A bit more travelling in Old England

Well here we are in Abingdon on Thames - used to be in Berkshire but maybe the Oxford dons who lived here thought Oxon was a more prestigious address and they leaned on the county reorganisation folk to do a border change. The border was the grand old River Thames and even here, many miles from the sea, the water is wide. Vicky is on the never-having-been-Berkshire side of the river pictured in front of some interesting almshouses plus the Old Anchor. If you look at a blow up of this piccy you'll see that the Anchor is described as a Morland's pub and just above the roof of the

white car is a beautiful porcelain advertising plaque built into the wall of the pub from before the days of Morland's (brewers of Old Speckled Hen Ale, named for the MG Car which was made in the town many years ago) Morlands was acquired by Ruddles, of Ruddle's County fame and the whole outfit was bought out by Greene King.

These former grand old ales of England became a shadow of their former selves (I include their flagship beer Abott in that context.) My interest here is that I toured the Morland's brewery with the 1^st Abingdon Boy Scouts some 50 years ago and I must have caught a whiff of something interesting that has followed me for a fair few years.

The following morning we chased up to Bledlow Ridge in Buckinghamshire to do a 10K off roader which would probably classify as a BM fell race up north – I was 2^ndV60 in the 10K and Vicky got first FV60 in the 6.5K version.

 

That evening we found three pubs in Reading namely The Retreat, The Monk’s Retreat and The Alehouse, all sound pubs but lacking in imagination regarding inspiring nomenclature. This last photo of us and Smurf, was in the Alehouse which was decorated in five or six rooms with wall to wall pump clips.More Southern wanderings next weekend - will miss the Llangynhafal Loop but felt it best to stay out of Huw's hair for this - good luck Huw, hope it goes well!