Strolling Round Town: Aideburgh and Around Part 1

This is a new post though it covers the events of the 1st and 2nd of July 2024.
It will be moved to its appropriate chronological position shortly.

Fine Fish an Excellent Museum and a Church Full of Memorials

But first, Ickworth House

01-Jul-2024

Suffolk

Aldeburgh is just over 200 miles from home (North Staffordshire), but it is an easy journey, when there are no hold ups, and we had none. Following the M6 which morphs into the A14, there are no traffic lights or roundabouts for 170 miles. The final wander through rural Suffolk is a little slower, and the journey takes around four hours driving. We paused in Bury St Edmunds for a break and to visit Ickworth House.

Suffolk and its position within England)

Being third son, Frederick Hervey never expected to inherit the Earldom of Bristol or the Ickworth estate, so he went into the church, as third sons often did. He was ordained in 1754 and  by 1768 he was Bishop of Derry and doing an eccentrically conscientious job.

His older brothers succeeded to the title and estate, one after another. Both died relatively young and without legitimate issue, so in 1779 Frederick Hervey became the 4th Earl of Bristol aged 49. He liked to be known as the Earl Bishop but held some surprisingly progressive views. After dabbling in Irish nationalist politics in 1783 the authorities decided he should absent himself from Ireland,

Now Ickworth was his he, designed himself an implausible house – two widely separated wings linked by a rotunda.

Model of Ickwoth House

He spent much of his time travelling around Europe indulging his passion for buying art. The Rotunda, intended to display his collection, was the only part finished in his life time. Unfortunately, he lost his collection, trying to return home through France during the Napoleonic wars.

The Ickworth Rotunda

The rotunda belongs to the National Trust and is open to visitors. There are bedrooms and drawing rooms, their walls covered with largely English art…

Arty drawing room in the Rotunda, Ickworth House

… and other rooms stuffed with treasure.

Silver room, Ickworth Rotunda

He continued to travel, dying in Italy in 1803. He tendency to roll into town and put up the very best hotel led to a fashion for hotel owners renaming their properties ‘Hotel Bristol.’ There are still 50 in Italy, 20 in France and dozens more dotted across Europe and beyond.

His heirs completed the house, the east wing is now a hotel, the west wing a conference centre.

Ickworth east wing

We made use of the café and continued towards Aldeburgh

Arriving at Aldeburgh

We reached Aldeburgh in the late afternoon. The former fisherman’s cottage we had rented was in West Lane which connects the High Street with The Terrace. The lane is 40m long, and as The Terrace is 4m higher than the High Street, ends with a flight steps, the top being steep, narrow and with right-angled turns.

West Lane, Aldeburgh

We found a parking place on The Terrace and wrestled our baggage down to the cottage.

Our home for the week, Aldeburgh

The cottage felt surprisingly spacious for a two-up, two-down, was fully renovated and equipped with many things that would have boggled the minds of the earliest inhabitants, but we believe we cannot live without.

We cooked dinner, opened a bottle of wine and watched television – living the dream!

Aldeburgh Pronunciation Guide

Aldeburgh

Two recent posts were set in Wales, (Pontcysyllte and Llangollen) where place names can be problematic for anglophones, but sometimes even English place names do not sound quite as English-speaking foreigners might reasonably expect. All but the most uninformed tourist knows that Edinburgh is pronounced Edin – bruh, and the same applies to Scottish towns like Helensburgh and Fraserburgh. Aldeburgh is in southern England, 420 miles south of Edinburgh and as far as I know the only -burgh in England, but it too is pronounced Ald-bruh, just like Edinburgh – though with an extra redundant ‘e’.

02-Jul-2024

Aldeburgh Morning Stroll

There was no great rush to be up and out and there were some routine matters to deal with before setting out on a tentative exploration. We encountered some sunshine during our stay, but Tuesday was typical of the summer of ’24, threatening rain, and occasionally delivering.

With 2,500 inhabitants Aldeburgh has the design and facilities of a small town, rather than a large village. We walked to the High Street, which is wide and lined with apparently thriving businesses and turned north, away from the town centre.

We passed sturdy Edwardian homes….

Sturdy Edwardian homes, Aldeburgh

….flower filled gardens…

Flower filled gardens, Aldeburgh

….and after turning right onto Victoria Road, the attractive Mill Inn. Everything in this town is in good repair and well looked-after.

the Mill Inn, Aldeburgh

Between the end of Victoria Road and the expanse of shingle beach is Aldeburgh’s impressive Moot Hall.

Moot Hall

The Moot Hall is a timber framed building with brick nogging (I have learned a new word), a gabled roof and an overhanging upper floor, supported by intricately carved brackets. It dates from the first half of the 16th century and could not look more Tudor. The ground floor porch and windows have been restored, but still reflect this period.

Aldeburgh Moot Hall

Originally, Aldeburgh’s town hall, it has served as a meeting place for the borough council, municipal offices and a jail. It is now the home of Aldeburgh Museum, which does not open in the mornings, so we will return in the afternoon.

Snooks

We briefly sheltered from the rain before moving on to the boating lake, overlooked by a statue of Snooks, the dog of popular husband and wife doctors Robin and Nora Acheson. They came to Aldeburgh 1931 and Snoops joined the practice in 1943. Snooks and Dr Robin both died in 1959 while Dr Nora continued practising here until her death in 1981. The statue, unveiled in 1961, is the work of Gwynneth Holt. It commemorates the service of the two doctors, but also Snooks who sometimes went on house calls and was for many years an integral part of the team.

Snooks

The statue was stolen in 2003, this is a replica casting. In 2013 the original was found and now stands in the garden of the Community Hospital the Acheson’s helped found. Some citizens have been concerned for Snooks welfare and he was wearing a bonnet on this cool summer’s day. In winter he has various coats and scarves to ward off the chill.

The Fish Shacks

Aldeburgh’s origins are in fishing. That industry has declined but a few boats still unload their catch on the shingle beach. From the Moot Hall northwards, the path passes a series of sheds perched on the edge of the shingle.

Fish shacks, Aldeburgh

This is where to go to buy the finest and freshest of fish….

An Aldeburgh fish shack

…. or, for a change smoked fish.

Smoked fish shack

It might look like a line of shacks; indeed, it is a line shacks, but even when bought in a shack, fish of this quality and freshness can never be cheap. This was the first of our visits to the fish shacks, what we bought and what made of it is covered in a separate post called Eating Aldeburgh.

We returned home with our purchases and one of them became a light lunch.

A More Purposeful Afternoon

Aldeburgh Museum

In the afternoon we returned to the Moot Hall, climbed the stairs and were warmly welcomed by the enthusiast who took our small fee. He would never have believed it when he was young, he told us, but in mature years he felt delighted and privileged to volunteer in such an excellent local museum.

Too much was packed into one room to cover everything, but here are some highlights.

The Roof of the Moot Hall is one of those roofs that Tudor carpenters could throw up without drawings and with precious little measuring,

The roof of the Moot Hall

The History of the Coastline is told in maps. I have been unable to find the equivalent on-line, but here is a picture of the current coastline.

Aldeburgh and Orford Ness (Map from Bing, copyright TomTom)

The River Alde almost reaches the sea south off Aldeburgh, but longshore drift has created a spit, known as Orford Ness, which means the river must travel a further 10 miles to find the sea. It was not always thus, and it will be different in the future; there are places where the coastline is (literally) set in stone, but much of England’s east coast it surprisingly mobile.

In Roman times the River Alde emptied straight into the sea and the coast was 3km east of its present position. When the Normans arrived the North Sea was slightly wider and longshore drift had started to develop what would become Orford Ness. By the 16th century Orford harbour was in decline, but a new harbour was developing at Slaughden between Aldeburgh and Orford (the village is not on modern maps). Since then, the streets and houses seaward of the Moot Hall have been claimed by the sea, as has the village of Slaughden, and its harbour

They have a 14th Century Chest with three locks, so all three keyholders had to be present to open it. It would probably have held parish documents and other items of value. Whisper it quietly, but Newton Abbot Museum in Devon has a chest with eight locks!

14th century chest, Aldeburgh Museum

Matthew Hopkins. 1645 was a difficult year. Taxes were high, disease was rampant, the harvest had failed and pirates plagued the Suffolk coast. Clearly Aldeburgh was beset by witches. In December, they called in Matthew Hopkins, the self-styled Witchfinder General. His investigation led to the arrest of seven, elderly and vulnerable women. They were imprisoned in the Moot Hall jail, the remains of which can be seen outside the building.

The remains of the prison at the back of the Moot Hall, Aldeburgh

They were given no food and watched see if their familiar spirits came to feed them and so prove their guilt. No spirits came, but if you leave people without food in an unheated prison in the middle of winter, they will do anything to get out. Seven self-confessed witches were subsequently hanged in February 1646. This did nothing to improve Aldeburgh’s situation, but it did provide Matthew Hopkins with a fat fee. It was not the town’s proudest moment.

Newson and Louisa Garrett and their Offspring. Newson Garrett (1812-93) was a prosperous businessman providing malted barley to the brewers of Suffolk from his maltings at Snape near Aldeburgh. He married Louisa Dunnell and they had 11 children, 8 surviving into adulthood. He was mayor of Aldeburgh 1889-90. Aldeburgh has had mayors since 1527, but he was the first to have an official mugshot.

Newson Garret, top left

So far, so unremarkable among the Victorian bourgeoisie, and it is no surprise that the photograph also includes the Garrett’s youngest son George (mayor 1898-1901 and 1906).

The next photo (almost) includes their son-in-law James Anderson, (1893-4 and 1906), and, right in the centre, their daughter (and by then widow of the son-in-law), Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, not just Aldeburgh’s, but Britain’s first female mayor.

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson as mayor of Aldeburgh

But that was the least of her achievements, she was also the first woman in Britain to qualify as a doctor. Her formal education was sketchy and involved no mathematics or science (not girl’s subjects) and there was no existing route into the medical profession for women. Her long and ultimately successful battle against the establishment was won because she was outstandingly able – when permitted to enter examinations, she consistently achieved the top mark - and phenomenally persistent.

Given the strictures of the age, she remarkably found time to marry and have a family. Her daughter Louisa qualified as a doctor and became Britain’s first female surgeon.

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was one of the most important women of her generation, incredibly, the same can be said of one of her sisters.

Millicent, eleven years Elizabeth’s junior, is better known by her married name, Millicent Fawcett. From 1897-1919 she led the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and worked for women’s higher education, as a governor of Bedford College, London and co-founder of Newnham College, Cambridge. She was instrumental in introducing the 1918 Representation of the People Act giving votes to women over 30 (subject to some restrictions).

One hundred years later Millicent Fawcett was the first women to be honoured with a statue in Parliament Square - now, why did that take so long?

Millicent Fawcett, statue by Gillian wearing, Photo; Garry Knight (Public Domain)

Roman Finds. Downstairs as we left, we passed a case containing a copper alloy head, a sword, some lamps, a spoon and other local Roman finds.

Roman finds, Aldeburgh museum

The Scallop

From the Moot Hall, we walked up past the fish shacks towards the Scallop.

Apparently growing organically from the shingle beech, The Scallop was installed in 2003 as a tribute to composer and long-time Aldeburgh resident Benjamin Britten. Crafted from stainless steel by Maggi Hambling, the open scallop shell stands some 4 meters high.

The Scallop, Aldeburgh

Walking round the back allows you to read the inscription and appreciate the weathering of the steel and the part-abstract nature of the work.

The Scallop, rear view. I have turned the camera for the inscription, the sea at Aldeburgh is not really on a slope!

‘I hear those voices that will not be drowned’ is from Montagu Slater’s libretto to Peter Grimes, Britten’s best-known opera. The opera which premiered in 1945 is based on a poem from The Borough a collection published by local poet George Crabbe in 1810.

Set in an English fishing village the opera explores themes of judgment, isolation, and human frailty, set against the backdrop of the sea which Britten's music makes a character in its own right.

Maggi Hambling’s sculptures are often controversial and The Scallop is no exception. Some locals love it, some object to the way it alters the natural landscape of the beach, some just object to it. Whatever your view, it is undeniable that visitors to Suffolk do come to see it (yes, we did.)

The Church of St Peter and St Paul, Aldeburgh

Walking back into town we detoured to the parish church of St Peter and St Paul. I failed to photograph the outside where a stumpy tower presides over a low, wide building, originally 14th century but much altered over the centuries. The large windows mean the interior is well lit.

Inside Aldeburgh Parish Church

The font is an excellent example of 15th-century Perpendicular Gothic style with the traditional octagonal shape.

The font, Aldeburgh Parish Church

Unwanted attention from the Puritans means that much of the font's carving was damaged in the 17th century.

Defaced Angel on the font

The impressive carved oak pulpit may be late medieval or early post-Reformation.

Pupit, Aldeburgh parish church

There are memorials to Elizabeth Garret Anderson,….

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Memorial, Aldeburgh Parish Church

….Benjamin Britten, in the form of a stained-glass window by John Piper (1903-92), best known for the huge Baptistry Window in Coventry Cathedral. Three sections depict Britten’s settings of The Prodigal Son (1968), The Curlew River (1964) from a Japanese Noh play and The Burning Fiery Furnace (1966)

John Piper's Benjamin Britten memorial, Aldeburgh

…and poet George Crabbe, who is now hardly remembered, but whose work inspired Britten.

George Crabbe memorial, Aldeburgh Parish Church

St Peter and St Paul Graveyard

Many of the Garrett family, including Elizabeth, are buried in the churchyard, ….

The Garrett family plot, Aldeburgh Parish Church

…as is Benjamin Britten, the most important British composer of the middle and later 20th century. Born in Lowestoft, he moved to Snape after retuning from America in 1942 and shortly afterwards to Aldeburgh where he stayed until his death in 1976. He founded the Aldeburgh Festival which has been held annually since 1948.

Benjamin Britten, Aldeburgh Parish Church

Peter Pears was a singer and Britten’s professional and personal partner from 1937 until Britten’s death. Although homosexual activity was illegal until 1968, Britten and Pears relationship was an open secret. Provided they behaved in public, nobody seemed to mind.

Peter Pears

Imogen Holst was the daughter of composer Gustav Holst, who was more English than his name suggests. She never married and dedicated her life first to her father’s musical legacy and then to assisting Benjamin Britten. She was co-director of the Aldeburgh Festival from 1956-77. Since the early 1960s the main auditorium for the festival has been the Snape Maltings, once owned by Newson Garrett.

Imogen Holst, Aldeburgh Parish Church

And so ends the first post from Aldeburgh

Aldeburgh and Around

Part 1: Strollng Round Town
Eating Aldeburgh

and much more to come

Kenilworth: Dining at The Cross and Gawping at the Castle

A Castle and a Restaurant Review

Kenilworth: The Where and The What

Warwickshire

Warwick District

Kenilworth (pop:22,000) is a market town in the Warwick district of Warwickshire. It is a pleasant, compact place surrounded by lush green countryside, or so it feels. But just beyond the fields to the north is the Metropolitan Borough of Coventry, and to the south are Leamington and Warwick, separate municipalities divided only by the width of the river Avon. Kenilworth is no isolated country town.

Warwickshire

Kenilworth: The Why

To the northwest, though the map does not show it, is a rural portion of the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, the least urban, some might say the most pleasant, of the West Midlands' seven metropolitan boroughs. Lynne and I were married in Solihull’s Parish Church of St Alphege on the 26th of July 1975. So today is our 49th wedding anniversary.

Our habit of many years is to visit somewhere pleasant with a renowned restaurant and enjoy what we hope will be an outstanding dinner. This year’s chosen venue was the Michelin starred The Cross in Kenilworth. But Kenilworth is also home to a large and in some ways unusual castle, so it would be odd not to visit while it was nearby.

Kenilworth Castle

Such elegant ruins

Kenilworth Castle is a unique collection of structures, built in the local red sandstone over a period of 500 years. Here is a breathlessly brief history of its construction

In 1120 Roger de Clinton, Henry I’s chancellor, turned an existing Norman keep into a strong tower. King John added an outer wall in the early 1200s and dammed two brooks to create a mere defending two thirds the castle perimeter. In the 1300s John of Gaunt built the middle range. In the 1550s John Dudley widened the tilt yard and built the stable block. A decade later his son Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester built the massive Leicester Tower and the Italian Garden. Like most English castles Kenilworth was ‘slighted’ after the Civil War. In 1649, just before the slighting the London based Bohemian etcher and artist Wenceslaus Hollar drew a plan of the castle which is still useful.

Wenceslaus Tollar's plan of Kenilworth Castle (property of Toronto University)

Had I attempted to take the photograph below any time between 1200 and 1700, I would have been standing in the mere – and, of course, I would have no camera.

King John's Curtain Wall and the surviving main buildings, Kenilworth Castle

From the mere we made our way up to the tiltyard (24 on Hollar’s Plan). This is the top of the dam that created the mere, levelled and widened for use in jousting. At the end of the tiltyard, we entered the castle through what remains of Mortimer’s Tower (23). Inside we turned right and descended to John Dudley’s stable block (6)….

Stable block (photographed from the left, though we approached from the right)

..not because we are interested in Tudor horse accommodation, but because it is now the café. It was lunchtime and cup of tea and a cheese scone felt a appropriate. It also gave us the opportunity to marvel at the carpentry of the wooden roof.

Stableblock roof

Fed and watered we walked up across the base court (22) to look at the main buildings.

Main Buildings, Kenilworth Castle

On the right is Roger de Clinton’s tower, buildings 16 and 20 have gone, John of Gaunt’s Mid-Range (14 and 17) can be seen further back and the Leicester Tower (21) is on the left. Although the building stone remained unchanged, the architecture did not. Clinton’s Tower originally had arrow slits but no windows; windows were weaknesses, and as glass was unavailable, they also opened the interior to the elements. John of Gaunt’s 14th century buildings had glass windows like the those seen in churches of that date and signify the start of the change from castle to palace. The Leicester Tower had glass from floor to ceiling on every storey, the cost was stupendous, but Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester was a man on a mission: to marry Elizabeth I. The queen, maybe, encouraged his ambition, though she never would marry him, nor anyone else. She visited in 1566 and again in 1568; between visits he completed the tower so she could stay in surroundings as luxurious as any palace in the world. That would win her, he thought.

Clinton’s stronghold acquired some windows over the centuries…

Outside Clinton's Tower

…and the medieval hard man would have been shocked by the view from the northern side.

Looking north from Clinton's Tower

The Italian Garden was part of Robert Dudley’s campaign for the queen’s hand.

There is a better view from an unremarkable and wall-less room up a small flight of steps.

The Italian Garden from the room where Edward II abdicated

Here, on the 20th of January 1327 the serially incompetent Edward II was told to abdicate in favour of his 14-year-old son Edward III, while Edward II’s wife, Isabella of France and her lover Roger Mortimer were appointed regents. He objected, but nobody listened.

Edward II was held here for a few months, then taken to Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire where he was murdered. Three years later, Edward III overthrew his mother and Mortimer, as any stroppy teenager would. He had Mortimer executed, while Isabella (who was only 35) settled for a long and interesting retirement at Castle Rising in Norfolk (we visited in 2022).

From the Inner Court (15) we entered the kitchens (12) where modern stairs took us into a tower….

Looking down on the kitchen

…from where we could look into John of Gaunt’s Great Hall. The ground floor was for storage and servants, the hall itself was above that, but the floor has gone.

The Grand Hall was on this level but there is no floor

John of Gaunt was a younger son of Edward III (r 1327 – 1377) whose oldest son, Edward the Black Prince predeceased his father, so his son, thus became King Richard II on the death of his grandfather. Twenty-two years later John of Gaunt’s son usurped the throne and became Henry IV (r 1399-1413). His son became Henry V.

Henry V made a speculative claim on the throne of France and in reply the Dauphin sent him a chest of tennis balls, a way of saying, ‘run off and play, sonny.’ The chest was opened in this very hall. The insult led to Henry leading a major incursion into France and winning the Battle of Agincourt, though he never did become King of France. The tennis ball story features in Shakespeare’s Henry V and was taught as fact when I was young. It is now thought to be ‘fake news.’

The windows are worth looking at, the style intermediate between those eventually put in Clinton’s Tower and the windows of the Leicester Tower.

The Grand Hall windows

There is little to see in the Leicester tower but Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, built so 30 years later shows what the Tudors could do with glass – and it’s not a ruin. We visited 2018.

We left the castle and checked into our B&B a short drive away

The Cross, New Street Kenilworth

Tradition dictates that choosing the restaurant is my job, and Lynne remains in the dark about our destination until we get there. The criteria for choosing I will keep to myself, but after a couple of years of tasting menus with so many courses we started to flag, I was looking for a restaurant offering an old fashioned three course meal. The Cross does that - and offers a six-course tasting menu for those younger and stronger than us.

Kenilworth is also only an hour’s drive from home, and there was a suitable B&B a conveniently short walk from the restaurant. That walk took us from the High Street, where there are several restaurants, into the less promising New Street.

Walking to The Cross

Andreas Antona opened Simpson’s in Edgbaston in 1993. Four years later it became Birmingham’s first Michelin starred restaurant. In 2013 he asked Simpson’s head chef Adam Bennett to become chef-director of The Cross, his new venture. A year or so later The Cross won a Michelin star and has maintained it ever since.

According to their website The Cross is housed in a Grade II listed 19th-century inn. It also says the main dining room is a former school room and the bar was previously a butcher's shop. Whether the inn came before the schoolroom/butcher’s or after is not vouchsafed.

Aperitif and Canapés

We did not bother with the bar, the evening was still warm so we enjoyed our drink and nibbles outside.

From the extensive gin list, we chose Kenilworth Heritage gin, because it is local and we had seen it on sale (for a hefty price) in the castle gift shop. Despite it being a) artisan and b) expensive, neither of us liked it very much.

What an enormous G & T!

The canapés were a treat for the eyes…

Canapés, The Cross, Kenilworth

…but good looks are not everything.

Despite its tiny nasturtium leaf, a mini-croque monsieur is just a cheese and ham toastie. Although nicely made and beautifully presented the ingredients were uninspiring.

The beetroot in the spoon is an example of the chef-y technique of spherification. The idea is that the largish bubble of liquid beetroot should burst in the mouth with satisfying consequences. Lynne liked it, I liked the idea but would have preferred almost any other fruit of vegetable. Lynne was also delighted by the tiny contrivance on top, a herb with something to crunch. She thought it was bursting with flavour, I was unconvinced.

The filo basket of tiny chopped potato topped by goat curd was a pleasing little mouthful.

Lynne’s Starter

Broth of Devon White Chicken, roast winglet, new seasons onions, broad beans, tarragon.

A large soup bowl arrived, empty but for a small hill if vegetables covering the winglets (what part of a chicken is that?). The broth came in a separate jug and the waiter poured it round and eventually over the vegetables.

Broth of Devon white chicken, The Cross, Kenilworth

More than a touch of theatre is required to turn soup of the day (chicken and vegetable) into a Michelin starred dish, but it helps. The deep, rich intensity of the broth did the rest, and the tarragon worked its usual magic with the chicken.

My Starter

Tartar of Beef, soy pickled mushrooms, radish salad, yeast crumb and mushroom ketchup.

Inside every man hides a blood smeared hunter. Such an atavistic monster even lurks behind my kindly elderly gent façade so I need to be thrown a slab of raw meat every now and then.

In this case though, the raw meat was not a slab, and instead of being thrown it was elegantly presented, hiding beneath a radish salad. There was little added to the finely chopped fillet steak, a little seasoning and something, I know not what, that bound it nicely together.

Beef tartar, The Cross, Kenilworth

In his ‘French Odyssey’ Rick Stein wrote I noticed in France that steak tartare has become fashionable once more, so I hope it catches on again here in Britain. I suppose the idea of raw meat is a bit hard to take for some people, but it’s always struck me as completely lovely. Hear, hear. I loved the steak, I loved the tiny pickled mushrooms and the blobs of mushroom ketchup, I even loved the radish - and the yeast crumb provided a different crunch to make the dish complete.

Bread

Around this point in all restaurants of this ilk, some bread appears, baked on-site or by a local artisan baker, accompanied by a special butter. I am not sure why I am expected to want bread and butter at this stage of a meal. I had a piece to see if it was good, and it was truly excellent, but I could eat no more.

Bread and butter, The Cross, Kenilworth

Wine

Beef tartar demanded red, so I ordered a glass of Rioja. The rest of our meal wanted white and choosing a bottle from the long (and sometimes expensive) list required thoughtful browsing. Among the often-underrated wines of Portugal I spotted a Bucelas. When Portugal was too poor to care much about quality wines, Bucelas, near Lisbon was one the few designated quality areas. It was popular in Victorian England but more recently, many of its vineyards disappeared under Lisbon’s urban sprawl. Lower production makes it hard to find, even in Portugal, but it remains good and I was delighted to see a bottle at an affordable price.

Main Course

Cornish John Dory, baby gem lettuce, peas, girolle mushrooms and bacon, parsley, new potatoes, chicken jus with lemon thyme.

We both chose the John Dory which, like every dish at The Cross was beautifully presented.

John Dory, and more. The Cross, Kenilworth

John Dory is coastal fish that can be found around every continent except the Americas and Antarctica. It is not landed in any great quantity being a by-catch of other fisheries. Many of those that are caught find their way to the upper end of the restaurant business. Its flesh is very white, surprisingly flaky for a small fish and very tasty.

It was surrounded by the sort of peas that remind you how much better fresh peas are than frozen, bacon that was crisped and almost sweet, and girolles with a remarkably powerful flavour that pleased me but not Lynne. All was moistened by a chicken jus and everything came together better than I had thought possible. It was a delightful dish, but the John Dory, announced as the star, just became part of an ensemble. Does that matter? Probably not.

Lynne’s Dessert

Hazelnut soufflé, praline sauce, Chantilly cream,

Who does not like a good soufflé? The praline sauce was poured into a hole dug into the top and the Chantilly cream came in a separate bowl - which Lynne perversely ignored.

Hazelnut soufflé and praline sauce

Impressed by the nuttiness, Lynne was more than happy with her soufflé. I ate the world’s finest souffle at Hambleton Hall in 2021, so I feel there is no point me trying another - what if I was proved wrong? I must look after my ego. Fortunately, after only two courses and a very little bread I felt strong enough to tackle the cheeseboard

Cheese

As has now become almost universal, all the cheeses were English artisan products. From left to right they are: Tunworth, Double Barrel Poacher, Ashcombe, Brightwell Ash and Shropshire Blue.

Cheeseboard

I am familiar with Tunworth, a Hampshire version of Camembert. It is excellent when eaten ripe, and this example was fully ripe with well-developed flavours of mushrooms and cowshed.

I am also familiar with Lincolnshire Poacher made by Simon Jones at his dairy farm in the Lincolnshire Wolds. His recipe owes something to both Farmhouse Cheddar and Comté.  The regular Poacher is matured for 14 to 16 months, the Double Barrel gets 2 to 3 years. Powerful stuff.

Kindly elderly gent eats cheese

Ashcombe is a Cotswold version of Morbier, with is distinctive band of ash. This excited me less.

As did the Brightwell Ash. Made in Berkshire, it is a soft, ash coated goat’s cheese. I have a prejudice against cheese that is spreadable, and I would have liked a goatier flavour.

Despite its name, Shropshire Blue is made by several producers in Nottinghamshire. Some of those producers also make Stilton, which I wish this was.

All cheeseboards are a compromise, so a partial success is as good as it gets, but I was a little disappointed by this selection – a kindly elderly gent can become a grumpy old git and be difficult to please, sorry.

Petits Fours etc

That leaves just coffee and petits fours…

Petits Fours

…and a recognition of the occasion.

Thank you to the Cross

And Finally

We enjoyed our evening, indeed our whole day. The meal was excellent, the flavours, the combinations and the presentation were all well thought through and executed. There were no meaningful low points, but neither were there moments that took the breath away, no horseradish ice-cream, no scallop, wasabi and apple granita. We would have liked such a moment, but maybe that is being greedy.

'Fine Dining' posts

Abergavenny and the Walnut Tree (2010)
Ludlow and La Bécasse (2011) (restaurant closed, post withdrawn)
Ilkley and The Box Tree(2012)
Pateley Bridge and the Yorke Arms (2013) (No longer a restaurant, post renamed Parceval Gardens and Pateley Br)
The Harrow at Little Bedwyn (2014)
The Slaughters and the Lords of the Manor (2015)
Loam, Fine Dining in Galway (2016)
Penarth and Restaurant James Sommerin (2017) (restaurant closed, post withdrawn. JS has a new restaurant in Penarth)
The Checkers, Montgomery (2017) (no longer a restaurant, post withdrawn. Now re-opened under new management)
Tyddyn Llan, Llandrillo, Denbighshire (2018)
Fischer's at Baslow Hall, Derbyshire (2019)
Hambleton Hall, Rutland (2021)
The Olive Tree, Queensberry Hotel, Bath (2022)
Dinner at Pensons near Tenbury Wells (2023) (restaurant closed Dec 2023, post withdrawn)
The Cross, Kenilworth (& Kenilworth Castle) 2024