The Maltsters

[Mouldy]

30 minutes ago, dom said:

 . . . . . . . . I suspect in reality, the issue is a combination of the above, charging on the moorings and the wider decline of pubs due to ban on smoking and general trend towards healthier lifestyles.

 

I think that blaming a pubs demise, even only in part, on the ban on smoking, is grasping at straws.  Smoking in pubs etc. has been banned since 2007 and we are all used to that by now, surely?  The number of people who smoke anyway, has been in decline for years.

What is more likely the cause, is a combination of a cost of living crisis coupled with ever more expensive food and drinks in pubs and restaurants.  I know costs for the hospitality industry have risen too, but faced with the choice of paying your mortgage or going out for a meal, most folk will protect their homes and forsake eating out.

As for the mooring charge, some folk will avoid Ranworth, but for a family looking to go out for a meal in a restaurant or a pub, whilst on holiday, is the mooring charge going to make that much difference.  After all, there is a charge to moor at Thurne Dyke for The Lion, at Womack for The King’s Arms, at The Bridge Inn, Acle, at Salhouse to visit The Fur and Feather and atbThebNew Inn, Horning.  As a boat owner, I don’t like the charge at Ranworth and I think that the BA are bang out of order imposing it, but I’m not going to let it spoil my holiday.  If I wanted to overnight there, banging toe rails with the craft alongside (which I don’t), then I’d pay up, go for my meal and just get on with living.

I have read elsewhere that the landlady is not in good health, which if true, may also be a factor in the pub’s closure.

[YnysMon]

10 minutes ago, Mouldy said:

I have read elsewhere that the landlady is not in good health, which if true, may also be a factor in the pub’s closure.

If that's the case, it's sad. Managing a pub must be up there with other jobs such as working in the health service or farming as completely unrelenting and demanding. I feel very lucky to have worked in a 9-5 (ish) job most of my career. 

[FairTmiddlin]

7 hours ago, YnysMon said:

 Managing a pub must be up there with other jobs such as working in the health service or farming as completely unrelenting and demanding.

Problem is people who don't know the trade, think it's a cushy life. First thing you have to do in the morning is turn the key in the front door.

Far from it, it is an unrelenting task. I will take you through an average Friday for me as a manager.

6am---- Get up and take off the alarm. Wait for dray lorry to turn up usually between 6:30 to 7 am,

Put stock away. (The sorting out of stock was Thursday evening) Come back upstairs usually by 8am

Let in the cleaner wait till they finish whilst restocking drinks. Finally, at 9:30am I can get a cup of tea and some breakfast. A shower and get myself sorted. Time to do the books daily entry from the day before. Sort out float in tills. check change situation for weekend and phone bank for change order.

It's now 10:45 tills downstairs and into registers staff arrive. 11am open doors, customers start arriving. Turn on kitchen appliances get ovens hot. Make sure all is running smoothly. Rush upstairs and change into chefs whites come down and prep veg salads and such like. 12 midday restaurant opens. Cook until 2:15 Rush upstairs change and down to bank to collect change.

Home, shower And back downstairs to run the bar for the afternoon maybe grab a cup of tea on the go usually cold by half a cup, do this until 5:15 Kitchen back on for food at 6pm change once again. Clean down kitchen from lunch cook until 9pm. Clean kitchen again. Upstairs shower change, back down to bar work until 11:30. Finally lock up. Turn off the lights Go upstairs reconcile the tills and float up for next day that's midnight and I'm still buzzing watch TV for an hour usually fall asleep in the chair. 7 hours later do it all over again less the dray.

Yep another day in paradise.

Did that for 6 and a half years no holidays as such. Be a landlord they say it will be fun!

And don't mention all the drunks who want a fight, because you won't serve them anymore.

 

 

[floydraser]

26 minutes ago, FairTmiddlin said:

Problem is people who don't know the trade, think it's a cushy life. First thing you have to do in the morning is turn the key in the front door.

Far from it, it is an unrelenting task. I will take you through an average Friday for me as a manager.

6am---- Get up and take off the alarm. Wait for dray lorry to turn up usually between 6:30 to 7 am,

Put stock away. (The sorting out of stock was Thursday evening) Come back upstairs usually by 8am

Let in the cleaner wait till they finish whilst restocking drinks. Finally, at 9:30am I can get a cup of tea and some breakfast. A shower and get myself sorted. Time to do the books daily entry from the day before. Sort out float in tills. check change situation for weekend and phone bank for change order.

It's now 10:45 tills downstairs and into registers staff arrive. 11am open doors, customers start arriving. Turn on kitchen appliances get ovens hot. Make sure all is running smoothly. Rush upstairs and change into chefs whites come down and prep veg salads and such like. 12 midday restaurant opens. Cook until 2:15 Rush upstairs change and down to bank to collect change.

Home, shower And back downstairs to run the bar for the afternoon maybe grab a cup of tea on the go usually cold by half a cup, do this until 5:15 Kitchen back on for food at 6pm change once again. Clean down kitchen from lunch cook until 9pm. Clean kitchen again. Upstairs shower change, back down to bar work until 11:30. Finally lock up. Turn off the lights Go upstairs reconcile the tills and float up for next day that's midnight and I'm still buzzing watch TV for an hour usually fall asleep in the chair. 7 hours later do it all over again less the dray.

Yep another day in paradise.

Did that for 6 and a half years no holidays as such. Be a landlord they say it will be fun!

And don't mention all the drunks who want a fight, because you won't serve them anymore.

 

 

Luxury!

There were 'undred an fifty of us livin in't shoe box in't middle o' roord! 

[floydraser]

Sadly, pubs have suffered for years since the drink driving laws were strengthened. And that was the right thing to do. Although since I got my bus pass in January a couple of the pubs in Leicester have had a few quid more! Give everyone a bus pass I say. 

[Vaughan]

 

Happy memories of the pub's great days, in the 60s.  The boat shaped bar with beer pumps in the steering wheel was built by H.T.Percival of Horning and is now displayed in the museum of the Broads.

Seated at right is Geoff Pleasants, who was landlord for many years and at left is my father.

I recognise the man in the left background but can't quite be sure of the name.  I think it is Don Hagenbach, of Windboats.  Maybe @Turnoar can put me right?

If that pub is now to close, no matter what we think may be the reason, there is no doubt it is a very sad day indeed for the north rivers.

[NorfolkNog]

27 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

it is a very sad day indeed for the north rivers.

Couldn't agree more. I think (could be wrong) that it's a Punch pub. I guess the rent will be eye watering. Not so bad in summer but must be a real struggle in winter. 

[NorfolkNog]

33 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

Geoff Pleasants, who was landlord for many years

Looks like he was there from mid 50's right up to early 70's. Steward and Patteson pub but would have been taken over by the nasty Watneys. 

[Happy]

33 minutes ago, NorfolkNog said:

Looks like he was there from mid 50's right up to early 70's. Steward and Patteson pub but would have been taken over by the nasty Watneys. 

Ahh - Red Barrell.  In truth it was probably s..t but who cared (or knew better) when young!  

[Vaughan]

4 minutes ago, Happy said:

but who cared (or knew better) when young!

Being young at that time, I would say it was because we found ourselves with no other choice!

[Happy]

7 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

Being young at that time, I would say it was because we found ourselves with no other choice!

You are quite right of course but being so long ago I had forgot that! 

[Vaughan]

Before the Watneys monopoly, Norfolk folk reckoned that the best mild was Bullards and the best bitter was Steward and Pattesons, both brewed beside the Wensum in Norwich.

After the Watneys "vice-grip" was relaxed, they brought out Norwich Bitter and Norwich Mild, which were supposed to be based on these original brews.  They weren't too bad but they were gas powered all the same and not as good as the original real ale.

[Wussername]

5 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

Before the Watneys monopoly, Norfolk folk reckoned that the best mild was Bullards and the best bitter was Steward and Pattesons, both brewed beside the Wensum in Norwich.

 

I'll be heven a pint of two's, thank you kindly master. 

[Vaughan]

[CeePee1952]

1 hour ago, Vaughan said:

Being young at that time, I would say it was because we found ourselves with no other choice!

Agreed! 

Chris

[marshman]

Its primarily, IMHO for what its worth, is that it has little or nothing to do with the mooring charge, but more a change in social habits. Few just nip into a pub for a pint and many more mooring, will already have drink on board, bought from a supermarket at discounted cost.

The White Horse at Upton seems too be having issues, and that used to do good food as well, - the Ship, again in my opinion, has little or no chance of getting off the ground sadly. You need a vibrant village to back a pub and neither village have sufficient inhabitants to support a pub in modern circumstances. Times change and we have to accept it - you cannot get people away from their homes where life is too easy in comparison to going out - they have cheap beer, Netflix and you don't even have to move out of your chair.

[ChrisB]

It must be regional, everyone always goes on about Watney's Red Barrel.

However if you lived in the Western Home Counties, Bucks, Herts, Middx and Berks your choice was far more likely to be keg "Ind Coope Double Diamond", which according to the tv advert " Worked Wonders".

[rightsaidfred]

Perhaps we were more fortunate in London, as well as Red Barrel and DD we had Whitbread`s Trophy, Courage`s Directors, Youngers Tartan and if you really knew where to look Ruddles County.

Fred

[dom]

4 hours ago, Vaughan said:

Happy memories of the pub's great days, in the 60s.  The boat shaped bar with beer pumps in the steering wheel was built by H.T.Percival of Horning and is now displayed in the museum of the Broads.

It's fantastic to see the photo Vaughan. For some strange reason, I still remember having to fight my way through crowds of people in the bar to make it to the gents, which goes to show how busy it used to be on a Saturday night.

My earliest memories of Ranworth are of mooring on the Broads Tours quay (opposite the public moorings and now private moorings) followed by long sunny evenings watching the world go by outside in summer, or crammed in the bar in winter. I'm sure it was a deliberate ploy going there, as we'd meet people on turnaround and trial runs during the day, then run into them again at the Maltsters and get free drinks as a result.

It's notable though that even we switched to getting a meal in the Granary instead within a few years of it reopening after the fire, which shows it's always been a battle between the two.

Someone on Facebook seems to be going to great lengths to clarify that the current closure has been brought on by the landlady being ill, so hopefully the issue resolves in the longer run and it reopens in due course.

Quote

Seated at right is Geoff Pleasants, who was landlord for many years and at left is my father.

I used to work for a business in Cambridge but, coincidentally, the owner also owned Cobwebs in Wroxham. Geoff Pleasants really reminds me of his son. I'll have to ask him next time I see him if there's any connection.

[NorfolkNog]

1 hour ago, ChrisB said:

keg "Ind Coope Double Diamond

I used to have a DD is K9P badge 

[ChrisB]

1 hour ago, rightsaidfred said:

Perhaps we were more fortunate in London, as well as Red Barrel and DD we had Whitbread`s Trophy, Courage`s Directors, Youngers Tartan and if you really knew where to look Ruddles County.

Fred

You also had Fullers at Chiswick who brewed some excellent ale like ESB.

In the days when people drank "light and bitter" 

"Pride & Pride" was probably the best.

[ChrisB]

Oh Dear, showing my age! 

[rightsaidfred]

5 minutes ago, ChrisB said:

You also had Fullers at Chiswick who brewed some excellent ale like ESB.

In the days when people drank "light and bitter" 

"Pride & Pride" was probably the best.

Yes forgot that one and Romford Brewery

Fred

[Turnoar]

7 hours ago, Vaughan said:

 

I recognise the man in the left background but can't quite be sure of the name.  I think it is Don Hagenbach, of Windboats.  Maybe @Turnoar can put me right?

 

That's a great photo, the gentleman behind your father Vaughan does look familiar but I'm not sure it is Mr Hagenbach who looked like this in 1960, pause the video at 37 seconds, the main star of the show is his daughter Penny. (Credit British Pathe).

 

2:27

... Penny Hagenbach, daughter of Donald Hagenbach who designed the boat and is seen waving goodbye. The younger man is Nevill Blake and the ...

Teenage English saleswomen packs her grip for attack on American market; 17 year old Miss Penny Hagenbach is to be one of the English "salesmen' at the Chicago National Boat Show (Illinois, February 6-15), She will have charge of a section of the stand of her father's firm (Graham Bunn (Wroxham) Ltd.) which will be among a number of British exhibitions. Her special responsibility will be Frataflcate, cruising, twin hulled, out board driven houseboats with accommodation for four. It will be the fourth time she has worked beside her father, Mr. TM Hagenbach, at a major show. Photo Showss Penny Hackenbach packs her grip in her bedroom at her home, The Haltings Wroxham, Norfolk, England

[Vaughan]

46 minutes ago, Turnoar said:

That's a great photo, the gentleman behind your father Vaughan does look familiar but I'm not sure it is Mr Hagenbach who looked like this in 1960,

Thanks very much - I did google that video but it doesn't mention any names.

I was still a schoolboy at that time but I remember certain faces and this was someone who was closely involved in Blakes at the time and was a close colleague of my father, which is why I remember meeting him often.

Was it perhaps Fred Brinkoff, of Brinkcraft? I have been google-ing him as well, but can't find any photos.