Maddie’s World
In her weekly column, Maddie Grigg shares tales from her life in rural Dorset . . .
IT’S been a while since I mentioned the Lush Places pub, and several of you have asked me what the new landlords are like. I was waiting until they were really settled in before I wrote anything. I didn’t want to wax lyrical and enthuse, only for them to throw the towel over the pumps and call “Time”. This has happened in other villages.
Well, I’m delighted to say that DJ Landlord and Mrs Plum have taken to village life like the proverbial ducks to water.
They’ve run a pub before, on the edge of a town, just over the county border in Somerset. Village life is a bit different from the suburbs, but the move to the countryside is just what they wanted. So here’s to their continued success and a long tenancy.
Lush Places has had too many ups and downs as far as the pub is concerned. We need to keep supporting it. It is often those who don’t use a facility who are the first to moan when it’s gone, particularly when they learn that having a well-run and friendly village pub is beneficial to the value of their houses.
Many home-buyers regard being close to a good local pub as an important factor when they purchase a property. Popular pubs give people moving to a village a chance to meet their new neighbours.
It’s fish and chip night tonight and, in the tradition of our previous landlords, Jim and Tonic, DJ and Mrs Plum play host to those who are waiting for their supper to be cooked in the van outside.
It’s a chance to sit with friends and neighbours while enjoying a pint or a soft drink. And if the conversation becomes enthralling just when you’re about to collect your chips, well, you can bring your chips in and eat them in the pub.
Like Jim and Tonic, DJ and Mrs Plum provide plates, salt and vinegar and sauces so you can eat your chips at their tables. The ladies in the chip van will even deliver your chips to the pub at the end of their session at eight p.m.
Tonight, talk turns again to the village pump. Mr Grigg and Spanish John have been busy hacking away at the concrete base, to reveal a pipe going deep into the ground. How deep they’re not really sure, because there’s at least one kink in it.
The debate centres on whether there is water at the bottom of the pipe and, if so, where it comes from and how we get it out. There is disagreement over whether it’s from a tank or a well. It probably won’t be drinking water, that’s for sure.
“What we need is a pump to pump up the water,” Mr Grigg says.
“Isn’t that what the pump’s for?” I say.
“Yes, but we need to find out if the water will come up before we put the pump in place. And we need to get a new handle made for it.”
Spanish John favours hiring a pump to get at the water, but Mr Grigg wants to talk to an old chap in the village who is apparently an expert on pumps.
Someone suggests we should ask the local fire brigade if they’d like to incorporate the hunt for the Lush Places pump water into one of their weekly practice nights.
Then DJ Landlord puts on the jazzy “Wade In The Water” by Ramsey Lewis which, rather appropriately, is closely followed by “The In Crowd” by the same artist.
That gets us up off our bar stools before our chips arrive. n