Hello & welcome to my historic epic trip set around olde shops and pubs in the area of East Hoathly in East Sussex where the diarist Thomas Turner kept shop in the mid 1700s
Turner wrote of village affairs and drunken bouts 1754 – 65 before marrying his second wife Molly Hicks who put paid to all that there jollification altho she was rather plain .. parson’s mousetrap for you
Here I enjoyed a half of each of the King’s Arms own 1648 Brewing co ales, a watery 4% contender and a mighty 5.2% honey toffee and smoky chestnut Laughing Frog, excellent
I chatted with the lady who now lives in Turner’s shop and noted the village is very quiet off beat now the A22 London tripper road neatly bypasses the village to leave it a backwater: not precipitous to the local shopkeepers alas ..
I include an interesting historical footnote to East Hoathly at the end of this article 📜👇🏼
So moving along I found neighbouring Chiddingly with the Six Bells and enjoyed a swift Long Man Copper Hop 4.2% amber ale which I remarked rather gassy after the ancient serenity of the previous two home brewed
Certainly brewing practice and fashion has changed recently with the rise of microbrewers lending to a predominance of citrus grapefruit or orange marmalde flavours opposing the older sometimes more bitter toffee treacle chestnut notes of yesteryear 🍊
Note the olde village shop with church spire in background
Chiddingly resembles Rome, resting on 7 hills, Stone, Gun, Thunders, Burgh, Holmes, Scrapers and Pick Hill. The spire is of stone at 130ft! The villagers have their own drinking song
“My daddy was a good ol’ man, He left me Peaks an’ Perrylan’, But in the space of twent year, I spent it all on gin an’ beer.” 🍺🎶🍸
Moving on towards Gun Hill ..
Next on the lane to Lower Dicker The Gun of Gun Hill, a gastro grub pub of some antiquity but little style where I consumed a local Gun brew, probably the least memorable beer, I was in and out of this rural pastiche in ten minutes
The weather held fine but the high hedges and grand ancient Sussex trees just bursting into green velvet shaded my path
Old Heathfield Star Inn 1348 some three hundred years before East Hoathly began brewing, this pub rather dark and poky with a fairly bland Three Acres Session Pale 3.7% giving notes of celery but little else, worth a visit, does food
Continuing up the lane past the old converted hop kilns known as Oast Houses I found the Half Moon at Cade Street again with an olde village shop
Here I eagerly lapped up Harvey’s Old Ale 4.8% a dark momentous treacle rich indulgence reminiscent of strong milds before finding the remote Horse & Groom which offered me Cornish Proper Job 5.5% very bland on draught compared to its bottle counterpart, and the Merrie Harriers of Cowbeech, a rural tavern of olde Sussex smuggling charm where I had Harvey’s best as nothing else was on offer, delicious enough in its own toffee smoke way with walnuts and a little butter
Continuing south now towards Herstmonceux and the ancient Bull’s Head of Boreham Street with 5 Harvey’s ales on pump! Here I tried Easter ale 5.6% chamomile honey lemon thyme and buttercup notes enrobed in a chunky texture, sheer heaven! And St George’s ale not quite so strong, a beefy bitter
Fortunately the last remote inn of my evening was clearly signposted up tho a few miles up lane, the Ash Tree inn offering the local Gun brew, a refreshing but unmemorable pint
9 pubs, 11 beers — hear me the discuss the merits of my journey in a short pithy take and then we will investigate the peculiar claims of East Hoathly which inspired my epic trip ✍🏽🍺
I loved it!! 🏴🍺🏴🍺🏴🍺😆✍🏽📜
OK! Now to East Hoathly itself, a little tittle tattle, pour yourself a pint and let’s round up this ramble of peculiar charm 👇🏼
Beautiful! Enjoyed a hearty good chat with an East Hoathly resident who just happens to live in Turner’s old shop, marvellous!!
Turner is a good reason for not marrying, he didn’t do at all well with his two wives but better with the convivial bottle 🍷🍻🍷🍻 😋
A lesson to us all! Anyway, olde inns between Uckfield, Heahfield, Battle and Herstmonceux excellent, go back 600 years, no public sector, no supermarkets, no modern anything and no petrol stations, magnificent evening ramble!
Cheers 🤗🍺
Diary of a Village Shopkeeper, Thomas Turner
Another epic of historical interest and good beers
♣
