Ripley is a pretty village, famed for its retrospective inbreeding and web fingered inhabitants. It is also blessed with a large number of pubs, but I fear that might be changing soon.
I've been over a couple of times recently to catch up with my web fingered friends, as the inhabitants aren't allowed to leave without a visa, and both times I've been deeply disturbed: the pub was practically empty apart from us. And the signs are not good:
Being isolated from civilisation, and with the aforementioned exit visa requirement, the natives of Ripley have long been staunch pub supporters. I mean it's not like they've got anything else to do apart from stay in and watch DVD boxed sets. But it seems no more. The two evenings I've been down recently the number of people in the pub apart from me and my friends varied between nought and two. This is not good. If pubs in Ripley are quiet what hope is there for the rest of Britain? As a #PubMan I fear for the future.
I used to live near there in the early 80s. IIRC the Half Moon was one of the early multi-beer pubs, but according to WhatPub it's now a gastropub :-(
ReplyDeleteThere weren't many people eating there last night! Definitely still a pub. Down to two beers though, and only one on the previous time I visited.
DeleteBetween pubs not opening till Thursday, not opening lunchtimes, and closing after food serving (typically 9) there's not much time to visit pubs.
ReplyDeleteWhat can us #PubPeople do? There don't seem to be enough of us anymore :-(
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