Here is the full transcript of the ‘Pint to Pint’ column about the Holly Bush, Makeney by Chris Arnot which appeared in the Sunday Telegraph on January 7th 2018:
Three pints of Pedigree are “coming up”, we’re assured. Indeed they’ve just been carried up from the cellar in a sizeable jug. After three trains, a short bus ride and a brisk walk, there are few more restorative refreshments than Marston’s prime product served straight from the cask. Little head but plenty of body.
Other time-honoured English ales and guest beers of more recent vintage are dispensed from hand pumps. Timothy Taylor’s Landlord competes gamely with a pork pie containing built-in pickles and “charcoal-smoked Cheddar” – one of several variations available from a local butcher. There’s also Fuller’s London Pride at £3.20 a pint, making it at least a quid cheaper than in many a London pub.
We’re a long way from the metropolis here in Makeney, Derbyshire. And I can think of few places that I’d rather be than reclining on a padded settle in this low-beamed bar with a blazing log fire, chewing the fat (as well as the pies) with two old mates I’ve met on the train from Derby.
On other tables, more substantial tucker is being seen off from a menu that includes Yorkshire pud with pork as well as beef, sausage as well as “vegetarian haggis”. Game pie is available in season. “One of our regulars leaves pheasants hanging outside the front door,” landlord Chris Wilbraham confides.
Back in the front bar, a latte has just been delivered in a tall glass. It looks as incongruous as a pint of Pedigree in a café on St Mark’s Square. Plenty of head but, from my brief experience of lattes, nowhere near as much body. Just time, perhaps, for another swift half of Pedi before the rush to the bus stop.