Another Easter One.
- Stewart
- 12 minutes ago
- 4 min read
It's that time of year again when confectionary manufacturers quadruple the cost of a kilo of chocolate simply because it has been cast into the shape of an object which has emerged from some avian cloaca. Whether the object is the size of something squeezed out of a sparrow or ejected from the orifice of an ostrich, the cost per kilo is horrendous.
A couple of years ago, at this time of the year, I threw together a quick post on the Town Hall Tavern in Great Yarmouth with its Easter connection. Here is another in the same vein, featuring the Trowel and Hammer in Blofield.
Blofield, situated between Great Yarmouth and Norwich, used to boast eight pubs, if you include those in Blofield Heath and Blofield Corner, and I believe that I have supped in three of them. Only the Kings Head remains open today and one of the bygones, the Globe, has already featured in these pages.
The Trowel and Hammer was not one of those which I frequented. It was a beerhouse found at Blofield Corner...
...and in 1851 Benjamin Gowen was making shoes as well as pouring pints.
Benjamin was still there twenty years later...
...but died in 1873 when it looks as if his son Charles could well have taken over.
The Gowen's grip on the Trowel had ceased by 1881 when James Dew, along with wife Ann, was living there.
James didn't disappear like the morning dew (sorry!) for Kelly's shows him as still being there fifteen years later...
...but he had gone by 1901 when the enumerator logged one – and here's the seasonal reference that you've been waiting for – George Easter at the pub.
During George's residence the Ordnance Survey revised their 25-inch mapping and included the location of the Trowel and Hammer.
It was also during George's time that there was opposition to its licence renewal. Details of the business of the local Brewster Sessions appeared in the Norwich Argus on 16th February 1907. It included this piece about the Trowel and Hammer.
If you can't be bothered to read through all of the above, then just read its final sentence.
The licence may have been renewed, but George had had enough and the licence was temporarily transferred to Joseph Lacey, as reported in the Eastern Evening News on 25th March 1907.
Kelly's directory of 1908 doesn't list anyone who could be at the Trowel and Hammer, but by the time of the 1911 census police pensioner George Bone is there...
...as he was a decade later.
The final occupant of the pub that I've pinned down is another George – George Carter who was shown as being there in the 1933 edition of Kelly.
This George is highly likely to have been the last landlord of the Trowel and Hammer for its licence was surrendered the following year.
With that, here's wishing you a happy Easter and hoping that you've spent you hard-eared pennies on a nice chocolate stout – and this one really is very nice – rather than one of those chocolate ovoid cons.
Contained within a bottle with a label very reminiscent of Cadbury's products, this 5% stout is brewed for Aldi by Hall & Woodhouse, of Badger Brewery fame. It has an aroma of... err, chocolate, is lightly carbonated, has a really pleasant, smooth mouth feel with a hint of sweetness and a noticeable taste of... you've guessed it, chocolate. I haven't seen a chocolate stout for years. The last was probably Young's Double Chocolate Stout.
This is a great brew, and good value too. I mean, just how big an Easter egg can you get for £1.79?
The Ordnance Survey map extract is copyright and has been reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland under the terms of this CC BY licence.
The newspaper images are courtesy of the British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk).
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