Beers, Boats and Boozers, No.70.

We moved off from Wellingborough and moored for the night by the Nene Valley Water Ski Club on a FOTRN mooring. A lovely quiet night there.

The river got quite overgrown in places where it narrowed. C&RT have their critics regarding cropping back off side trees etc, but it looks as though they may knock the EA into a cocked hat on that score. As the river was not busy when we were there it didn't really matter and made the days sail more of an adventure.

 Higham Ferrers Lock is quite unusual as after the first couple most of the locks have guillotine gates at the low end. They were all generally very well maintained though, but then again I suppose they don't get the use of a lot of the C&RT system

Old A6 bridge reminded me of being on the Thames again. The bridge was set at and angle to the current and you couldn't see approaching boats! It is still used, but I think for one way local traffic. It has been rebuilt in 1666, 1754 and 1922, and by 1930 it was not large enough and a new bridge was built, and still in use despite the vastly great number of vehicles to those times.

Woodford FOTRN moorings were nice and rural but only a short walk from the village, and we had them to ourselves. The church was great to visit, with good views across the valley and then we walked up to the green in the village.

The Dukes pub overlooks the Green and is a busy little place and seems to be the heart of the community with music, comedy, fund raising etc etc. It is the longest licenced premises in the village, and probably the oldest too. It was probably called the Queens Head first and was an inn so had to supply food, drink and stabling and these were found to the right of the entrance to the car park. In the mid 1700's it was the Falcon Inn, and by the late 1700's had become the Lord St. John's Arms, or more commonly, the Lord's Arms, up to 1836. From 1839 it became the Dukes Arms and now the Dukes. The later name comes from the Duke of Wellington who was a frequent visitor to Woodford House after Waterloo to visit his friends the Arbuthnots. The lady of the house died in 1834 and the Duke started to remain at Apsley House in London and Lord Arbuthnot joined him there. As it was about this time the name of the pub changed, hence the name association. It has two bars and serves food which was very good. There were several hand pulled beers on sale too.

I tried one from the Hopback stable. The founder of the Hopback Brewery was at the forefront of the micro brewery boom of the 1980's and in 1986 John Gilbert decided to set up on his own. He found the Wyndham Arms that had sufficient space for a brewery as well as two bars and a function room. The basement was soon brought in to production and the first brewing was 1987. Above the door to the pub was a stone carving of Dionysus, the Greek God of wine, and this was adopted as the logo for the new brewery. By 1992 sales had grown so much that a move to new premises for the brewery were required and they are still at Downton, Salisbury. The number of pubs owned has grown though to over ten and they sell beer all of the country with production above  16000 barrels a year.

I settled on a pint of Summer Lightning that the brewers reckon has one the largest number of awards for a beer in England. At 5% it is quite high in alcohol for a 'normal' beer that is sometimes called a bitter and sometimes a pale. It has a straw colour, rather than golden I would say, and a quite thin head but nicely white/ The aroma really hits you as you lift the glass and you get an early indication of the hops, Golding and Challenger,  nice and fruity. However the first taste is bitterness but the sweetness comes through later. Not too bad.

I also tried a pint of  Hopback's Crop Circle at 4.2%. This is also billed as a bitter and is even more pale than the lightning, almost lemon yellow. I didn't get much bitterness in the drink or tratness from hops but it was a nice drink, and I preferred it to the first. It shows what I know as the Summer Lightning has won so many awards.

The pub is well worth a walk up for the moorings and a stroll around the village to boot.