The Crown, Groombridge

We hadn�t been here for a few yonks, but popped in for a drink late on Sunday afternoon and had the most blissful Rural Pub experience ever.

Only two real ales that I noticed, but the Harveys was good and served in a jug without me asking.

After a horrendous experience at a similarly should-be-venerable rural hostelry the day before, the locals were friendly, and did not think it incumbent upon themselves to block the bar and swear loudly.

One of them had been taking his pet ferret and polecat out for a walk, and it was so funny and nice the way they were behaving; I never thought of these as being such good pets before. One of them curled up on me and went to sleep!

After the locals left, me and the Mrs. Couldn�t resist going and sitting by the open fire; there was a beautiful sunset outside of the windows, an old clock ticking reassuringly, and we only realised belatedly that we had stayed over closing time � the landlady hadn�t mentioned this and had let us finish our drinks in contentment. We will definitely be going again. The villagers are VERY lucky.

20 Feb 2012 10:30

The Rock, Chiddingstone Hoath

Well, I am glad the pub is getting good reviews, but it is in serious trouble if it doesn�t know it yet. There is the same potential danger with all rural pubs in this area, let alone urban, but I can think of plenty that have dealt with it.

Me and the Mrs. are not local, but popped in for a drinkie as a change on Saturday afternoon around 12:30pm,as we have always enjoyed it on the odd occasion we have been coming here over the years.

Two things were immediately noticeable: a couple of the sort of large, prosperous, well behaved families-with-dogs these pubs rely on to keep going as they actually �sit at a table� and �eat food� ; secondly, three of the type of resentful and always vaguely threatening late middle aged men who obviously have an operation over the whole area, doing the usual of firstly deliberately swearing loudly within earshot of the families, then three more turned up and INEVITABLY blocked off the remaining bar area, apart from the single file narrow passage they begrudgingly leave. (and a particular savoury detail was the way a tall one blocking off a boy from playing Ring the Bull) As if it that wasn�t enough, as we were leaving the landlady shouted at us across the bar that we hadn�t settled the tab, but of course we already had. The tabs are there to check by the bar. So why?

A small but yet major detail was telling � on the noticeboard immediately to the right as you go in, there was a printed-off-the-computer A4 size �Joke� pinned up, and the punchline would have been �Get off my f***** tractor� if they hadn�t actually spelt the F word out in full in bold letters. It makes it appear as if the management are not simply accepting swearing but condoning it.

The management might not care if me and the Mrs. never go again, which we won�t, but if WE think that, what on earth are the large groups of family and just nice men with their wives who actually want to pay for a meal thinking?

We had a blissful rural pub experience elsewhere the next afternoon, the best ever, as if the Fates had deliberately designed the weekend as a lesson as to how things can go either drastically right or drastically wrong with the same kind of venerable centuries old rural pub in the area. The locals were, happy, jocular, yet Real Men from Real Backgrounds � Real men don�t behave like babymen, swearing within earshot of women and children and boasting how trashed they got last night.

20 Feb 2012 10:13