The Canterbury Ales E-Book

Roger Protz

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

The pilgrims in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales begin their journey in a London inn and they stay at many more as they wend their way to Becket's tomb. Leading beer writer Roger Protz remains faithful to the route, visiting pubs of historic interest and breweries old and new before embarking on the Pilgrims' Way from Winchester to Canterbury, revealing fascinating history as well as a few more spots to sample a pint. The Canterbury Ales is a feast of a book for those who love good beer, pubs, breweries … and Chaucer's literary masterpiece.

Leseprobe

First published 2022

The History Press

97 St George’s Place, Cheltenham,

Gloucestershire, GL50 3QB

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

© Roger Protz, 2022

The right of Roger Protz to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 8039 9235 8

Typesetting and origination by The History Press

Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ Books Limited, Padstow, Cornwall.

eBook converted by Geethik Technologies

Contents

Introduction

Part 1: The London to Kent Route of the Pilgrims

In the beginning: Southwark, Old Kent Roadand Deptford

Greenwich and Blackheath

Dartford

Gravesend

Rochester and Chatham

Gillingham and Rainham

Sittingbourne

Faversham

Canterbury

Becket and Beer

Pilgrims and Ale

Maidstone

Part 2 :The Pilgrim’s Way

Winchester to Canterbury

Winchester

Alton and Four Marks

Farnham

Guildford

Dorking

Reigate

Westerham

Notes and Acknowledgements

Introduction

Now as I’ve drunk a draught of corn-ripe ale,

By God it stands to reason I can strike

On some good story that you all will like.

Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales

This book was inspired by Chaucer’s fourteenth-century masterpiece that, through the stories recounted by his pilgrims, paints a vivid portrait of medieval England. Tales that are bawdy, ribald, courtly and elegant show what life was like at all levels of society.

As the pilgrims gathered in an inn in London and ate, drank and slept in inns on their journey to Canterbury, I thought it would be fascinating to follow in their footsteps and visit the modern pubs and breweries along the way.

My personal pilgrimage is timely, as the world of brewing has changed dramatically in the twenty-first century. Changes in the way beer is taxed – known as excise duty – means small brewers pay less than bigger ones and this has led to the growth of a dynamic craft sector, offering consumers a far better choice and variety of beers. While Shepherd Neame in Faversham is a traditional family brewer, there are now many new and smaller producers in the region. The list of brewers in south London alone at the end of the first chapter is an indication of the size and scope of the new sector.

The guide was compiled in exceptional circumstances. I had made good progress when the covid-19 pandemic struck. It meant travel was restricted and pubs were closed during lockdown. I resumed my work in the summer and early autumn of 2021.

The pubs in the book fall into two categories: tied houses and free houses. A tied house means it is owned by either a brewer or a non-brewing pub company and both will decide the beers publicans can sell. Free houses are independent and publicans can choose their own beers. Some brewers and pub companies allow publicans to offer customers guest beers and such beers can change on a regular basis.

This book is not a comprehensive pub guide. I have chosen a selection of pubs that offer good beer and, in many cases, good food as well as interesting stories that reflect the history of their areas. Readers planning visits and who would like a bigger choice of pubs should use the CAMRA online facility whatpub?

There is a second trail to Canterbury called the Pilgrims’ Way. This begins in Winchester and makes its way to Canterbury through Hampshire, Surrey and parts of Kent, avoiding London. I have followed this route, too, and found a wealth of fine pubs and many new breweries, including Hogs Back that has developed its own hop fields and revived a once-famous hop variety, the Farnham White Bine.

I have also included a section on Maidstone, the county town of Kent, which once had major breweries and where the Goacher family has restored pride to the town.

Roger Protz, St Albans, 2022

Part 1: The London to Kent Route of the Pilgrims

In the Beginning: Southwark and the Old Kent Road

But first I make a protestation round

That I’m quite drunk. I know it by my sound

And therefore, if I slander or mis-say

Blame it on ale of Southwark so I pray.

The Miller’s Tale

George Inn, off 77 Borough High Street, London SE1. The George is a glorious emblem of medieval and Elizabethan London and it stands almost precisely where Chaucer’s book begins, for it was just a few yards from another great inn, the Tabard, where the pilgrims gathered in 1385. The antiquarian John Stow, in his Survey of London in 1598, records that Southwark was once crowded with inns, including the Spire, the Christopher, the Bull, the Queen’s Head, the Tabard, the George, the Hart and the King’s Head.

And all the inns were close to Southwark Cathedral, where Thomas Becket gave his last sermon before heading to Canterbury and his death.

The Tabard was next door to the George on the east side of Borough High Street. In common with all the inns in and around the Borough, it was a large and roistering place, packed with strolling musicians, drunks, thieves and prostitutes as well as the more serious-minded who were setting off to pay homage to Thomas Becket in Canterbury. Picture Mistress Quickly’s Boar’s Head in Shakespeare’s Henry IV and other plays, where Falstaff and his cronies boozed and whored, and you may have an image not too far removed from that of the real-life Tabard.

In medieval times, Southwark was beyond the jurisdiction of the City of London. In the city, such activities as prostitution and animal baiting were banned but they were unconstrained in Southwark. As a result, the area became the capital’s entertainment centre and people hurried there to indulge in all the pleasures of the flesh.

The Tabard was built in 1307 as a London residence for the Abbot of Hyde in Kent. The Tabard and its neighbouring inns were close to the junction of two Roman roads, Stane Street and Watling Street, and the entire area was part of the Manor of Southwark controlled by the bishops of Winchester: prostitutes who worked in the area were known as ‘Winchester Geese’, a soubriquet that was probably kept well hidden from the bishops.

This image of the Tabard, renamed the Talbot, dates from around 1850, shortly before it was demolished. The name Ind Coope refers to the then owners, a brewery based in Romford, Essex. (historic-uk.com)

When the pilgrims met there in 1385, the inn was owned by a man with the remarkably modern-sounding name of Harry Bailly, who clearly ran a popular place to meet, eat, drink and sleep. Chaucer wrote:

It happened in that season that one day

In Southwark, at the Tabard, as I lay

Ready to go on pilgrimage and start

For Canterbury, most devout at heart,

At night there came into that hostelry

Some nine and twenty in a company

Of sundry folk happening to fall

In fellowship, and they were pilgrims all

That towards Canterbury meant to ride.

The rooms and stables of the inn were wide;

They made us easy, all was of the best.

In 1676, ten years after the Great Fire of London, another contagion known as the Great Fire of Southwark destroyed or badly damaged many of the local inns, including the Tabard and the George. The Tabard was rebuilt but was renamed the Talbot. In common with other inns in Southwark, the Talbot did good business at the height of coach travel in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries but it went into rapid decline with the arrival of the railway and London Bridge station next door and eventually closed.

The George, first called the George and Dragon in honour of England’s patron saint, is the only great galleried London coaching inn to have survived both the great fire and the coming of the railway. It was rebuilt in 1677 and once occupied three sides of the courtyard off the high street. But in the great railway boom of the nineteenth century, Guy’s Hospital, by then the owner of the inn, sold it to the London and North Eastern Railway Company and the railway barons, in an act of appalling vandalism, tore down part of the site to make way for engine sheds. Fortunately there is still a spacious inn to admire and it is looked after with greater care and reverence by its current owner, the National Trust. The trust has won for it the status of Grade I listed to stop any further acts of cultural terrorism.

The George.

The ground floor bars of the George are small and low-ceilinged with latticed windows, beams, bare boards and wooden settles. The Parliament Bar, nearest the street, was once the waiting room for coach passengers. It has a Parliamentary Clock, a reminder of the time in 1797 when parliament, in one of its periodic mad moods, imposed taxes on timepieces. The middle bar was known as the Coffee Room in the nineteenth century and was used regularly by Charles Dickens, who mentioned the George in Little Dorrit. Southwark and the Borough also featured in A Tale of Two Cities, with coaches setting off along the Old Dover Road.

A narrow corridor leads to a more spacious bar at the rear of the inn, where visitors can dine as well as drink. Narrow stairs lead up to more dining rooms with views of the courtyard from the first-floor galleries. In fine weather, excerpts from Shakespeare’s plays are performed from both the galleries and the courtyard. Morris Men also perform their arcane rituals in the yard, where benches and seats are set out for eating and drinking.

Blue Plaque in Talbot Yard.

The George is run for the National Trust by the Suffolk brewer Greene King. The brewery dates from 1799 and as it’s based in Bury St Edmunds it adds its own long and fascinating history to the inn. You can enjoy its range of beers that includes IPA and Abbot Ale along with seasonal brews and guest beers from other breweries, including the sublime Landlord from Timothy Taylor in Yorkshire.

It’s easy to miss the George. As you walk south from London Bridge along Borough High Street, watch out for the inn sign at the entrance to a narrow passage that leads to the courtyard. There’s a further piece of history across the road from the George. The Hop Exchange at 24 Southwark Street was built in 1867 to allow brewers and hop merchants to meet and discuss the price of hops brought from the Kent countryside. The Grade II-listed building was bombed during the Second World War and the remaining floors are now used as offices but, with its vast main floor and hop motifs and artefacts, it serves to underscore the importance of brewing in Southwark.

The name the Tabard is not forgotten. A few minutes further south from the George brings you to Tabard Street, where you will find the Royal Oak (44 Tabard Street, SE1: transport Borough Underground). This splendid pub is a no-nonsense, unspoilt, traditional London boozer with two bars, a serving hatch and the full range of beers from the owner, Harvey’s brewery in Lewes, East Sussex. Alongside the acclaimed Sussex Best Bitter you will find Mild and IPA plus regular guest beers. Imaginative food is cooked with ingredients brought from Borough Market. It’s the ideal place to raise a glass to the memory of the Tabard inn.

The area is rich in history. Tabard Street meets Pilgrimage Street and both merge into the roar of Great Dover Street that soon becomes the Old Kent Road: we are on the A2 and definitively on our way to Canterbury. Chaucer records that the pilgrims paused to refresh themselves and their horses at a ‘watering hole’ on the road. Watering hole today is common parlance for a pub but for the pilgrims and their mounts it was a source of water called the Earl’s Sluice, a tributary of the River Peck that gives its name to Peckham.

It’s likely that, over the following centuries, inns may have been built on the spot but the current imposing three-storey building, topped by a Dutch gable, the Thomas à Becket, 320–322 Old Kent Road, SE5, dates from 1898. The pub achieved fame in the late twentieth century as it had a large gym where professional boxers trained: there’s a blue plaque to mark the achievements of Sir Henry Cooper, who fought and almost defeated Muhammad Ali – then known as Cassius Clay – in 1963. Music rehearsals were also held there and David Bowie was among the singers who used the facilities.

Royal Oak, Tabard Street.