Yarbridge one

The Yarbridge Inn has been there all the time we have been coming to Brading, but for one reason or another we never paid it a visit. We did try on one occasion, without booking, to find it full, but that was as near as we got. Whereas this year we paid it two lunchtime visits, separated by just one day. This being notice of the first visit.

Format of the day, morning up in woods behind Brading, lunch at the Inn, afternoon snoozed away with a book, quite possibly Clarissa.

So up Doctor's Lane, once a minor road, now a farm track, running along one side of a field of maize, not that you could see it at that point, there being substantial banks and hedges to both sides. Turned south onto a path running down the next side of the field, ending up in the woods, on the edge of Nunwell Down. Patches of field where the maize was not doing very well at all. The 'M' on the map, perhaps for maize, marking the corner of the field. Nunwell House used to be the seat of the Oglanders, the founder of which line was a companion of the Conqueror. Having sat there for hundreds of years, they sold out to the rather less illustrious, but still county and/or army family who have it now.

Quite a lot of the stuff on the right, which I guessed to be field maple, Acer campestre. Checking this evening, Wikipedia offers a wide variety of leaves, including the one on the left, which looks near enough. So I think it was a good guess. Not a tree I remember coming across in Surrey, although I dare say it is there.

Quite a lot of hollows and holes, some large, probably mostly places where chalk was dug out to build the cheaper houses and walls in the town below - a town which might be village sized now, but is also an ancient town, once fairly important. One of the hollows contains a memorial to Camilla Peterson, a Danish student, murdered there in 2013.

Having seen a couple of pyramid orchids in the woods, the unmown portions of the recreational field above the Mall seemed to be full of them. Noticed in the very same place, in rather smaller numbers, just about two years ago. See reference 4.

Heard one buzzard in the woods. Saw another over the town, being buzzed by a seagull. Perhaps the seagull had a nest in the vicinity.

Back to the house for a wash and brush up, then back out to the Yarbridge Inn. Noticing on the way this handsome red brick house. Looking to date from the time when you might use chalk and low grade limestone down below, but you had brick where it showed.

At the Inn, we elected for inside. It was not crowded and outside had the potential to be either or both of sunny or windy. Then we both went for the crab salad, which turned out to be really excellent. And not just because of the Chablis from a real vineyard that came with it - for which see reference 5. This wine looks to be their everyday brand, with some much fancier looking wines a bit further down the list. At the end of which we find a very fancy look marc, described as 'hors d'âge', which judging from Linguee (my favourite online dictionary for French) here means very old. Sadly I have never got on with the stuff, despite Maigret being rather fond of it. Simenon too, I dare say.

Extra bread, fresh from the freezer, via the microwave, not so clever. But it served.

A strong line in fake flowers above where we were sitting. But it seems a bit mean to clock them up in the fake series, considering what a good meal we had. So included with less fanfare here.

Note also the contraption in front of the bottle, which we used once or twice to summon the waiter, or perhaps the waitress. The first time we have gadget enhanced dining since the rather different gadget noticed a couple of years ago at Polesden Lacey. Also at reference 6. Not seen since.

Rather smoother presentation of their chocolate brownie than back at the Blenheim, although it was much the same sort of thing inside.  Served with Jameson here as, while they had a very large Bells bottle on the bar for collecting for charity, they didn't actually sell the stuff. Or Teachers, the other big brand of my youth, a time when I barely touched the stuff. Bitter man in those days. The good news was that they charge pub prices for the whisky, unlike plenty of restaurants in London.

Talking of which, we learned at some point in the day that Brading ran to ten public houses at one time. Two and a half now.

Brading being a real village, not all chocolate box. But back in West Street we met a man we had met in 2019, a man who kept a considerable number of Shih Tzu dogs, to be heard on this occasion, but not seen. But we did learn that the doctor's surgery in the Mall was no more, so in the event of my needing a warfarin test on holiday in the future, something that has happened at least a couple of times in the past, we will have the inconvenience of having to go to Ryde or Sandown. And not so clever if you are old, live in Brading and have got used to having the surgery more or less on the spot, as we have here in Epsom.

PS: the Inn is near the bottom right hand corner of the junction of the red and brown roads, just below where it says 'Yarbridge', bottom right on the map above. But it does not say 'PH'. From which we deduce that, while it is quite possibly an old building, it has not always been a public house. Perhaps it had been degraded to some other use when the men from Ordnance Survey came by with their chains.

Reference 1: https://www.theyarbridgeinn.co.uk/.

Reference 2: https://www.nunwellhouse.co.uk/.

Reference 3: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/07/fragonard-fail-aka-yaverland-five.html. A previous visit to Nunwell Down. Slightly depressing how much more we managed to pack into a day, just four years ago.

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/07/epsom-to-firestone-copse-to-brading.html.

Reference 5: https://domaine-testut.fr/.

Reference 6: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2018/12/osberts-day.html.