Volume Eleven - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - some more aspects - A House of Character - The Red House Inn . . .

Distinctive yet again in these days of managed houses and musical-chair type circuits of licensees the Red House has been in the hands of Ashley's family for forty-six years, his father having kept the house before him.

Then the situation of the pub, a large detached house, admirably proportioned externally, is unusual, isolated on its promontory in the mud-flats, with the waves breaking against its very walls (and flooding its old cellar) at high tide. Next, to the present form of the pub, individual again, with one moderate sized bar on one side, where darts and cribbage are regularly played, and a pair of rooms with large windows and coal fires at the opposite end. An open serving area right in the middle serves a small front bar over the counter and the main bar and a main passageway by hatches.

After all this, one would expect something special in the way of draught beer, and sure enough HB of quality that never drops below excellent is served by gravity, direct from one of three kils (a device to reduce waste as the beer barrel is gently tilted whilst the beer is being poured into the glass. Normally for 18 gallon barrels of beer) kept on stillages behind the bar, and great pride is taken in the maintenance of this aspect of the house.

Finally, the finishing touch is the drinkers. One wouldn't normally expect to find a regular crowd of "local" in a place so isolated from the rest of civilisation. Nothing unusual about this crowd though, except perhaps the singularly homely atmosphere that pervades the place.

But as was hinted at the beginning of this feature, changes are to take place very shortly in respect of another "characteristic" feature -  the external 'gents'. It would be fruitless (and tasteless) to try to go into detail over this particular feature here, save to say that several homes have been offered by connoisseurs for the porcelain when it is removed, and to advise the wearing of waders when paying a call at high tide.

The alterations have been on the cards for some years, since the condemnation of these toilets on health grounds, with the brewers wishing to give the place "the works" (and probably spoiling everything that the pub meant to everybody).