The Windmill Inn, Southwick - Once a House of Repute in Sussex

There have been two pubs of this name, commemorating a windmill that until c 1845 stood nearby. The first pub was built in the late 1850s on the north side of Upper Shoreham Road, which in the 19th century was called Higher Road.

According to the website Directory of Pubs in the UK, the Post Office Directory lists the following licensees: 1866, J. Z. Batterbee; 1878, Henry Peirce; 1890, William Smith; 1899, T. Wood; 1905 and 1915, George Scarrett; 1930, Mrs Elizabeth H. Scarrett.

The original Windmill was owned by the Hove brewery E. Robins & Son previous to its acquisition in the late 1920s by the Kemp Town Brewery.

It remained as a pub until 1934 when the license was transferred to the new Windmill Inn. The three-storey building was used as a fish and chip shop and then a wet fish shop before being demolished in 1972 when the A27 became a dual carriageway.

 

 Following road widening in the mid-1930s, the second Windmill Inn was built at 180 Old Shoreham Road, on the south side, diagonally opposite the first pub, and on the east side of the junction with Roman Road. A Kemp Town Brewery ‘improved public house’, its first licensee may have been a P. Tesher (as recorded in the 1938 Post Office Directory). The licensee during the 1960s was Bobby Lee, ex-captain of Brighton Tigers ice hockey team.

The second Windmill Inn was demolished in September 2010, unfortunately before I was able to photograph it myself.

A new residential development now occupies the site. Grateful thanks to Ted Heasman and Loz Aslett for the photographs.

Sources:

Aslett, L. (1998), ‘The Pubs of Southwick Past and Present’, Part Two, Sussex Drinker, 13 (summer), pp. 12-14.

Directory of Pubs in the UK, http://pubshistory.com/SussexPubs/ http://pubshistory.com/SussexPubs/Brighton/WindmillSouthwick.shtml

Heasman, W. A. (2009), Memories of Southwick and Kingston Buci, Southwick: Southwick Society.

The Railway Tavern, Southwick - Once a House of Repute in Sussex

A Railway Hotel, Southwick, is listed in the early 1930s Kemp Town Brewery publication, “Houses” of Repute in Sussex, but is absent from a 1948 map of the brewery’s houses. The historical website Directory of Pubs in the UK has an entry for the Railway Tavern, 77 Albion Street, Southwick, which is at 137 Albion Street by 1938. This is probably a re-numbering rather than relocation; Loz Aslett (1998) identifies the position of tavern to have been on the north side of Albion Street mid-way between Grange Road and Lock Road. He also states it to have been built in 1840, the same year as Southwick railway station was opened.

Local historian Ted Heasman (2009) claims the tavern to have been built in the 1860s and that the first recorded landlord was a David Brazier in 1866. The Directory of Pubs in the UK historical website concurs with this latter point and, using information from Census, Post Office and Trade Directories etc., identifies the following licensees: 1866, D. Brazier; 1878, William Hylands; 1890, Alfred Funnell; 1899 and 1905, Mrs Harriet Rebecca Dudley; 1915, 1930 and 1938, Richard Stevenson.

Heasman further suggests that the Railway Tavern acquired its name because the station ticket office was until 1899 at the western end of the platform and could then be accessed by a track from the west side of the pub. In the photograph, kindly supplied by Lewis Whitby, originally by way of Ted Heasman, Railway Tavern appears on the fascia but hotel accommodation is clearly advertised on the first floor. The landlord’s surname appears above the door of the Public Bar. The brewers are Abbey & Sons, which dates the photo to between the time that Richard Stevenson took over as licensee and March 1933 when this Brighton-based company registered the name Kemp Town Brewery.

When the track to the railway station was closed, houses, shops and workshops for a garage were built to the west and rear of the tavern. The tavern was a semi-detached building; the other half was later the Post Office. KTB sold the pub in 1940 and the property became offices for Warr and King, architects, before being demolished c. 1963.

Sources:

Aslett, L. (1998), ‘The Pubs of Southwick Past and Present’, Part One, Sussex Drinker, 12 (spring), pp. 12-14.

Directory of Pubs in the UK, http://pubshistory.com/SussexPubs/Brighton/RailwayTavern.shtml

Heasman, W. A. (2009), Memories of Southwick and Kingston Buci, Southwick: Southwick Society.

The Shipwrights Arms, Southwick - Once a House of Repute in Sussex

The Shipwrights Arms was on the north side of Albion Street (A259), at No. 107, at the west corner with Rock Road opposite Southwick Town Hall. According to Southwick local historian Ted Heasman, from whom the photograph was originally obtained, the Public Bar was accessed from Albion Street and the door to the Saloon Bar was on Rock Road.

The photograph shows it when it also had a corner entrance and was advertising Worthington’s Pale and Strong Ales, Reid’s Stout and bottled Bass. It was a Kemp Town Brewery pub by the early 1930s.

The first recorded landlord was William George Crosskey in 1867, probably the year the pub was built. The Post Office Directory also records the following licensees: 1915, James Morley; 1930, Frank Henry Wilshere; 1938, George W Beall. The Shipwrights Arms was demolished c. 1962 in the redevelopment of Southwick, which involved the wholesale loss of many Albion Street properties and slip roads and the construction of a new shopping centre to the north of the A259.

Sources:

Aslett, L. (1998), The Pubs of Southwick Past and Present, Part One, Sussex Drinker, Issue 12 (spring), pp. 12-14.

Heasman, W. A. (2009), Memories of Southwick and Kingston Buci, Southwick: Southwick Society.

Directory of Pubs in the UK, historical public houses, Taverns, Inns, Beer Houses and Hotels, http://pubshistory.com/SussexPubs/Brighton/ShipwrightsArms.shtml

Anchor Springs Yard Arm

Undoubtedly my favourite real ale from this Littlehampton brewery, it is sad to report that the brewing of Yard Arm has been indefinitely suspended. This seasonal, speciality beer, 4.3% ABV, 1046° OG, appeared with considerably success at regional beer festivals, but brewery owner Kevin Jenkins never really saw it fit comfortably within his pub portfolio of best-sellers.

That is probably why I have no permanent pump clip image to offer.

In the interest of recording Yard Arm for posterity, it was brewed in the autumn and winter months using Pale, Crystal, Amber and Chocolate malts. Target was the bittering hop, EKG in the middle, Cascade and Fuggles were used for aroma with vanilla pods added to the boil.


Dark copper-coloured and full-bodied, well-balanced between vanilla sweetness and bitter chocolate, this complex beer had a pronounced yet subtle vanilla end note at the back of the mouth.

Anchor Springs Black Pearl Porter

This traditional version of the style, 5.2% ABV, 1062° OG, began its brewery life with a working name of Abyss but as Black Pearl made its first public appearance at the October 2011 Worthing Beer Festival, where it proved to be one of the most popular local beers on the bar. Black Pearl was subsequently awarded joint 3rd Beer of the Festival at the Sussex Beer and Cider Festival, Hove, in March 2012. It is currently the brewery’s only seasonal beer and available from October to March.

Black Pearl is brewed with Pale, Crystal, Amber and Chocolate malt, with Target hops for bitterness, EKG for flavour and Challenger for aroma. Cinnamon sticks are added to the copper during the boil. This dark, rich beer reveals a tawny-red hue when held to the light. A sweet vinous nose has hints of Madeira; the taste is sweet at the start but well-balanced between creamy chocolate and dry biscuit malt; the mouthfeel is smooth and full-bodied. A complex range of flavours include liquorice, toffee, dark fruits and a hint of cinnamon and coffee, leading to a pleasant bitter end note.

Fuller’s Traitors’ Gate

Traitors’ Gate is brand-new “rich ruby red ale” from Fuller’s. Named after the entrance to the Tower of London, it is being trialled as a limited edition brew in a selected number of Fuller’s houses. I found it in the Golden Eagle, Delamare Road, Southsea, an outlet for the Sussex Drinker and a new entry in the 2013 CAMRA Good Beer Guide.

Given a feedback form to fill in, I wrote something along the following lines. Outstanding fruit on the nose with citrus notes; full-bodied and bursting with red berry flavours, slightly sweet, but well balanced with biscuit malt and a slightly astringent zesty but gentle hop finish. I ventured the opinion that there is a need for this fruity red ale at 4.5% in the Fuller’s range.

Fuller’s Past Masters – Old Burton Extra

I spent last Saturday delivering the winter issue of the Sussex Drinker to pubs in Portsmouth & Southsea. Alighting at Portsmouth Harbour railway station, one of my first calls was to the famous Still & West Country House, a Fuller’s house now back in the Good Beer Guide after a period of absence.

I was pleased to see a range of Fuller’s speciality bottled beers on sale - Vintage Ale, Brewer’s Reserve and the third in Fuller’s Past Masters series, Old Burton Extra.

As beer writer Martyn Cornell makes clear, Burton Ale was not a bitter IPA as one might suppose, but a slightly stronger, darker and sweeter beer than the pale ales first made famous by that Staffordshire brewing town before its name become synonymous with India Pale Ale. A Burton remained a popular choice in pubs in the immediate period after the Second World War but today it is a virtually forgotten style – Gone for a Burton, as they say. More recent beers brewed in the Burton tradition no longer go by that name.

This Fuller’s Old Burton was recreated from an authentic recipe of Thursday 10th September 1931 that used Pale Ale and Crystal malt, maize and special brewing syrup; hops were Fuggles and Goldings, both in the copper and for dry hopping. My bottle cost £4.85; the contents poured a clear amber-brown; I sat and sipped in contemplation, looking out of the pub windows over the harbour towards Gosport, watching the ferries sail by.

This is very recognisably a Fuller’s beer with characteristic marmalade and spearmint aroma but also hints of fresh grassy hops and hazelnut above the fruity caramel malt. For its strength of 7.3%, I was surprised at the smooth, light, almost delicate initial taste, only after which the alcoholic warmth becomes apparent. It is certainly a very easy beer to drink, aided by the fact that it is not in the slightest bit cloying; for while the flavour is predominantly fruity and sweet with burnt sugar and caramel malt, it is remarkably well-balanced by a gentle but lingering dry hop finish.

The original Fuller’s Old Burton Extra was replaced in 1971 by a winter brew called ESB. Wonder what happened to that?