Channel Draught 39 Spring 2009
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FREE The newsletter of the Deal Dover Sandwich & District PLEASE TAKE A COPY Branch of the Campaign for Real Ale Issue 39 Spring 2009 INSIDE THE CARPENTERS Getting to Real Ale Comeback in Coldred Know WHISTABLE BREWERY See Page 39 LOST PUBS A further look back at days gone by See Page 34 Page 1 Channel Draught is published and ISSUE 39 ©2009 by the Deal Dover Spring 2009 Sandwich & District Branch of the Campaign for Real Ale elcome to the spring 2009 edition of Channel W Draught. As I write the Chancellor has just re- www.camra-dds.org.uk vealed the details of this year's budget. Despite its gen- Editorial Team eral depressing perspective, from the drinkers point of Editor & view it could have been worse. A 2% increase in duty is Advertising certainly preferable to the near 5% which would have been imposed had he combined the 2.9% inflation rate Martin Atkins announced a day or two earlier with last year's plan to Editorial Assistants increase alcohol duties by 2% above inflation for the next Trisha Wells four years. But of course as he has already raised beer John Pitcher duty by 8% in November, to compensate for the tempo- Design & Format rary 2.5% VAT reduction, it barely reflects generosity, Steve Bell especially if the 8% remains in force when VAT is re- turned to 17.5%, as appears quite likely. Despite exten- sive lobbying, the underlying picture remains of a Chan- Editorial Address cellor with scant interest in the traditional British pub, You can write to the who views beer as simply another source of revenue. We can expect the decimation of pubs to continue. Editor c/o 2 Eastbrook Place Despite all, real ale continues to hold up well with over Dover CT16 1RP three quarters of our branch pubs now selling it and an 01304 216497 increasing number holding regular beer festivals. The Email return of real ale to the Carriers Arms in Tower Hamlets martin_ atkins_camra and to the Carpenters Arms in Coldred (see Local News @yahoo.co.uk and Page 23) typifies its local strength. For the second Please note that views year running, the Berry, Walmer is Branch Pub of the expressed herein are Year and we congratulate Chris and his staff on doing not necessarily those such a great job. of this branch or On the debit side, however, we have to announce the CAMRA Ltd sad loss of the Butcher's Arms, Ashley, which as well as Please drink being a disappointment in itself, raises worrying ques- sensibly! tions over the Government's criteria for granting rural Advertising Rates pubs permission to close – we report in greater detail on Full page - £30 page 45. Also in this issue, as well as lots of news and Back page + £40 reports from across the district and beyond, we take a ½ page £16 further look at pubs of earlier days, including the well Format: Microsoft Word / remembered Cause is Altered, and continue with the Publisher/PDF or any com- Beery Boaters 1985 navigation of the Four Counties mon graphics format plus printed copy. Ring. Please submit copy for Summer Edition by 30th Martin Atkins June 2009 Page 2 CONTENTS 3 Events diary 41 Ramblings 4 A Nation of Shopkeepers 45 Curtains for the Butchers 6 Local News 47 Crossword (Not a Beerword!) 12 2009 White Cliffs Festival of 49 Now We Are Two (Part Two) Winter Ales Continuing the story of the- 15 Tony’s Tappings Beery Boaters 1985 Trip 23 Carpenters Arms, Coldred 56 Last Knockings 25 National News 60 Local Information 28 Thornbridge Brewery 61 CAMRA Info & Crossword 30 Kent Small Brewery News Answers 32 Channel View 62 Advertisers Index 34 Lost Pubs 62 And Finally....... 39 Getting to Know Whitstable Brewery EVENTS DIARY Fri 1 st May Beer Festival; New Inn , Canterbury* - Mon 4 th May Sat 2 nd May Rural Ramble; meet Berry , Walmer, 1430. Sat 16 th May Rural Ramble; meet Fleur de Lis , Sandwich, 1200. Mon 18 th May Branch Meeting; Five Bells , Eastry. Fri 22 nd May Beer Festival; Crabble Corn Mill , River, Dover* (see page 12) - Sat 23rd May Fri 22 nd May - Beer Festival; Rose , Wickhambreaux* Mon 25 th May Fri 22 nd May Beer Festival; Crown , Finglesham* (see page 42) - Mon 25 th May Sat 30 th May Rural Ramble; meet Hare & Hounds , Northbourne,1200. Sat 13th June Folkestone Pub Crawl , start at Wetherspoons 12 noon. Mon 15 th Jun Branch Meeting, Yew Tree , Barfrestone. Sat 27th June Real Ale & Cider Festival, Kent & East Sussex Railway, Tenterden Thurs 16th Kent Beer Festival, Merton Farm (off B2068) Nr Canterbury. -Sat 18th July Mon 20 th Jul B Branch Meeting, Chequer , Ash. Branch Website www.camra-dds.org.uk Branch meetings are normally held every third Monday of each month and start at 7.30pm. For full details about rural rambles & pub strolls, please email [email protected] or call 01304 214153. Events marked * are not organised by CAMRA Page 3 and there was wide spread disappoint- A Nation of Shopkeepers ment when the Government dismissed the advice of its chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, to set a minimum apoleon's jibe appears at last to price per unit, as a way of dealing with have come true. For the first time N alcohol abuse: it would also have cut ever the country's grocers outnumber the disparity between pub and super- publicans. Recent figures give the num- market prices. Mark Hastings for the bers of supermarkets, convenience British Beer and Pub Association com- stores and corner shops as 55,854, mented: “....more needs to be done to while at the end of last year there were support beleaguered venues with real just 54,818 pubs, down from 61,000 a community value like pubs. You don't decade ago. However the carnage is rush to celebrate a new job, new baby, unlikely to stop there. The British Beer engagement, wedding or your team and Pub Association is predicting that winning the cup in the supermarket. there will be only 52,200 by the end of You can't play darts, join the local foot- this year, and that by 2012 one in eight ball or cricket team, sing karaoke or do will have closed. All this will come as the quiz in the fruit and veg aisle.” no surprise to local drinkers. Since the Millennium Dover has lost about 30% As we've reported previously, concern of its pubs, Deal and Walmer half a is extending to the Government's Par- dozen, and Sandwich and the rural liamentary colleagues. Liberal Democ- parishes about another dozen. Folke- rat MP Bob Russell, a member of the stone too is suffering, a quick trip round home affairs select committee said: the town reveals a host of closed and “The Government needs to decide boarded-up premises. whether they think pubs are an impor- tant part of a sustainable community. If The alleged causes are well estab- so, they need to think hard about their lished, cheap alcohol in supermarkets, planning rules, and their taxes, which not unusually sold below cost price, the have contributed towards neighbour- highest tax levels in the European hood shops, post offices and pubs be- Community, ever mounting regulation, ing squeezed out of existence.” and changing lifestyles. Alongside these is the simple premium in value However, more fundamentally, the that often attains with conversion of a Government needs to demonstrate that pub to residential use. To many the it has a real interest in sustainable most critical factor is Government pol- communities. So far its actions have icy, which has seen sharp increases in been distinctly ambiguous. Not only do tax and the regulatory burden since the its tax and regulation policies do little to 2005 Licensing Act. The 2007 smoking engender confidence, but it had to be ban and last years budget tax hike dragged into supporting the Sustain- proved particular onerous, and later able Communities Bill in the first place, this year the implementation of the and then devised legislation that left mandatory code of practice will cost implementation as an option for local pubs an estimated extra £300m. authorities, among whom, perhaps un- surprisingly, interest has so far been The industry's problems are well illus- low. trated by Wetherspoon's most recent trading figures (See National News), Page 4 Page 5 The Local News Contributors --- Martin Atkins, Anne Mcilroy, Roger Marples, John Pitcher, Tony Wells, Malcolm Birt and Di Jones etc. Please note that any views expressed herein are those of the contributors and are not necessarily those of this branch or CAMRA Ltd If you have any news about a pub in your area ––– new beers or different beer range, alterations to the pub, beer festivals or anything that may be of interest to our readers , please email: channeldraught@ camracamra----dds.org.ukdds.org.uk We are, of course, equally pleased to hear from landlords with news about their pub. DOVER seum of the town's pubs over the years: in 1880 there were reputedly As we report above about a third of the 300, which had shrunk to 81 by 1969 town's pubs have gone since the Mil- and just 30 to 40 today. lennium, either converted to other uses, demolished or closed with future uncer- However it’s not all closures. Just be- tain. Little evidence of their former use fore Easter, Marstons submitted a remains on the sites of the King Lear , planning application for a new pub and Primrose , and Engineer , while work restaurant at the junction of Honey- appears to be underway at the Prince wood Rd.