Author Topic: Vanishing pubs  (Read 5517 times)

rural roamer

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Re: Vanishing pubs
« Reply #30 on: 19:53:33, 16/07/17 »
Perhaps an expanded community pub sector is the best hope for us pub-loving walkers?



Funny you should say that,  because the very next night on our Offas Dyke walk, we stayed and ate at the Raven Inn in Llanarmon which is a community run pub with rooms.  It's about 1.5 miles off route but in an area where there is very little accommodation enroute so it was a good find and I hope people use it. 

glovepuppet

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Re: Vanishing pubs
« Reply #31 on: 07:37:35, 17/07/17 »
I'll be honest and say I'm not, and never really have been, a great user of pubs on a walk. Occasionally, yes, but in the main we tend to go "self-sufficient" which is what we prefer.


The thing is that pubs are finding it hard to thrive in an era when many don't leave the house for their entertainment, and are used to supermarket booze prices. And initiatives introduced with the best of intentions (smoking ban, crack-downs on drink driving, tougher regulations on entertainment licences, etc) have systematically eaten away at pub users and reduced their numbers.  :(


True, many pubs now do good food - when I was younger, most pub food was of a much lower standard than now - but whereas people might pop in for a drink or two quite regularly, no one has the appetite or cash to eat in their local pub 3-5 times a week.


Our local is a focal point in a village with no school, shop or post office. Locals do use it, although there are regular grumblings about the price of food and drink (which is above average in cost and about average in quality) and it also gets support from further afield, from regular cycle events and a thriving village cricket club, for example.  O0


I do think the time has come for a bit of radical thinking - a pub with benefits, if you like! Co-locate it with a shop or PO, make it a community centre or an Amazon drop point or Hermes pick-up point - something to broaden it's appeal and get more people in and more use out of a building that is an expensive commodity.


happyhiker

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Re: Vanishing pubs
« Reply #32 on: 09:40:58, 17/07/17 »
Regrettably, the only way to be sure is to ring up. I have found instances where the website still functions but the pub doesn't. The Buck Inn at Buckden is mentioned above. This seems to close down and reopen on a cyclical basis, presumably as the Punch Taverns (or equivalent) con another mug into take it on. I called there (I think) last year and it was open then but today, no idea.


Punch Taverns have a terrible reputation for soaking the landlords to such an extent that the businesses cannot function.

pleb

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Re: Vanishing pubs
« Reply #33 on: 10:08:11, 17/07/17 »
Buck inn is Enterprise Inns, their rep is little better than Punch :(
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Dyffryn Ardudwy

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Re: Vanishing pubs
« Reply #34 on: 11:36:21, 17/07/17 »
Puppet, you have certainly raised a very important point.
Until the Gov bring in a sensible and fair price on the sale of alcohol in supermarkets, and corner shops, small rural pubs will continue to suffer.

Few people are willing to travel a serious distance, just because a certain pub has a groovy atmosphere, or cosy interior.

My main interest in public houses, is for their historical background, and being a non drinker, i find the excessive prices asked for soft drinks, very off putting.


There should be a minimum pricing for alcohol, and supermarkets should be stopped selling alcohol for bargain prices.

Just visit the Trip to Jerusalem in Nottingham or the Skirrid outside Abergavenny.

If buildings could talk, just imagine the stories they could tell.




glovepuppet

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Re: Vanishing pubs
« Reply #35 on: 12:09:36, 17/07/17 »
If buildings could talk, just imagine the stories they could tell.


All that history and tradition would reveal fascinating tales of events past, back from the days when a pub name meant something and was descriptive of it's history (The King's Head), or where it was (The Market Tavern) or the community it served (The Jolly Colliers), and wasn't just a figment of some ad-man's imagination like the Frog & Gherkin, or whatever two unrelated "quirky" words they have stitched together lately to create a brand.  >:(


It is sad that these treasure troves of social narrative and times gone by are being steam-rollered by the rampant consumerism of today, both within and outside the public house trade. But what chance do small independents have? Measures have been put in place to benefit small-scale local micro-breweries, which have flourished in the last decade to the extent that some counties have dozens of them, so why not complete the other half of the equation and give independent pubs a break too?   O0

walkingthedog

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Re: Vanishing pubs
« Reply #36 on: 17:50:43, 18/07/17 »
Its a shame our pubs are vanishing. I can remember as a young boy the whole family going out for evening walks and we would always call at this pub along a country lane and sit on the grass enjoying a well deserved drink. A really old fashioned pub were local farmers would enjoy a pint smoking their pipes with a fire roaring up the chimney. O0

barewirewalker

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Re: Vanishing pubs
« Reply #37 on: 18:45:27, 18/07/17 »
Often the pub name had a more informative name, that is if the local landowning family is known. On quarter days the local tenants would need to pay their rents and the landowner or his agent would collect the rents at the local pub. Two near where I grew up called the Corbet Arms, The Corbet family with a crow as a heraldic device so The Crow of Old Crow might also be the pub name. A load of Mytton Arms around Shropshire, where Mad Jack Mytton was notorious, but he no doubt collected his rents during these escapades.


Cross Keys were a sign for a skion of the Powys family and can be found in rural parts of mid-Wales, Tankerville Arms related to the investors in South Shropshire lead mines as was the Bath Arms, long gone from Minsterley, The Earl of Bath being an investor in mine workings there.


The local name may have been respectful or less so, The Talbot a family name after a spotted dog, The Dog might have been a more irrespective term or did the Dog in the Lane appear after the family lost their money and had to sell up.


Sadly many brewery chain managers did not know history very well, a well known coaching Inn named after a famous coach called the Comet on the outskirts of Shrewsbury  was renamed The Coach because the pub sign was that of a celestial body namely a comet.
BWW
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