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Pub Guide
Roy Rides
AlconburyIntroduction: On a (very) windy Sunday in September this ride took us to the northern part of the branch’s area. Distance:20 miles. Should take around 4 hours. Depending on how many pubs you visit and how long you stay in each. The Ride: Setting off from the railway station, head towards the ring road and turn left, following the ring road round to Stukeley Road, opposite the Territorial pub, and turn left into Stukeley Road. Note the old Coach & Horses Hotel on the right-hand side, which is now an Indian restaurant. At the traffic lights just before the railway bridge, turn right up St Peter’s Road. Carry on up St Peter’s Road, past Cineworld and Tescos, until you reach the roundabout on Spittals Way. Go straight across and take the Abbot’s Ripton and Kings Ripton exit. Follow this road for about 3 miles to Abbots Ripton. 
The first pub is the Three Horseshoes, Abbots Ripton (4.45 miles), a splendid thatched pub and part of the De Ramsey estate. The pub was closed for a number of years, but thankfully it has been restored to what is now an excellent pub, offering good food and excellent choice of beers. We sampled Oakham JHB and White Dwarf, Adnams Bitter and Broadside. Note that the pub does close on some Saturdays for special events, especially in the summer for weddings. Continue up the hill through the village and just after the church turn right into the road signposted to Wennington. Wennington is a tiny hamlet on the De Ramsey estate, and very picturesque with it’s thatched cottages and village pond. At the T-junction, if you go right for about 200 metres, you will find what used to be the Royal Oak, closed in the early 1980’s and featured in one edition of the Cambridgeshire local real ale guide in 1980 selling Watney’s Stag bitter. Watney’s Stag was one of Watney’s early attempts at re-introducing real ale. Dispense was usually by electric pub and it was widely available in the area and throughout East Anglia. It was a beer that I would rather forget, but it did start the revolution, introducing real ale into a large number of pubs that otherwise would not have sold it. Back at the T-junction, turn left, and continue along a quiet country lane up a gentle incline. After passing Wennington Lodge farm, and crossing over the railway line, you come to a T-junction, where you turn right. After about a mile, a sharp left will find you riding atop the escarpment overlooking the fens to the north. On our ride, shelter from the Monks Wood research centre gave us some respite from the head wind, which was by then blowing a gale. Continue westward until you reach the A1—ignore the right turn (which joins the A1), and go up and over the bridge. 
It’s now down hill into Alconbury Weston, and the White Hart (10.5 miles) on the left, is an excellent village local which typically offers four beers. On our visit these were Adnams Bitter, Nethergate Suffolk County, Milestones Lion Pride and Courage Directors. This pub is popular for Sunday lunches and there were many diners partaking on our visit. |
On leaving the White Hart turn left and continue towards Alconbury village for about a mile. At the crossroads (11.25 miles) is Alconbury Mill, a modern building with a bistro type feel inside. A pool table and a wall of shame offer some entertainment. A couple of real ales were on sale - Adnams Bitter and Greene King IPA. From the Alconbury Mill turn left down Mill Road, and into the village of Alconbury. Go over the brook and turn left alongside the brook into the High Street. The road then bears right into Chapel Street. 
In contrast to the Alconbury Mill, the Alconbury Manor Hotel (12 miles) is one of the oldest buildings in Alconbury. This 16th Century former manor house was converted into a pub in the 1970’s. There is a 300-year-old oak tree in the grounds. It has an la carte restaurant as well as a bar snacks. Accommodation is available - 5 rooms, all with en suite facilities. The pub is open all day on Saturday and Sunday. Beers on offer on our visit were Greene King IPA and Moorhouses Blond Witch. Continue up Chapel Street, and turn right into Manor Lane which leads to Rusts Lane, where you should turn left—go under the motorway bridge to a roundabout. Go straight over and up a steep hill until you reach another roundabout. Go straight over again and continue over the A14. You will now be in front of the main gate of Alconbury airbase, now a shadow of its former glory when it was one of the largest American airbases in the country. Turn right onto Ermine Street, an old Roman Road, and head towards Great Stukeley for a mile or so, until you get to the next pub. The Country Manor House, Great Stukeley (15.2 miles) is a large free house with a restaurant. The pub has two handpumps, which on our visit were dispensing Shepherd Neame Spitfire and yet more Greene King IPA. After a swift replenishment we were back on the road. There is another large pub on the opposite side of the road, the Three Horseshoes, but we didn’t call in, as the only real ale available here is John Smith’s bitter. Feel free to drop in, but we had a better idea - to continue into Huntingdon. So continue along Ermine Street towards Huntingdon until you end up where we started, back in Stukeley Road. At this point you can either go round the ring road and back to the station or carry on down the High Street, stopping off at either the George Hotel, the Market Inn or the recently refurbished Samuel Pepys, not forgetting the Victoria in Ouse Walk which now back in good form after a lengthy closure for alterations. The Pubs: Abbots Ripton, Three Horseshoes Roy Endersby |