Beers, Boats and Boozers, No.71.

We were off the next day in fairly drab weather, but not really raining.

After passing under a road and rail bridge we come to the earlier transport link that became the A14. The original brisge was washed away but this one dates to the late 1700's, and once again not thought has been put in to the passage of the river traffic as the approach is not straight forward.

We stopped for the night almost in the car park of the king's Head in Wadenhoe, but found that it was closed and for sale! Most of the village is owned by a trust who guard it strongly and so it is still picturesque with little in the way of modernity on view. Well worth a stop.

The next day was a little fairer and warmer, and we passed through the lovely tree lined landscape by Lilford Lock. The bridge leads to Lilford Hall that was at the time up for sale for £50 million. It has 100 rooms and 350 acres with it. They can afford to have plenty of trees as there is plenty of room!

There are regular locks that coincide with old mills on the river to take advantage of the change of levels. The lock at Upper Barnwall has the standard guillotine lower gate. The mill dates from 1690's. In the 1960's it was converted to a restaurant. There were big floods here in 2008 but it was refurbished but ceased trading ain 2014. There is some activity going on but it was for sale for close to £1 million.

We moored up by the castle of Fotheringay rather than here by the church. There is very little of the castle left now, but it was home to Richard III and was where Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded. The church is a shadow of its former glory as it was almost the same size a again to the right. It is a lovely church inside due to its patronage I suppose. There was a lantern in the tower to guide the way through Rockingham Forest in the past.

Other than the church there is nothing other than the 

I tried a new brewery to me, Stoney Ford Brew Company was set up by amateur brewers Simon Watson and Tim Nichol in Ryhall 2 miles north of Stamford. There vision was to brew just classic beers that had no gimmicks but were brewed with Lincolnshire malts and UK hops and everything else from as local as possible. They started with a 2.5 bbl plant and have grown to full capacity. In April 2018 they found that their brewery became unavailable, as well as uneconomic and the pair decided to close the business, despite their growing trade. However William Davis, the co-owner of the Grainstore Brewery moved in to rescue them. The brew plant was moved to the Grainstore Brewery at Station Approach Oakham and allowed to continue to create their own beers. The original owners siad the advantage is their investment wasn't lost and they benefit from a better distribution network and extra capacity when required.

I tried a main stay of the brewery Sheepmarket Supernova, Straw at 3.8%. It started out as a Christmas Ale named Andrew's Angle Grinder Ale after the bloke that helped them set up the brewery in a garage cum barn conversion. It became this pale summer ale named after Stamford's market with a little bit of show biz at the end. The straw tag is for the colour. It is made mainly with pale malt, with a touch of amber for the colour. The head was medium in height but the colour was pleasant. The first taste was disappointing with little in the mouth, but after a gulp the Challenger, Boadicea anfd Pioneer hops do their thing. It is not like an astringent mouth wash, but a lovely fruity, treacle bitterness comes through. Very nice indeed, so I had another pint!