We left Loughborough and headed for Leicester. We took a couple of days getting there but didn't get to a pub until our destination though.
We didn't stop at Mountsorrel this time but I nearly got the tiller swans neck stuck under a timber on the gate as we rose up the lock though.
In the past we have stopped at Sileby Mill Lock, but again not this time as we continued onwards.
All those arches, and it isn't until the last moment that you see the navigable one. 'Til then I was thinking we will need to take down a bit more than the chimney to fit under those!
The Leicester Space Centre building looked quiet menacing as we passed. What with the dark sky behind it felt like we could be in a parallel universe or something.
You could be forgiven thinking you were on the Rochdale or Huddersfield Canal from this photo, rather than arriving in Leicester.
We got to North Lock at Frog Island and were stopped. There was a fire in a van in the car park, just by the lock and the Fire Brigade were pumping out of the lock. It turns out that it was a burning acetylene bottle in the back of a van. They couldn't put it out so just secured the area to let it burn out. We were told it could be about 2300, but as it turned out we were allowed through at about 18:00 and found a spot on the Friars Mill pontoon and decided to head to the pub for a pint with the Kiwi couple on a hire boat who we had shared a few locks with.
The Knight and Garter was not the sort of place I was looking for, but with another couple, and getting quite late it was almost the fort pub we came across. The Knight and Garter has been refurbished around spring 2018 and is now quite a classy gastro pub place, again not the sort of place I would have looked for beers. In fact the pub has a long history on the site. It seems that there was a pub here from 1312 when it was granted to Leicester Abbey. It was known as the Saracen's Head. The pub survived until 1904 when it was demolished to make way for the new. However, by then it was owned by Everard's and they didn't want just any old pub so commissioned architects to come up with a suitable building. It sits well on the corner of Market Street South and Hotel Street. It has also been known as Molly O'Grady's when every town had to have an Irish pub for some reason I could never work out. It is about 15 minutes walk from the moorings at Friar's Mill so a good place to eat and drink.
Everards still own the pub that they took over around 1900. As can been seen in their logo above Everard's was started in 1849 when a farmer from Narborough Wood House called William Everard took over the Wilmot and Co Brewery in Southgate Street in Leicester as the partners were retiring. William's partner was a Thomas Hull who was actually the brewer and maltster. In 1875 William's nephew designed a new tower brewery for the company at the corner of Southgate Street and Castle Street with its own well water. By the 1880's the brewery had over 100 pubs too. William died in 1892 and his son Thomas took over. By this time 10% of all beer brewed in the kingdom came from Burton upon Trent and Everards leased Bridge Brewery and were producing about 10,000 barrels a year. In 1898 they took over the newer Trent Brewery in Dale Street Burton when it went into liquidation. (What else would a brewery do!). In 1970 the Trent Brewery was renamed the Tiger Brewery after their best selling beer. Southgate Brewery was retained for distribution and offices. By 1971 beer production peaked at 55,000 barrels a year. In 1985 they opened a brewery again in Leicester, Castle Acres, and the brewery in Burton became a museum, still producing beers for the company under licence. By 1990 the capacity was up to 70,000 bbls a year and the contract with the museum ended so all Everard's beers were then brewed in Leicester for the first time since 1892. The company had gone public in 1936 but by 1997 had bought back all the shares and become a family business once again. The family business is once again in the forefront as they are close to completing another brand new state of the art brewery at Everard's Meadows, south of the city. It will be their head office and will have lots of attractions around it too. Due to open autumn 2020.]
I had a pint of their Suffragette IPA 3.5%. It is said to be a bold IPA. It poured well with a good white head and personally I would almost class it is a cross between an IPA and a bitter as although it had the 'citrusness' of a hoppy pale ale there was also a bitterness afterwards. Maybe this was where the 'bold' comes from! The beer was a limited edition brew as it was 100 years since some women got the right to vote, and is brewed for one Alice Hawkins who was a very active suffragette from Leicester who was imprisoned five times. She helped set up the suffragettes in Leicester. She was a little different in that she was a machinist in a show factory, and that her husband was fully behind her efforts for women's rights and also went to prison. She died in 1946 and was buried in a paupers grave. However in 2018 not only was she to have a beer named after her, but a statue was erected in Leicester to honour her memory and efforts.
The Knight and Garter is only about 15 minutes from the Friars Mill mooring pontoon so is well worth a look, and the food looked very good too.
No comments:
Post a Comment