An idiots guide to an Idiot: Beer and Leighton Buzzard.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Beer and Leighton Buzzard.: Now here's the thing. What better way to spend an afternoon than drinking good ale & chatting with friends. Julian, Kevin & I we...

Beer and Leighton Buzzard.

Now here's the thing. What better way to spend an afternoon than drinking good ale & chatting with friends. Julian, Kevin & I went to one of the open days at the Leighton Buzzard Brewing Company on Saturday.  It's a micro brewery that's been in business since 2014 & appears to be doing well, it deserves to, supplying local pubs & selling from their own shop in the brewery. As well as four beers and two ciders on offer today there was food available & even a band!
 The beers then, my favourite of the four was called Restoration Ale 4.6% strength a good nut-brown colour and a nice fruity taste, just my cup of tea......or rather beer. The next beer called Narrow Gauge at 3.9% is named after the LB railway, another very palatable beer, again quite fruity with a nice bitterness to finish, very refreshing. Cuckoo at 3.8% was beer three & another very quaffable drink and finally my least fave (yes there are beers I'm not keen on!) called Black Buzzard, a porter at 5.8%. Far too much like cough mixture for me with a smoky after taste, one  Stan would like I think, none of us tried the ciders

Julian and Kevin enjoying another beer.

The business end of where the beer is brewed.

. Weather was ok so it was a popular event so also difficult to get a seat. We ended up sharing a table with a couple of chaps from the Milton Keynes branch of CAMRA, we had an interesting conversation with them, they waxed lyrical about a festival they have organised for October called the 'Concrete Pint,' ninety beers & a few special editions as well, will see if we can get along to support it. They also told us how the LB beer Borrowers Bitter came by its name. The author of the childrens classic 'The Borrowers' Mary Norton ,lived in Leighton Buzzard. Not alot of people know that.
Well, we tried all the beers and then tried them all again and were beginning to get hungry so we left the brewery & walked into LB to the Wetherspoons pub there The Swan Hotel. Busy but not too busy & surprisingly for a Wetherspoons they seemed to have enough staff on! Had our eats, all of us going for the all day brunch strangely and a couple more beers to round the evening off. Cab home and that was it. Very pleasant excursion.

An idiots guide to an Idiot.: Fairport Conventions Cropredy Festival 2016.

An idiots guide to an Idiot.: Fairport Conventions Cropredy Festival 2016.: Well, where to start, with bit of a moan really. We met Kas, Stan, Dan & Matt at the Cherwell Valley services on the M40 at 6.30am &...

Fairport Conventions Cropredy Festival 2016.

Well, where to start, with bit of a moan really. We met Kas, Stan, Dan & Matt at the Cherwell Valley services on the M40 at 6.30am & made our way in convoy to Cropredy to be waved on passed the field we wanted to camp in even though it was still half empty! We weren't there before 7am as the festival requests & ended up in field 7a  much further than we wanted from the arena field. Not impressed & have already written to complain as has Stan.
Now that's out the way onto the good stuff, of which there was lots.
We wanted to help put up the trailer tent but Stan & Kas have it down to such a fine art now that's it slows them down to explain what we can do, so we pottered & helped where we could, with everything looking ship shape by about 9am I think.
Now Tara & I have tried to start a Cropredy tradition of bringing scones, jam and cream for all to start things off, we did this again today with extra strawberries & raspberries & Kas brought clotted cream. We even found some wheat free scones for Tara & Matt so all could tuck in. The next traditional event entails Dan, Matt & Tom going into the village to busk for a while & Stan, Kas Tara & I make our way to the cricket pavilion so they can meet up with  old festival friends, the first pint of the festival is partaken which is the excellent Hook Norton Brewery 'Old Hooky' ( coke for Kas !) and then a 'scratch' Morris side is put together & they do a couple of dances. Kas met for the first time a friend she had on FaceBook relating to Croppers but had never met before, a very decent chap called Ian.
I running away with the story abit as poor old Chris & Ceri were still enroute after a litany of disasters made them much later than planned & unable to camp with us. I admire their tenacity as I think I'd have given up & gone home by now! However they made it!
Made our way to the arena field our pitch held by Tara until we arrived with chairs etc, Stan however gave the day up as a bad job & remained at the camper & went to bed early.
Opening act is traditionally an acoustic set by Fairport Convention followed by an interesting collection of old loons called Gryphon. Medieval Prog Rock if you can get your head round that. They weren't bad as it happens, especially the crumhorn, wielded by a bloke who looked like an electrocuted Catweazle!   CoCo & the Butterfields were good but Hayseed Dixie were brilliant & probably my fave set of the whole gig. Any band who can do a country & western/bluegrass version of 'Ace of Spades' & 'Highway to Hell' aren't 'arf bad pop pickers! Madness rounded off day one & they are definitely a great festival band. The bar serves Wadworths 6X, a fine brew, supplemented by wine & bottled beer we'd brought along, my dinner was an Oggie ,basically a Welsh version of a Pasty. My Steak & Stilton Oggie was very nice & Tara had gluten free pasta and sauce.
Back to the camper , eventually, as we wrestled the cart thing back over undulating ground plus a couple of bottlenecks due the amount of people making their way back to tents, camper vans, mobile homes  and caravans. Weather was a bit karzi to be honest. We couldn't believe it was going to be wet again. Surely we are due a  dry Cropredy!

Festival hand and polish!

Scratch Morris side do their thing.

General view of Cricket Pavilion and old git.

Memsahib and self on first night.

Amusing signs on fence near stage.

None of us were setting alarms or anything like that but nobody rose too late either. Day two started overcast but improved all the time and turned into a really nice hot day. Memsahib, done in from previous days early start and knackering walks plus other stresses of previous days decided to stay at the camper & chill today. Cart & bodies loaded with packs, chairs, bottles, snacks  etc  we trudged off to the arena field once more.
Not sure whether it was a sellout but the field filled up quicker & earlier this year than the previous two we've been.
First turn on today was Anthony John Clarke & Peggy , the Fairport bass player. An amusing set with some singable songs, I enjoyed them greatly. Next on the BBC Radio Two Young Folk Singer of the Year, a 17year old playing Hamish Moore Smallpipes (abit like Northumbrian pipes) called Brighde Chaimbeul (neither to I so don't ask!) from the Isle of Skye, alittle obscure for my taste but not bad. Sound of the Sirens were two girls from Devon who were quite good, I missed the next act as I returned to the camper to see Tara. Glad to say she was chilling nicely & could feel waves of angst and negativity lifting from her. So I poured her a Hooch. Probably the worst thing in my opinion about camping is lack of washing facilities in particular showers. There was showers provided. Sixteen shared by getting on for twenty thousand people so I was pleasantly surprised  only to have to queue for 20 minutes or so before I could shower. It felt great!
Refreshed & squeaky clean I left Tara & returned to the arena field. Willie and the Bandits weren't bad , their influences being Cream & Hendrix  though Kas thought they were more Fleetwood Mac. Then came a band I really wanted to like, Headspace, their keyboard player is Adam Wakeman son of no less a rock luminary than Rick. If their set hade been half the length it was I'd have thought they were great but being prog rock it had to go on! The frontman Damian Wilson was very energetic, jumping on and off the stage & even singing while milling about in the crowd at one point. He had a powerful voice and used it to good effect, I take it he too enjoyed the Cropredy vibe as I saw him next day taking in the festival.
I have never seen Steeleye Span before ,I've got quite a few of their albums, and albums from Maddy Prior & I was looking forward to them. They were OK but , again in my humble opinion, their song choice was rather dull. There's lots of great songs to join in with but they didn't seem to choose them, thank gawd they played 'All around my hat' which I could bellow out. Tara was convinced she could hear me from the camper!
This evenings gastronomic delights were from the Northfield Farm stand offering various burgers ,sausages etc from their own animals, all top quality stuff and it tasted like it. I had a sausages in a bun tonight with a side of chips. Absolutely delicious. With recommendations from Rick Stein and Clarissa Dickson-Wright I couldn't go far wrong!
Headliners for this evening were The Bootleg Beatles. Got to say they were brilliant & I surprised myself by how many Beatles lyrics I actually knew. 

Suggs from Madness.

Goodnight!

The excellent Northfield Farms stand.

Dusk.

Maddy Prior of Steeleye Span.


I should add a note about my photos, you may notice a strange black mark in mid air, no idea what it is, reckon it must be something inside my camera as the outside lens looks fine.

So the final day of the festival dawned. All on parade today which was great, made our way to the field for midday to catch Richard Digance who regularly starts proceedings on Saturday. He's quite amusing & always gets everyone on their feet to make the biggest Morris dance side in the world. Not sure whether this has ever been challenged! Can remember nothing of substance about the following two turns, Maia & then Gilmore & Roberts. Not because of an alcoholic haze but generally just chatting, chilling, walking with Stan to the bar and back. Demon Barbers XL were good , with added Morris, Clog & also Street Dancers. They were abit different ,I liked!

Pierce brothers were awesome! Two Aussie lads who have been busking their way round Europe & after this gig off back home. They left the stage to tumultuous applause & even got a little emotional  to the Cropredy crowds response to them. They were very good! Babylon Circus came and went , I did like them but it was a mix of Ska and sort of Indie and lordy knows what else. Now I know this will be considered heresy but I though Ralph McTell was abit boring. He did 'Streets of London' luckily so all could join in.

At some stage we had our eats. Tara had a gluten free quiche and I headed straight for the Northfield Farm stall again this time for an excellent cheese burger, lovely!

As Cropredy is masterminded by Fairport Convention, as well as opening the festival they also close it this time with all the bells and whistles of electric instruments and a proper drumkit for Gerry Conway.   They end their set with the song 'Meet on the ledge' which by tradition (there's alot of tradition about Croppers) everybody belts out & links arms al la 'Auld Lang Syne.'  That wraps up the whole event. It was great, our third festival will testify to that  though we are still playing at it compared to the others who are well into double figures with Matt coming here everyone one of his 21 years!

Bed and asleep by about 2am & up 9 ish for breaky, then we broke camp. Said our goodbyes, by far the worst bit & headed home. Dropped Tom enroute & arrived back about 3.15pm to a much improved and freshly painted kitchen courtesy of Kevin.

Brilliant few days as always  though we probably won't be able to get to next years which is a shame as its the 50th Anniversary because we are saving our pennies to go and see Alec & Laura who will be in Australia by then, with abit of luck the Pierce Brothers  will be playing a local venue to them!

Please do follow this link to the Cropredy Blog  run by Tom, Dan and Matt. They have uploaded songs and interviews with performers and spectators alike. Link : http://youtube.com/cropredyblog you'll also find them on FaceBook.   It's very interesting!

General view of the crowd looking up the field.

                                                          Stan near Mecca  (ok the bar!)  getting the beers in.



An idiots guide to an Idiot.: The Somme-From both sides of the wire.

An idiots guide to an Idiot.: The Somme-From both sides of the wire.: Did you catch the above excellent three part documentary on the Battle of the Somme by military historian Peter Barton? Much has been writt...

The Somme-From both sides of the wire.

Did you catch the above excellent three part documentary on the Battle of the Somme by military historian Peter Barton?
Much has been written,said and broadcast about this battle but Peter Barton had done it a little differently, he has painstakingly researched the German archives as well as the British. It's always the victors that write the histories of course, so much of what he has to say hasn't been widely known. The fact that German intelligence  had intercepted British phone calls a good ten weeks before the battle. They knew in part what was going to happen they just didn't know exactly when. When tanks first appeared on the battlefield in October 1916 within a couple of weeks all German units had a detailed report of what they were and the best way to tackle and stop them. Top secret reports stating clearly 'Not to be taken into the front line' were taken either from prisoners or dead bodies and some POW's did not hold back with information, all of this meticulously noted in the German archives. The Germans on the Somme were out gunned and out manned but according to the historian the tactical victory was theirs.
With his fedora hat and tweedy waistcoat Peter Barton walks you across 'no mans land' carrying a 303 Enfield rifle, he stands on remains of pillboxes,trenches and redoubts, he has an obvious passion for the subject and presents it in a very digestible way. I haven't read any of his books on World War One but with my obsession for the period I will be looking for some.
Whatever you think of war it's a terrible thing and he does go into on the human side of it rather than just orders from commanders and statistics. He quotes an Australian soldier  as summing up the terrain of the Somme (forgive the language!) as 'miles of shit coloured fuck all.' An honest opinion if ever I heard one, and don't forget the Aussies were all volunteers, they did not have conscription.
 The Whitehall committee that was tasked with naming and dating all the actions of the war record that the Battle of the Somme concluded in November 1916, Peter Barton has suggested it was later than that in Spring 1917 when the Germans fell back to the well prepared defensive positions of the Hindenberg Line which rendered many of the villages and woods and hills taken at such a high cost by the British pretty well null and void.
There will forever be discussion and argument on what did or did not happen and who was to blame. I think this documentary series has shed alittle light onto an area that hasn't been really looked at and I found it fascinating. If you get the chance do watch these programmes, follow this link http://bbc.in/29r3QfI  I don't think you'll be disappointed.

An idiots guide to an Idiot.: The Cropredy vibe.

An idiots guide to an Idiot.: The Cropredy vibe.: It's that time of year when Cropredy approaches and excited expectations begin to form. It's our third festival and that's due ...

The Cropredy vibe.

It's that time of year when Cropredy approaches and excited expectations begin to form.
It's our third festival and that's due to our dear friends Kas & Stan & Dan & our extended Cropredy family of Tom, Matt & Natalie to be extended even further this year with Chris & Ceri.
Kas & Stan tried to get us to go to Cropredy ages ago & finally we bit the bullet in 2014. We are so glad we did!
It's  such a friendly place, I just love the way it takes over the whole village. I wonder if all the villagers like it? I suppose there's some who book their holidays for mid August every year! We stay in the positively palatial surroundings of the Pitt-Simkus trailer tent which is brilliant and has all mod cons, even a karzi!
So, what to expect this year. Headliners are Madness first night, Bootleg Beatles  the second night and Fairport Convention , the ones who run it, on the last night, I am also looking forward to seeing Steeleye Span,I've seen Maddy Prior on her own but not with Steeleye. Richard Digance is always good and Ralph McTell should be too.It's an eclectic mix of music at Cropredy, there's obviously a strong folk element but lots of other genres as well. Then there's the bar. One long glorious bar serving the excellent Wadworths 6X, a fine pint indeed.
We'll meet up on the services on the M40  early Thursday morning and go in convoy from there to the camp sites arriving as they open the fields for the festival. I tend to stick to Stan like glue at this stage to make sure we get in with them! We'll get the camper put up and probably about lunch time we'll indulge ourselves in what I hope has become a Cropredy tradition of scones & jam & cream. Wheat-free for Tara & Matt, alittle later the cricket  pavilion will beckon for the first pint of the festival (unless we've broken out the beers earlier at the camper of course!) which will be the ever popular and delicious Hooky or Old Hooky from the Hook Norton Brewery. This pint will be the first Cropredy pint to be drunk out of my fine English pewter tankard (pictured) brought for me by our best buds the aforementioned Kas & Stan.
  At the pavilion Kas & Stan will meet up with old festival friends and there will probably be the 'Scratch Morris' side put together by those who can and watched by those who can't.
Into the field for 4pm where Fairport Convention will start the music off with an acoustic set (though I wish they'd give Jerry Conway the drummer something better than a box to bang on!).
 Not forgetting of course that the famous Cropredy Blog is filmed, written, produced, rehearsed and broadcast from the camper. Check out You Tube for their videos of the music, interviews with the performers and festival goers at  this link: http://youtube.com/cropredyblog  There're very good you know!
The two pubs in the village also have bands on, I'd like to try & catch one of them this year as well if the moment presents it's self.
I'm looking forward  to wandering round the village with the craft fairs and boot fair and foodie bits you can buy, I'm looking forward to the beer, the music, seeing our Cropredy family, the wine and the beer, the field with the stage, the fun of it all, hopefully the good weather, the great vibe the place has , the beer...........
Cropredy 2016 here we come ready or not!

My Cropredy pewter tankard.

An idiots guide to an Idiot.: Norfolk

An idiots guide to an Idiot.: Norfolk: Another one of my business trips to Norfolk. I must admit there are far worse places to have to go for a couple of days but as it's a bu...

Norfolk

Another one of my business trips to Norfolk. I must admit there are far worse places to have to go for a couple of days but as it's a business trip I have to go on my own and of course and I don't really have the time to look around much, that said I arrange my own stop overs so have tried various hotels and pubs vast majority of which I'd go back to again and where I stayed this time  will definitely get a return trip. I do vary where I stay as I' don't want  to become known like  'Here's your favourite table Mr Morgan' I prefer a degree of anonymity.
Two hundred miles of driving round Norfolk and I headed to the William IV in Sedgeford  near Hunstanton. Had bit of a walk before dinner and found that there is an ongoing archaeological dig in the village run by the Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project. it's an long term project to understand the entire range of human settlement and land use in Sedgeford. It was all closed up by the time I got there so I wondered on. Sedgeford is also where  Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni tribes trained her troops in AD60 or 61 before leading her army in sacking Colchester, London and St Albans.
 Found quite an interesting grave in the cemetery to 73661 Private Arthur William Fisher of the Royal Army Medical Corps who died in 1919 aged 29.It wasn't the usual Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone but a normal privately made headstone though he is logged on the CWGC website. He was part of No53 Field Ambulance that was attached to the 17th (Northern) Division in France. A Field Ambulance was a mobile front line medical unit, not mobile in the sense of vehicles but in the sense of it would be moved as the troops moved. The theory was they could deal with about 150 casualties but in reality it was often far more than that. The 17th Div saw action on the Somme in 1916 and Passchendaele in 1917 to mention just two places. Arthur Fisher was from Durham though his family appear to be in Norfolk when he died as the graves next to his are also of family members. He qualified for the British War and Victory Medals so it means he did not see active service before January 1916.


Grave of Private Arthur William Fisher, Royal Army Medical Corps.


                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                   

So to dinner. My favourite part of the day. The beer I had was Woodfordes (a Norfolk brewery) Werry which is a very palatable pint, another beer with nice citrusy flavours, perfect for a warm day.
Spoilt for choice for dinner but went for Devilled Lambs’ Kidneys & Mushrooms with Pancetta for a starter which was delicious but quite warm! the for main Sundried Tomato & Gurney Gold Cheese Stuffed Guinea Fowl Breast wrapped in Parma ham with dauphinoise potatoes, apple sauce and crackling. 'Mmmmmm' is the only comment I can make. Lovely! Cooked to perfection and was nice and moist. Pigged out a bit tonight as I also had the cheeseboard for dessert with 3 local cheeses including the Gurney Golden that was on the Guinea Fowl. As you can see from the photos  it was also very well presented and I remembered to take the photos before I tucked in. Suitably replete I adjured to bed. Read for a while, a very interesting book about the Italian Front in the first World War then Z's.

Werry. A werry nice pint (sorry!)

 

Starter.

 

Main.

 

Cheeseboard.