Pattenmakers Arms, Duffield, Derbyshire

If it wasn't for the fact that so many good pubs have had so much of their character and history 'refurbished' away in recent years, a pub like the Pattenmakers Arms would perhaps be regarded as a largely unremarkable backstreet boozer, and in many ways it is. It's a friendly and welcoming locals pub for sure, and certainly noted for serving a good pint, but going about its business in the unfussy and unpretentious way that backstreet pubs like this have been doing for generations.

It's the widespread blandness evident in modern pub design and decor, and the relative paucity of those which have retained a vestige of their heritage intact which makes pubs like the Pattenmakers special. Largely unspoilt Edwardian pubs like this are not nearly as common as they once were, and sadly are becoming rarer still with every closure and crassly insensitive refurbishment.

Etched and colourful stained glass windows at the Pattenmakers act to diffuse the bright sunlight in a way now frowned on by our current crop of pub designers. An attractive mix of original quarry tile, parquet, and mosaic flooring has survived throughout the pub, and the entirely un-radical use of carpeting, curtains, and other soft furnishings helps to absorb sound. It's the curse of modern coffee house style pubs and bars, that even when only moderately busy the cacophony of conversation and general noise can rise to unpleasant levels. All the result of the current trend for bright hard surfaces at the expense of old-fashioned comfort.

So the Pattenmakers is a pub full of genuine heritage and character, comfortable and cosy, and with a great reputation for beer and a friendly welcome. Which makes it even more sad that at the time of writing, the pubs owners Enterprise Inns are to set to reward the hard-working licensees of the Pattenmakers with a doubling the rent. Such is the reward for success in the licensed trade these days, particularly under the yolk of near-bankrupt pub companies such as Enterprise, and it could be that the pub will change hands in the near future. I wish the licensees the very best with their negotiations. I can only hope that going forward Enterprise might treat the pub with more sensitivity and respect than they have the licensees.

A traditional local like the Pattenmakers is naturally home to a range of traditional pub games. Dominoes is popular, as is Darts and Long Alley Skittles, both of which are played in local leagues.

A skittle set resides for safe keeping under the pool table of the bar. The alley is located in the car park, overlooked by a small beer garden which is ideal for spectators to view proceedings on a warm summer evening. This alley features floodlighting, and a rain-proof scoreboard so that play can continue in the Belper & District League even through the very worst English summer weather.

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Long Alley in Long Eaton, Derbyshire

The Derbyshire town of Long Eaton has for many years been at the very centre of the Long Alley Skittles tradition. Until relatively recently, Tuesday evenings would have been alive with the clunk and clatter of highly competitive skittling, such was the popularity of the game with the (mostly male) locals. From my own observations in the town, practically every pub and club must have had an alley at one time, indeed most still do, though sadly many are no longer in regular use. Even so, there is still an active Long Alley Skittles league centred on Long Eaton, with perhaps half of the towns venues hosting games in the Summer league.

One of the unique features of Long Alley Skittles as played in the north Midlands is that it's predominantly an outdoor game, often played on alleys which double as car parking outside of match nights. It's this durable and semi-permanent aspect to the alleys which has helped preserve many of them from loss, in stark contrast to the many indoor alleys and other traditional pub features which continue to be lost following changes of ownership, or over-zealous refurbishment.

The alley shown above is at the rear of the New Inn, a lively, fully modernised bar in the centre of town. It's a typical outdoor 'Summer League' alley of a type found throughout Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. Despite being very well maintained, this alley doesn't appear to be in league use at the moment (the skittles shown here are my own). The New Inn team are still active, but appear to have moved up the road to Brennan's. This is quite a common occurrence in league play, sometimes the result of the home pub closing, or simply a change of ownership mid-season. Note the sectional concrete return chute on the right. Built to last, thoroughly functional, and yet somehow a more elegant solution than the modern plastic pipe returns commonly seen.

Meanwhile, the alley at the rear of the Tiger Inn (right) could do with a good sweep, and the return chute has certainly seen better days. A neglected skittle alley like this one is quite a sad sight, but at least it's still there, and it wouldn't take too much to bring it back into use at a future time.

The Corner Pin is a typical town centre bar, popular with a younger crowd and not noted for its skittles play, though presumably it once would have been. There are many Corner Pins dotted around this part of the Midlands (and a few elsewhere), the name usually referring to the local skittles game.

The alley shown below is another neglected example, this one at the rear of the currently closed Royal Oak. The pub stands on a large plot with an extensive car park and Long Alley area. The feeling in the town is that the Royal Oak is unlikely to escape the developer, so this alley may well be lost along with the pub in the near future.

The Stumble Inn has a Long Alley at the rear of the pub, but as can be seen in the image above, it is no longer in use. The 'throw' for this alley is now home to a tidy new decking area, so is unlikely to come back into use any time soon.

It's not all pub game archaeology at the Stumble Inn though, with active Pool, Darts, and Domino competition in evidence. There's even the relatively rare sight of a Pinball in the games area, a game which has ebbed and flowed in popularity over the years, mainly I think due to the high maintenance costs of the tables. It's also a game which has been around long enough in this country to be tentatively considered a traditional pub game!

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The Plough, Little Downham, Cambridgeshire

At first glance, the Grade II listed Plough might appear to be the kind of village local which has been largely untouched by the passage of time. The interior of the pub is certainly 'unspoilt' and thoroughly traditional in appearance, but the fact is the Plough will have seen many changes over the years. Any village institution which has managed to weather more than a hundred years of changing customer taste, and an occasional change of ownership, simply has to change or face almost inevitable decline. It all comes down to how sensitively that change is managed whether a pub can juggle the often conflicting goals of tradition and staying 'on-trend' as it were. The Plough succeeds where many similar village pubs have failed in this regard, indeed I think you'd have to be a regular of long-standing to see the joins at all.

Perhaps the most significant change at the Plough would have been when the front Tap Room (see image below) was extended into what was originally the cellar (image above). I wonder how much grumbling emanated from the locals when this idea was first mooted, though it's hard to imagine how the pub would have survived to this day without the subsequent doubling of trading space which resulted.

The history of the Plough is written large on the walls of the pub, a fascinating photographic journey through several generations of locals, licensees, and their many sporting and gaming pursuits. Currently, it's Shooting which seems to plays a large part in the activities of both the village and the pub, though Darts and Dominoes are also popular if the stack of Cribbage Boards and Tiles seen below are anything to go by.

The Plough of the 21st century remains thoroughly relevant to both villagers and visitors, with an excellent reputation for beer, cider, and Thai food.

This fabulous image is reproduced with the kind permission of John Clarke of the Little Downham Community Archive, and features George Green in front of the Pitch Penny bench in the bar of the Plough sometime around the 1940's or 50's. Sadly, as with the vast majority of pubs where this simple bar-room game was once played, the bench is now long gone and the game all-but forgotten. A good example of a Pitch Penny bench still in use can be found at the Jackson Stops Inn, Rutland, and another fine bench at The Bull in Essex is featured on the Pints & Pubs blog.

A set of Steel Quoits sit rusting by the stove. The game of Quoits was once played throughout the country, and still clings on as a league game in nearby Ipswich. Note the Yard of Ale behind, a pub game which has never to my knowledge been played at league level! The trophies are for Shooting.

The last date for the winner of the Little Downham Conker Championship appears to be around the mid 90's. Sadly, it doesn't take much for a village tradition like this to come to an untimely end, or for a defunct tradition to be successfully re-booted for that matter!

 

This photograph, which hangs above the stove in the bar, shows a game of Dwyle Flunking (or Flonking) in progress on the green opposite the Plough. Perhaps the least said about this particular drinking game the better, since as traditions go this one has the distinct whiff of pastiche about it. A raucous amalgamation of Morris Dancing and school playground game, it is widely believed that this Suffolk pastime was invented in the 1960's, during the height of interest in all things Goon-ish or Monty Python-esque. The game is listed amongst many other examples of British eccentricity on Montegue Blister's Strange Games blog.

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A Compendium of Pub Games Images - Pt.17

The smiling chap in the Monks Habit on these Playing Cards is a reference to the Benedictine Monks who reputedly discovered Burton-on-Trent's highly regarded Gypsum-rich brewing waters. Marston's Brewery also used the image for their strong Merrie Monk Mild, as well as for a number of pubs including the now closed Merrie Monk in Dunton Basset, a former Leicestershire Table Skittles venue.

A well used brass Put & Take, a game which was very popular with servicemen during the war years, and seemingly purpose made for surreptitious gambling in pubs thereafter. The idea of Put & Take is that a Banker holds the stake, and depending on the fall of the spinner, either pays out or takes money from those playing. Needless to say the odds are always in the bankers favour so this role would be rotated throughout play. Put & Take pieces like this one can still be bought today, though it's hard to say just how much play goes on in the pub or elsewhere, given the relative ease of all manner of gambling pursuits nowadays.

Medals for Dominoes and Northamptonshire Table Skittles. Like most medals, cups, and shields, these are made from base metal these days rather than the Silver or Silver Plate of earlier, more handsome trophies. The skittles medal has quite a nice rendering of the game, the table located in the corner of a bare-boarded bar, as most indeed are. It was originally presented to a gentleman who played the game in pubs throughout Northampton town, for success in either the 'Pepper League' or 'Pepper Cup' competition. The Pepper family have a long association with the game, John Pepper being the last known maker of the traditional Boxwood skittles and cheeses of Northamptonshire Table Skittles.

These 'Darter's Luck' cards were printed for the Darts Club of the Alexandra Arms in Kettering in the 1950's, a pub already featured on this blog for its fine Northamptonshire Skittles Table. These cards were used as fundraisers for the team, passed around the pub, and paying out Four Shillings for a minimum Two Pence stake. The system has proved to be very durable, with almost identical 'Football Cards' still doing the rounds at pub game matches throughout the country. Indeed I was lucky enough to win the modern-day Four Shillings (more like £10) on the Ladies Skittle Team card at the Queen Adelaide, Kingsthorpe last year.

The chances are, if you spend time in a pub which is still frequented by a diverse range of locals, you'll come across a game of Dominoes being played. The game is certainly not as popular as it once was, it's a 'thinking' game of a type which doesn't seem to appeal to younger drinkers, but the game persists nevertheless. The chances are that unless you're in the Bolton area, you're unlikely to see anything other than the common six-spot dominoes in play.

Of course there's no reason why domino sets shouldn't come in other denominations to the standard six, and anything up to twelve spots is known. The higher the number of spots employed, the greater the number of tiles in a set, and in theory the greater the number of players in any one game. In practise though, most leagues in the UK and beyond stick with the tried and trusted six spot option. All except those leagues which operate in the Bolton area, where nine spot Dominoes like those shown above are the norm.

This large Mahogany Pushpenny Board is certainly showing its age. Pitted, scratched, and with a significant crack at the top end of the board. Nevertheless, it plays very well indeed and is a good example of how even with this level of wear, ageing, and even damage, a good quality hardwood Pushpenny or Shove Ha'penny can still be perfectly serviceable.

This board has almost identical spacings to a Stamford Pushpenny board, and the two-piece construction and thick copper stop bar suggests this has been homemade locally from a redundant piece of furniture.

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A Compendium of Pub Games Images - Pt.15

The area around the Warwickshire town of Rugby is another outpost for the game of Table Skittles, though existing tables are few and far between in the town itself. The Alexandra has one of the last remaining tables in the town centre, quite a vintage W T Blacks model from the look of the turned legs and the fragments of two plastic labels which can still be seen pinned to them.

The Pins and Cheeses are the yellow plastic variety favoured in the adjacent Lutterworth and Dunton Bassett leagues. This set are stamped with the moniker of joiner and skittle table repairer Colin Swinfen, based in the nearby village of South Kilworth in Leicestershire.

The Bridle Lane Tavern is a small, effectively single bar pub located on the edge of the city centre. The pub stands adjacent to a large traffic island, and is overlooked by the Belgrave Flyover (there are currently plans to demolish this ugly concrete edifice and redevelop the area). At one time the pub must have been hemmed in by buildings on either side, though it now stands isolated, a thin wedge of a building which helps explain the diminutive size of the drinking area. It's a welcome survivor in an area which has lost many of its local pubs, reflecting the radically changed demographics and the steep decline in industry of this area of Leicester. Despite the limited space there's still room for a good Darts Board, with another located in what appears to be a covered yard to the rear. Until fairly recently the pub was also home to a Leicester Skittles Table, an increasingly rare traditional pub game which sadly ended up in a skip during refurbishment by a former licensee.

When I first spotted these skittles at an antiques emporium in Lincolnshire, I thought they were of the style known as Old English Skittles, the largest skittle form still played in England. In fact they resemble more closely Long Alley pins of the Derby/Notts variety though larger and more bulbous in shape. The 'cheeses' are still a bit of a mystery though. These appear to be a cross between those used in Northamptonshire Table Skittles, and the large Lignum Vitae 'discus' shaped cheeses used in the now very rare Old English game. The owner describes them as Country Fete Skittles, which is probably as accurate a description as any. Given their current condition, riddled with worm holes, and set at an unrealistically high price, I can't see them coming back into use any day soon.

Domino players required at the Kings Head in Leicester. Since re-opening as a Black Country Ales pub in 2012, the Kings Head has returned to the fold as a good pub for beer, and under the current licensee is now settling in as a proper locals pub too. It's slightly unusual to see league Dominoes being played at a pub so close to the centre of town. Unusual but very welcome.

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A Compendium of Pub Games Images - Pt.14

This is the wonderfully unspoilt interior of the Fox & Goose at Ilston-on-the-Hill in Leicestershire. The back bar now appears to be more for dining than a singalong around the piano, but the diminutive main bar is just as it's always been, or at least since the 70's when the pub was acquired by Everards from the now defunct Ruddles Brewery of Rutland. Everything about the bar draws the eye, from the taxidermy (note the dogs head overseeing the Darts Board) to the numerous bygones and relics acquired over the years. The Darts Board comes equipped with a nice piece of Wilton carpet for the surround, and scores of 180 are recorded on a beam in the bar. Dominoes and Crib Boards are also available, and I can't think of a better venue for an afternoon game.

This Skittles Table shares playing space with the Darts Board at the Royal George in Cottingham, Northamptonshire. The table was originally located at the Red Lion in Middleton, but was moved to the George (along with most of the playing team) following the pubs untimely closure in 2011. Cottingham's other pub, the Spread Eagle, also closed in 2012. The whereabouts of its Skittles Table is currently not known.

Until fairly recently the Artizan pub in Northampton was home to that most traditional of local games, Northamptonshire Table Skittles. Sadly the game is now very hard to find in its home town, and only the original chalk scoring boards remain at the pub. Pub games are still popular at the pub though. The Games Room on the left of the entrance accommodates a Pool Table for Wednesday league play, and the main lounge/bar to the right is home to a Darts Board and on Tuesday evenings the serious business of league Cribbage. The Artizan team play in the Northampton Licensed Trades Association Cribbage League, a venerable league established in 1897 and active throughout the year with both a Summer and a more usual Winter league, plus a whole host of knockout competitions and cup nights.

The Winter League is currently competed for by teams of nine players, and yet eleven individually numbered Cribbage Boards can be found in the games storage box at the Artizan. This is a throwback to the time when the game was popular enough for teams of eleven to compete. The 'odd' player numbers for teams is presumably designed to prevent the possibility of a drawn match. 

Not a pub game it's true, but the sport of Pigeon Racing is strongly associated with pubs, and more particularly the club scene. This sign is located on the wall of the Midland Railway pub in Syston, Leicestershire. Whether the Harrow Racing Pigeon Club still make their home at the pub is not known.

The beer, spirit and tobacco trade have long been keen to advertise their wares through the paraphernalia of traditional pub games. Playing Cards and Dominoes are obvious favourites for this kind of branding, as are Cribbage Boards, as shown in the selection above. The Tetley Bitter Domino set at the top is a relatively modern item, the lid to the box reverses to give the crib board. Watneys Brewery, the infamous creators of Red Barrel Keg Bitter, would have been distributing these boards during the 70's or 80's, whereas I've not managed to find out anything about Showman Tobaccos 'Six Pleasing Varieties', one of literally hundreds of long-gone tobacco brands from the early 20th century. This connection has weakened considerably in recent years, but regional and local breweries are still important sponsors of some traditional pub game leagues.

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The Trophy Cabinet

This nice old Darts plaque may have been silver plated originally. It's also possible that the high sheen of the 'cartouche' at the bottom is the result of the original inscription being polished out, which is a shame as this would have helped locate the plaque to the pub or club it originally came from. Having said that, it does make this attractive trophy eminently re-usable.

I can only assume that the engraver was payed by the letter to embellish this humble Pewter Tankard trophy. Presented to a W. Jones some 55 years ago, the abbreviated lettering is probably for the Newfoundpool Working Mens Club in Leicester. Now a non-political social club, it is still going strong and hosting a wide range of traditional games, including Leicestershire Long Alley Skittles and the rarer Leicester version of Table Skittles.

The tradition of awarding a trophy to teams and individuals who finish at the bottom of a league table is a long one, and usually takes the form of a Wooden Spoon as shown below. Whilst nobody wants to win one of these trophies, it is to the credit of the pubs and team members who receive them that they are generally always displayed in the pub and not tucked away out of sight. A trophy for the Leicestershire game of Long Alley Skittles is quite a rare one these days, so a special award for the lowest average score as seen above could only be found at one of the current hotbeds of the game. This one sits amongst a shelf-full of assorted pub game trophies at the Rose & Crown, Thurnby. The skittle alley at the Rose & Crown is one of the better known in the Midlands, and features prominently in Arthur Taylor's book 'Played at the Pub'.

The Artizan Ladies Darts team appear to have a stranglehold on the Division 2 wooden spoon. This basic back street Northampton pub is active in local Darts, Pool, and Cribbage leagues.

These impressive Shields, displayed at the Eagle pub in the Lincolnshire town of Boston,  represent some of the spoils of the Boston Dominoes League.

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A Compendium of Pub Games Images - Pt.11

Wellingborough in Northamptonshire has a number of very good pubs for the beer enthusiast (see below), in all honesty, the Volunteer is currently not one of them. No real ale is on offer at the Volunteer, and yet this is still one of my favourite pubs in the town, and well worth a visit if like me you have a love of unpretentious, well-run locals pubs. From the outside there's little to draw your attention to this Victorian (?) street corner pub, only the subdued light from within indicates that it is still trading as a pub. Inside is a different matter. Light, airy, and beautifully maintained by the current licensee. A clutch of locals propping up the bar beneath a photograph of the self same locals from an earlier time, all bike leathers and long hair. A sociable bunch, and seemingly proud of their long association with the pub.

The pub staples of Darts, Pool, and Cribbage are all played, but more unusually, an old Bar Billiards Table stands to the rear of the bar. In common with many of these older tables, the coin mechanism is unmodified and therefore still requires old 10 pence pieces for a game, which are available from the bar. The Volunteer hosts a team in the local Wellingborough Bar Billiards League.

The Burnaby Arms in Bedford is a classic back-street corner local, and has recently re-opened after a sensitive refurbishment with the aim of re-establishing itself as a proper community local. It's nice to see traditional pub games like these Dominoes still have a place at the pub.

The Cross Keys, Burbage, near Hinckley in Leicestershire, has an unspoilt interior of sufficient merit to be included on CAMRA's national inventory. The front bar is a lovely place to spend an afternoon with a pint or two, and what better way to spend it than shoving a few coins up the polished surface of this Shove Ha'penny Board. The board is kept in an alcove to the right of the fireplace, with coins available from behind the bar.

The Breweriana, and hundreds of pump clips which adorn the walls of the Coach & Horses in Wellingborough are testament to the role that beer plays in the pubs success. I'm pleased to see that there is still room for a Darts Board though.

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