Dereham Pub Day – Two Julians
After the success, or at least what we considered a success, of our day out in Great Yarmouth and then North Walsham, Julian and I decided to go next to the geographical heart of Norfolk with cost effective housing options as my friend Richard often says.
Dereham has 13 pubs within walking distance of the town centre, although on this I’ve decided to use Julian’s definition of “walking distance” rather than mine, as I consider anything within ten miles to be walkable. One of these is more of a bar, so we’ve discounted that as it would require a late night visit to Dereham and that sounds rather too exotic for us.
One of the pubs today was the Cock, which has won numerous awards recently, although Archant seem to take great joy in referring to it, and other pubs, as “boozers”. They’re nothing of the sort, venues such as the Cock are welcoming, inclusive and forward thinking pubs that deserve more respect. But, that’s my little complaint of the day over. Well, for the moment anyway, it’s still very early.
The journey was on First bus, who didn’t disappoint with the services being on time, clean and comfortable. We luxuriated at the upstairs table seat on the way out, before sitting like excited kids at the front of the top deck for the way back. To be fair, I was more of an excited kid, as Julian used to drive buses in London and I suspect the novelty might have slightly worn off for him. Although maybe not, but I digress once again. Unlike North Walsham, there was no international transportation hub, just a bus stop in a marketplace which has more cars than you could shake a stick at.
Once again we discovered some charming pubs, with some of them making huge efforts to be an important part of the local community, but they are all in their own ways doing a marvellous job by just being there and offering a friendly welcome. They’re far better, in my humble opinion, remaining open as pubs than being converted into another holiday home, a supermarket or a McDonald’s or something.
So, without further ado, these are the pubs we visited on our first trip to the town.
