasn't it? Smartphones, yeah, absolutely. Internet, yeah. Absolutely. Way beyond his time. Way beyond his time. So I think Stephen Prior narrated this documentary, so it all ties in quite nicely, because yeah. I need to watch that. Yeah. I'll dig that out. Or it might be on YouTube, but recommended. Okay, so that's my first one. Brilliant. Out of my pen, right? So my second track, as I'm flicking through uh those turny lists of badly typed uh type, has got to be um Don't Stop Me Now by Queen. Right now. What why is that? So yet again, I found this very very very hard to think about these, but but Don't Stop Me Now by Queen, because I saw Queen live in 1986 at Nedworth. I was 15. It was the fur believe that, first concert I ever went to was Queen at Nedworth. Swan Start, yeah. Oh, unbelievable. Um Freddie Mercury on stage, the energy was just astounding. Just astounding. Yeah, but I love the track, um, and of course now I listen to it, and uh because of the wonderful Simon Peggle, Nick Frost, all I can think about is the landlord of the Winchester, he's been bitten by a zombie, he's turned into a zombie, he's chasing them around the pool table, Don't Stop Me Now comes on the jukebox and they're smacking him around with paw cues, right? To the music, to the music, to Don't Stop Me Now, right? Okay, and what a fabulous film that is, okay? Because there they are, stuck in a pub. Yeah, right. So when when the world's ending, and I'm sure we all once felt like we should do this in Covid, right? Yeah, what do they do? They get stuck in the Winchester, but worst of all, you know, the landlord turns into a zombie. But now, when I listen to Don't Stop Me Now, always loved that piece of music. Now all I can think about is that scene can't help associated with that landlord but keys and if you watch it, yeah, that he's clearly wearing padding, right? And you can see he's got a check shirt on, and you can clearly see, and they are smacking it, yeah, but you can clearly see the padding because yeah, I mean it's it's a British film, not a Hollywood film, but hey, I'm not criticising the movie, but they're geniuses, right? Yeah, but that would be my my second choice, um, particularly if I was in a pub with a pool table.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, makes sense.
SPEAKER_00Continuity don't stop hitting her landlord though with the cue. No, well, yeah, but of course he's meant to have what is it, a brevel out back and a Winchester hanging above the bar.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And was it Simon Pegg's character keeps saying uh Sean keeps saying that's not real, that's not real, and of course they get it when they're shooting the zombies over the park.
SPEAKER_01It's like because I think that part that's sadly shut, didn't it? It was a bit of a mecca for fans and things, but I think it's shut now. I think it's apartments, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I knew it, but that's really sad because nice building wasn't it. It was because it was on the corner, wasn't it? I knew that um there was a lot of kind of like yeah, fan attraction and guided walks where you'd go on kind of like movie locations and and and you'd see it. Yeah, um, yeah, I must just have quite a sad to you, though. We need another Winchester, yeah. And I've got I've got a third song, yes, yes, third song. I've got a third song. You have right now. I'm gonna I'm gonna bring things a little bit up to date, or a bit more up to date, anyway. And my third song's gonna be I Predict to Right by the Kaiser Chiefs.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah.
SPEAKER_00Right, because it's an absolute, it's an absolute, let's be honest, it's a yeah, it's a cracking track, right? And yeah, the lyrics of that track absolutely sum up a town centre Saturday night, right? Particularly a bigger town like Bedford or Stevenage or you know, whatever, or parts of Milton Keynes or Hitchin or whatever, you know, when things are literally getting leary, right? When things are getting learning. I love that track, and I think the lyrics are poetic in that in modern poetry. Um, but yeah, I'd go for I'd put it drive by the colours of cheese. Yeah um and there would there wouldn't be anybody in the pub in my imaginary pub playing this with my imaginary pound in the imaginary jukebox that isn't tapping their feet and singing all of them. No, I agree, yeah. That's a great track track. So that'd be my rousing track, yeah. I would put I'd probably put them on in that order as well. That's a nice order, yeah. That'd work, yeah. Build it up. Yeah, I'd put it down, and then I'd very I'd very shortly followed by another pound because I love a jukebox. Yeah, yeah, definitely can't resist, put some more on, yeah. Yeah, knock in, you're knocking it. I mean, and you don't see as many jukeboxes as you don't used to, which is unfortunate.
SPEAKER_01I noticed there was one here at the wingfield club. There is here in the wheelfield club.
SPEAKER_00I think it's a digital one, there are lots of choices. It is a it's got a huge amount of choice, yeah. You're absolutely right.
SPEAKER_01Is there a band you've seen in a pub that you remember?
SPEAKER_00Well, now I've seen many bands over the years, but uh it's actually a closer, it's a it's a really quite a closer personal memory to that. Now I've got an older brother, so uh my brother Ian's four years older than me. So he was 18, I was 14, and and you can do the maths, right? Um and one of his friends, one of his close friends, is a chap who he actually still lives in Henl as well, a guy called Andy Jaw. Now, Andy, um Andy was uh uh was a was a bit of a singer in his day in his 20s, so they were in their early 20s, I was about 18 and what have you. Um Andy was a bit of a singer, and there were some other guys in the in the village in Henlow and from around who set up a band called the Whiskey Chasers, right? And it was a mix of R and B rock and roll covers. Yeah. Now they bought they did it all. It was like uh they bought an old van. Not commitments. Yeah, it's like that, but also what's that? Yeah, a bit like that. All of it, sorry, yeah. All of those mixed together, right? They bought an old rusty transit van, they bought old amps, right? And um Andy was a good-looking lad, right? Lustrious, mullied back in the 80s. Well, by this point, it was the 90s, it was the um it was the early 90s. Anyway, Andy was the lead singer, right? Um, and my brother and I introduced, you know, they're his mates, really, but of course I mean we'd go see it with someone on his own house. Anyway, I ended up being a roadie for them, really. But I say that, yeah. I kind of I moved the odd speaker, yeah. Right, let's not let's not let's not expand my role to I moved your speaker.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Then there was a period where they were they were getting good, they were getting good, right? The whiskey chasers were getting good, and they were getting bookings left, right, and centre. And I can remember, you know, going to going with them and helped setting up the gear and everything, and it was great because I was heavily involved, yeah, but I wasn't driving the van and I wasn't performing. No, so I could have a few beers. I could remember them playing um the three horseshoes in Norton near Lechworth. Back to Lechworth again, right? Big, big old pub, all the all the buildings in all those 30s buildings and I remember that night being a particularly good night where they were on form, there was a massive crowd in the pub, it was standing room only, everyone was dancing, everyone was sweating. So if I could go back in time, yeah, I'd go back to the early 90s to that night, that Friday or Saturday night, I can't remember which one, it's probably a Saturday, but the three horseshoes in Norton when I was when I was roading in for the whiskey chasers, right? My brother's mates, yeah. That's probably the best band I've ever seen in a pub.
SPEAKER_01Sounds good. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because I was involved and I was invested, yeah. It's great.
SPEAKER_01That's bloody brilliant. That's lovely. So, yeah, we've got the what's the best pub or bar you've been to on holiday? So it could be in some far-flung territory.
SPEAKER_00Well, no, I have been to quite a few far-flung territories. I mean, um, I mean it's interesting. I don't have traveling excessively. You and I were talking earlier very briefly at the bar, um, about you know, Sri Lanka. I spent spent we we spent quite a bit of time in Sri Lanka at one point. We even thought about buying a guest house my wife and I in Sri Lanka when we were out there. Of course, never had. No. Um, but Sri Lanka's amazing in that um when when when it became uh the British left and it came out of uh becoming a British colony and became part of the Commonwealth in I think it was 1952, um, the British left behind uh breweries and therefore bars and pubs in almost every town. Yeah, um, we did quite a lot of travelling in Sri Lanka and it was amazing. Every single town had a brewery with bottled IPA and bottled stout and bottled bottled luggers, and that was fabulous in Sri Lanka. But yeah, I've got some great, I've got I can't remember all their names as long as I go. But I'm gonna go for my most recent memory. So I have just returned from Florida, right? I've just returned from Orlando in the States, yeah. And um uh so I've been away with my wife and my son. Yeah, we've just spent two weeks doing all the theme parks, and honestly, we we've brought a general junkies. We love rides, we love our movies, we love our music, we love experience, we've had a wonderful time. Um first night we got there, retired, check in, all that kind of stuff. We went past the place. Last time we were there was nine years ago. Wasn't there before, a place called Texas Roadhouse. It's a chain, but it's very popular. Yeah, I said, I said, you know what, I fancy some ribs. Yeah, we went, we drove past an airport, we checked it. I said, I fancy some ribs, go back there. It's there, it was a mile down. No, we've got Chevy Blazer, obviously. It wasn't what we are, we all know what we booked, it was lovely. So I said, get like in the Chevy, and we'll go down Texas roadhouse anyway. Friday night or something like that. Huge queue outside, 50 minute wait. And Rach said, Oh, it's so hot, really hot. I said, What do you want to wait? I said, Oh, I said, Look, let me pop inside. I popped inside. The place was banging every 20 minutes. The staff are line dancing, honestly, put the book willingly. Yeah, you asked you asked staff in the UK pub to do some Morris dancing. Well, yeah. The equivalent, yeah. Yeah, and they were all so into their customs. Yeah, yeah. But the bar there was some space. I went over to the bar and there was this New York lady called Sasha. There's three of us, my wife and me and myself. And I said, Oh, we're in the queue outside. I said, Can we come and sit in the bar and eat? She went, Hell yeah, of course. So I went out and said, Rachel Austin, come on, let's go and sit by. So we sat in the bar at the Texas Roadhouse, and this lady Sasha behind the bar had a Boston lager, all freezing cold, yeah. Half rack of ribs, yeah. Austin had a burger, Rachel had an amazing salad, there was baseball on one TV, American football on another, um MA fighting on another big bank. Oh, it's just astounding, right? But what made it, of course, was Sasha. So attentive, that's good, such a good bar made, yeah, continually looking after you. I got to know the red pandemic. Yeah, so we went back during the holiday. We went when we had our last meal there as well when we left, and we had a fabulous time. So, right now, yeah, my favourite holiday bar is the one I've just come out of, which was the Texas Road House in Kissimmee. Yeah. And if you ever end up there, yeah, stone cue. Go inside and see Satchel behind the bar and see if she's got space at the bar. Sitting at the bar, you feel you're lucky, Mary. Yeah, it was fantastic makes it, doesn't it? It does. Yeah. That is what that's what makes that's what makes it happen, right? Because um, you know, if if you if you haven't got the service or you haven't got that friendly welcome or that acceptance, you're just a number, aren't you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Ah, brilliant. So, next up I've got probably more than one answer. Uh best pub ghost story.
SPEAKER_00Pick your uh where are we gonna take up? Where I know start local, do you want to be able to do that? Do you want to start where we're sitting? Yes, the Wimfield Club. Well, it's alright, it's a bit it's a beautiful Saturday afternoon, the sun is shining, yeah, it's not it's not um it's not dark, there's no thunder and lightning outside. Alright, so atmosphere-wise, okay. So the Wimfield Club is a is is a is a beautiful building, and it was a uh a Georgian house. It was built by it was bought by Sir Anthony Wingfield, who had a very large house behind here that's long gone, it's now housing, it's built one in the 60s, it was knocked down, sadly. So Anthony Wickfield was more than eccentric. Uh he had a private zoo. So if you Google Wingfield, Outil or Wingfield Zoo, Outill, you'll find loads of pictures. They had a private zoo.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And he had all kinds of creatures. He had llamas, ostriches, um, pigs, uh, large dogs like Great Danes. The pigs in the Great Danes were tow carts, and he'd let children ride in the carts. He had ostriches and llamas that he'd let people ride. You can easily find pictures in the 1920s of ladies with large hats and large dresses riding an ostrich here at Hamptil. Um, he had zebras that he used to, he used to have a little cart of his own, and he used to go down to the White Heart in a cart, literally just round the corner from here, in a zebra-driven cart, and all this kind of stuff. He was quite eccentric. And the Wingfield Club he bought and the houses next door to house his zookeepers. Okay. So that we're upstairs in a Wingfield Club today, and it's been massively changed with an awful lot of uh uh petition walls and changes. The windows, of course, are still the same, they've been slash windows, but up here is very very plain now to how it would have been. But these were the rooms that were used by the the zookeepers, and the cottage next door towards Morden and towards Out of Church was the stables for some of those larger animals, right? Um so madly, we are in the accommodation of part of Stransley Wingfield's estate. Um, he then changed the building into a club for servicemen after the First World War and gave it to the servicemen. That's how it ended up being a social club.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00It then got given to the town as a social club.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So ghost stories here. Upstairs in the Wingfield Club, where we are sitting now, is meant to be haunted by a ghost monkey. Okay. I know. Now I've I've I've you know, this is a this is like all ghost stories they become imagined. But upstairs, what was the accommodation of the zoo keepers is meant to be haunted by a ghost monkey. Now there is a lady that cleans this social club, she also cleans the old courthouse next door that's in the side lodge. Now uh Debbie and that is now Debbie um assures me that when she's here in the Wingfield Club, yeah, um if she's cleaning downstairs, she can hear footsteps of people upstairs when she's on her own. And if she's upstairs, she can hear people downstairs when she's on her own. And she comes in and she calls the ghost here, the resident ghost, not the monkey, Henry. Okay. Um when she comes in, Debbie will always say good morning, Henry, or hello Henry. And she says if she doesn't, he moves her cleaning materials around. Things go disappearing. So we don't so so Debbie says Henry's here. Local legend is we have a we have a ghost monkey here in the Wingfield Club, right? Now, um you know, sticking with Antill, uh it sounds like there's a band downstairs. I don't know, I don't know if we might speaking that up, but it sounds like this is a ghost band, I don't know. Sounds like a band's fire up downstairs. I'm glad I asked for us to come upstairs now. Yeah, but I mean otherwise, sticking locally, I mean the other, you know, a very quick one, the old son, um uh in Dunstable Street, that's meant to have a ghost in it called Humphrey. They call him Humphrey rattles the cellar's doors. I know people who say they've been in there and watched the cellar doors rattle. Um the um The Prince of Wales uh here in Amptil uh was uh was a DOS house in the First World War. Uh I've known several people who have stayed there because they've got rooms upstairs, and this one room is particularly cold, apparently, without any explanation. And then the other two that have I mean one is very haunted, I'll leave that on to last. The Queen's Head, uh which is in Woven Street, very authentic uh pub, yeah, lovely old pub. Worth a visit. Yeah, well worth a visit. Now that's you know, Richard's the landlord, and I know one of the barmen, Johnny, and a barmaid, Michelle. I mean, Michelle was only telling me the other week she was behind the bar, um, and and the ice bucket literally full of ice, heavy, flew straight off the bar. Um, Richard says that you know he'll be there, and the the glasses that are hanging will will clang together. There's no doors and windows open. People often say they're in one bar and can look through to the other bars, they'll see shadows in the other bars and convince there's people in the other bars. Um, there is a there is a story which is quite fanciful that Richard came down one morning and the till just read 666. You know, and and they apparently in the cellar, coke stacks itself in different ways on the stairs, and all that. So, yeah, I mean that's very haunted. But the one that's the most haunted, right, and you can Google it, is is the white heart in Amtill. Many, many years, decades of it being haunted. Um, man in a top hat, yeah, coachman, people being pushed down the stairs, Luton Paranormal Society have done investigations, you can find their reports. They set out trays of sand with rocks in, and the rocks move and all that stuff. So, I mean, yeah, I mean a favourite favourite haunty pub story. I'm not sure really. I mean it's it's it's Hampton is full of ghost stories, and the pubs are full of ghost stories. It was a very historic town, lots of pubs. People say it's on a ley line and all this. I don't really know, but it it everywhere you go. I mean, even this morning, um, I was with a uh a chap who's worked in several um town centre shops and businesses, and he had phoned and reached out to me. This is what happens a lot since I started the ghost walks to tell me the ghost stories that he has to kind of like uh recount to me. I always record them. I like to collect and record ghost stories and then retell them in a dramatic and theatrical way. Um, but what's always clear is the people who are telling you stories are absolutely convinced of what they've seen or what's happened.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because I like it when it's people are just matter-of-fact, or in you know, and it becomes not mundane, but just kind of it makes it more plausible somehow, I think. Yes, and people aren't really really bigging it up, but just saying it as a matter of fact.
SPEAKER_00I met this morning, um and as I say, it's it's it's recorded for Prosperity or a Future Book, so I can't I can't give his name now. This chap I met this morning. Um you know, he woke up uh to find the apparition of a of a little girl standing in his bedroom, right? And he said he wasn't scared, and he was talking to her because he had a daughter of his own. He thought it was his daughter. Oh, okay. Um but it was the opposite side of the room to the door that came into the room, and this this little girl in a cape was the other side of the bed. So he was talking to her about his own daughter as he was waking up. Yeah, that's quite interesting. So was it a dream or anything? Yeah, that kind of got to always be a little bit skeptical. But anyway, he said he was left with a feeling of being of because she disobedienced the ball, he was left with a feeling of being privileged to have the experience. Yeah, so it really left a sort of mark on him. Absolutely, there's all sorts of things he was telling me as well. Yeah, yeah. Fascinating.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So the next question is a favourite the favourite pub.
SPEAKER_00Oh well, oh that's I'm all blinding. Now, of course I could name many pubs in Atil, um, uh, and I love the stone jumping croppet as well, but I'm not going to. I'm gonna I'm gonna say, because it is a pub that I migrate to if I'm ever out that way, right? Um and it's a pub you may know yourself because at one time I think it was in the Guinness Book of Records as England's smallest pub, and it's the nutshell in Berry St. Edmunds. I've heard of it, I've not been there. Oh, it's a really small gotta go. Really small. It's 15 foot by seven foot, right? And it's absolutely delightful. It's stuffed full of old memorabilia, okay, military stuff, taxiderming, old pictures, um, merchandise, old merchandise, historical photos and prints, it's absolutely incredible. And you can only get with 15 by seven, you can get about what six or seven of you at the bar, two or three of you sat down, if you're lucky.
SPEAKER_01So I guess it's a bit of a victim of its own success because it's small and intriguing and it's sensory overlay.
SPEAKER_00I don't know if I'm everywhere near Berry St. Edmunds, because I love Berry St. Edmunds, of course, home of the original Green King. Yes. Fabulous old um right right off the market square opposite the Bell Hotel. That's a lovely old pub as well, the Bell Hotel. Opposite the Bell, um, there's a little square, and then there's these Abbey Ruins. Okay. So you can literally walk from the market square where the nutshell is down to the bell and then down these Abbey Ruins, and you can mix all some really nice pubs in there. Oh, I'll have to take the trip there. Now, the nutshell. Yes, I've got a bit of a nutshell. A bit of a story with a nutshell, right? Um all remember that time. So I said, Well, can I go in the nutshell?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You and Austin go in the go in the shop. You go in MS, which shops it, I'll go in the nutshell. Yeah. Two-metre rule. The pubs, the pub's seven by fifteen. It all does sound a bit COVID. So I open the door with my mask on, and there's the barman, and there's two other people in, and I said, I looked around, and it bear in mind the son's not well. Right? Yeah. I look so very sorry. I look round and I said, Am I it's is that two if I stand between these two people, either end of the bar, and you behind the bar, is that two metres? He said, You're gonna have to stand slightly outside. So I got I he handed me a pint at arm's length across the nutshell bar, yeah, and I took it, and I stood in the doorway with two people to my left and to my right, either end of the bar, and the barman behind the bar, and that was it, pub's full. It's like sitcom, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01It's like so British as well, isn't it? It's uh that's great. You couldn't make it up, could you? I think around that time I we went to uh when you could slightly do things, we went to Rye. Yep, there was a tap room there, and there was A grumpy guy there sort of controlling the door and shutting himself behind the door. That was funny. But the main thing was we went to the yeah. He was like, oh, one out of time, and then he's got sort of stuck went behind the door, which was hilarious. Because he was all sort of grumpy and haughty. But um we went to the Mermaid Inn at Rye.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that was lovely because that's very historical. Yes, beautiful, yes. I think Queen's been there, Johnny Depp, people like that.
SPEAKER_02Brilliant.
SPEAKER_01But no, it was remember the masks, but it's a slightly tarnish experience. But uh it it was a very weird time, wasn't it? But no, but funny what you remember though, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00Uh it is, uh you know, if you're ever near yes, blue go in a nutshell. Top tip. Um top tip. Thank you. And and and yeah, you're gonna fit more than four people in it now, including the barman. There you there used to be a lovely I think it was an old Smithy that got turned into a pub in Dorset.
SPEAKER_01Right, yeah. I don't know if it's called Godminstow or something, something like that, but it's a house now anyway, or part of a house. Yeah. But that was beautiful, and uh I never got to go to it because it was um shuffled. But the Smithy Arms in Dorset. It wasn't it was a bit near the um the giant, the chalk giant.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, yeah, um Wingham, Win Winton. Kern Abbys or something. Kurt and Abbas, yeah. The gentleman with the proud guy. The proud proud chap, that's what very staff or something. It was something like that. He was he's very pleased to see you. Yeah, yeah. Proud chap, yeah, yeah. I think it's near there. We stayed in the cottage easy though, and that was the view from the kitchen window. And I get up every morning to make the tea, and there's this enormous gentleman. Um that brings me on to the favourite sort of mic. Well, yeah, well, I mean to be honest, sadly, there are more than we'd we'd like to remember. Yeah, but I've got a very distinct memory, right? And um, you know, uh, I've got to keep I've got to keep my ghost theme up, haven't I?
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00So why not? So some people listening to this may have been through the same thing. Um the the the Cloppill Old Church on the edge of Clophill um had a terrible time in the in the early 60s where uh graves were dug up and ransacked, and there was a supposedly a cult goings on in the old nave of the ruined church there. It's a scheduled ancient monument, it should be respected. So as soon as you got your driving licence, right, and as soon as you're old enough to go to the pub, a rite of passage was to go up Clopphill Church at nine. Yeah, it was a rite of passage, yeah. And uh I've got a Fiesta 950, it was powder blue, um uh not a horrible little car, really. Um anyway, cassette player, yeah. Well, I think I I got all you had a radio because it was the 950, it was the basic, right? I think Howny had a radio, but anyway, I got I got me and and three of my mates from Henlo um in that, and we went up Hophill Church. It wasn't Halloween, but it was dark and it was it was it was in the winter, and we went up, and you have to park at the bottom and walk all the way up this up this old track. I mean something like this now, it's all been done up, and there's lights and alarms, and it's now a beautiful, serene, peaceful place. Yeah, but we walked up, and people were still having fires up there, it was all entangles on the walls, and it was terrible. Yeah, and we scared ourselves to death at Clophill Old Church, you know. Yeah, we we were we were jumping out on each other and bummering about it. Oh, yeah, that was scared each other to death, got wet, cold, miserable, just have to walk away over there, and we came back down. Um it's called um Old Church Path, I think. You come down Old Church Path, and we turned right into the village, and we were gonna go to um the flying horse at Cloppin because we knew about that, but anyway, before you get to the flying horse, then because it's gone now, was the compasses in Cloppville. Um, a lovely old pub opposite the lower school. Um actually it's on the market right now. So if you want to look at it, it's the compasses, it's on right move. That's it, August 2026, listeners. Yeah, uh, it's actually on right move right now. Um compasses anyway. We went to the compasses and it was like going in the slaughter glam uh with American Wealth in London, right? Uh, where everybody stops and just looks at you. So these three lads, yeah, wet, smelly, spotty, right? You know, we were still spotty, we weren't very cool, right? And we walked in, people stopped playing dominoes, people dropped their darts, all that kind of nonsense, right? It was a proper old boomer. And we walked into the compasses at Clopphill, right? Just like the slaughtered lamb, yeah, and went and ordered three garters, or actually, I think I was drinking hooch. Oh, yeah, alcoholic lemonade. Modern drinks easy to drinking. And and I and that was that's one of my favourite memories of the dead pub. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just really cooperative and you've got it really was, and it stuck in the mind because we'd we'd been up to Cloppy an old church and and messed around up there, and then we just wanted to get warm and have a drink. Yeah, and pub, but it was a lovely old pub, it was a lovely, it was a proper old village pub. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Because it's the Stone Jug's still about, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00Stone Jug's lovely pub. Quite nice, yeah, absolutely. And and and like I said earlier, some of you at Liver Upnames, if you're lucky. But no, I mean Stone Jug Stone Jug's a super pub in that it does food at lunchtime. Okay, and then only and only ale at night. Right. I don't even don't really knew that, so it's not they don't do food at night. It's quite old, so it's really is so common. I think they stop selling about three o'clock food. You have to book because they sell out every day. Yeah, and at three o'clock it becomes yeah, you get all the trades in, yeah, and then you get all the villagers in in the evening. So it's a proper pubs, yeah. So Stone Jugging Cloppy is still very popular. Um the flying horse is very commercial, yeah. A little bit more transient, I suppose, because it's on main road, people go there to beat up enough food, I suppose. I think you're right, they pick it up as a as a travelling tree boot in Bedford, yeah, definitely. There was the pub, favourite pub. Oh, favourite pub that well, this like this one goes back to my childhood, really. And and like I said, you know, I had this kind of interest in the paranormal and folklore and ghost stories, and and you know, we've all we've all travelled, you know. Our holidays in the late 70s and 80s were jumping in your Vauxhall Chevette and going down to the coast, particularly the southwest. Well, one year I always remember we went down to to Cornwall, and there's this pub just outside Hale called the Bucket of Blood. Ah, I know, I know, gruesome. I know, and we stopped there, I think I was eight or nine, we stopped there. My mum and dad thought it was a hilarious name. We stopped there at Hale and the bucket of blood. Now, the bucket of blood's an amazing pub, right? I mean, what a fabulous one. Yeah, that's very unusual. You're gonna stop at the bucket of the gruesome, yeah. But the story is it's a 14th century inn, it's an old stone inn with a well at the back. And the story is that the landlord, you know, used to draw the water from the well in the 1400s, yeah, and he put the bucket down, yeah, and it came up full of blood. Grim. I know, and that's the story, right? And an investigation uh was was done, and this is where it gets a bit muddied, like a lot of folklore and legend, right? Some people say that thrown down the well was the body of a of a murdered smuggler.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00But the other legend, which I I prefer, it was the body of a tax inspector. Oh yeah, so the customs and excise was after the smugglers was murdered and thrown down the well at the back of the pub. Logical. And when he that then the next morning, when the landlord was drawing the water, it came up as a bucket of blood, and then they went down the well and found his body. But that I've got to think is probably my favourite and most gruesome pub name. Oh, that's okay. And I remember it from my childhood being on holiday. My parents, fortunately, you know, they indulged my interest in the macabre. So yeah, that's got to be my favourite pub name. I mean, that's very unusual pub names.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there are. There are there's one in just off the top of my head in deep, dark Dorset, and it's the the silent woman, and it's uh Silent Woman. Yeah, that's uh I think I don't know if she's headless or not, but it's got quite a mysterious. That'll do it, yeah. That'll do it, that'll make calls silence, yeah. But uh but there's some kind of um there's different theories about the name, and there's dodgy sexist ones and all sorts of different theories, but yeah, but no, it's a quite an evocative name and a nice pub sign, but yeah, I can't uh remember much more than that.
SPEAKER_00But uh what you say that I wonder what the pub size of the bucket of blood is now. And whether it has ever been I can't remember what it was a kid, but what it what it's whether it ever has been a literally a brimming bucket of slopping blood. Yeah, lovely. Because I I I'd uh I could do some dodgy cocktails there, couldn't they, in buckets? Oh yeah, um yeah, strawberry dackery. Oh yeah, bloody Mary's a bit. Yeah, Bloody Mary, cool, absolutely, yeah, yeah, too right.
SPEAKER_01But um, yeah, the I'd like to see the history, the pictorial history of the signs, that'd be something in itself, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, that's right. Something to investigate. Something to investigate later. I've got to go down there as well now. Yeah. It's near Hale Price, yeah. Near Hale. Yeah. Cornwall. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, the bucket of blood. There was one in very north Bedfordshire that sticks on top of my mind, and the the cat and custard pot. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's a one that's wonderful. But yeah. I mean, you know, we all know the phrase, you know, the cat that got the cream, but the cat that got the custard? I don't know. Yeah. But that's a lovely name as well. Absolutely. But I mean, yeah, I mean that I mean you're you're an expert in this area, the history of pub names I mean are fascinating.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, the origins and it's well it's not like etymology, but it's yeah, it's always a story behind it.
SPEAKER_00What what if they hadn't so what if that pub hadn't changed its name in recognition of that event? Would that folklore legend disappeared?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00If it remained the whatever it was, I don't know, who knows? The whatever art.
SPEAKER_01It raises the question, what name was it before? It probably became that, yeah. Yeah. Where did it then what's the original?
SPEAKER_00Did it change at the time or did it change some years later in recognition of the folklore?
SPEAKER_01Well, a lot of the time it's uh sort of um 20th century kind of um marketing, I suppose, you know. It's like the the ploughman's was invented. You think of it as an ancient thing, but apparently it's like a 50, 60s boardroom concept. Is that right? Apparently. Whether that's true, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00It was a a um a beef eater meeting, probably. Well, yeah. Well should we pop the maybe it's something. That's it.
SPEAKER_01But you sort of imagine the old ploughboys in a field with uh with some cheese. That's what you want to imagine a tomato and a bit hunk of bread. In a knapsack or whatever, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00But maybe it does, I'm sure people. Well, my husband's got back. My grand my grandma, uh my dad's mother, I mean my granddad was uh an agricultural worker, he was a hedger and ditcher in and around Clifton. Yeah. Um I think he used to pick peas as well. Yeah, served in the second world war, all that kind of stuff. Anyway, um she used to make Beverse clangers. Ah, like proper clangers, you know, and she put she'd put meat in one end and jam in the other. Yeah, but my dad, I mean, my dad uh uh was born in I was getting this right, he was born in 32. And during the Second World War, my granddad, who I just mentioned was was away fighting, he was he was he'd actually billeted from what is now our so storage depot that's now the Wixams, and he actually came back and he was demobbed from barracks at the at what is now the Wixams and was the Elso Storage Depot. Anyway, my dad uh my dad used to breed rabbits to substitute the meat. Yeah so my I can remember my grandma when I was a little boy, my grandma was was quite old at the time, telling me she was always my dad's rabbits were best for for his dad, yeah, my granddad, uh in his Bedfordshire claimers, rabbit one end, strawberry jam the other. Okay, yeah, that's what he used to take when he was hedging and ditching. Because that was a practical compact meal to take out, wasn't it? Absolutely, yeah. Much more practical than a planner's.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I mean, how are you going to transport your brands? Yeah. That's it. You need a vehicle for it, the pastry vehicle.
SPEAKER_01But um yeah, and it's much more romantic than a Greg's, isn't it? So I think that's it.
SPEAKER_00Well, I do know what it's been great. I could sit here for hours, but I think I'm not sure everybody listened for hours.
SPEAKER_01Well, I think down the line there might be enough, there's enough stories in you for uh another episode, probably. I dare say too right, too right, that'd be lovely.
SPEAKER_00I mean I've really enjoyed it, Lloyd, and I appreciate you coming over to Ampsilk Chat Me's wonderful. Thank you, and I've look forward to your oh yaying all around the town. Oh, yeah, well, you will see, won't we? That's uh yeah, and hopefully I won't look too much like a pantmine dame. No. Alright, thanks a lot then. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Last orders at the bar, please. Okay, thanks for listening. And don't forget to follow Amateur Ghostwalks on social media, on Facebook and Instagram. And please like and follow part of the Shire wherever you get your podcasts from. And there's always um part of the editor to get your um to. Uh that's on Facebook and Instagram as well. Thank you. Bye.