PINT TO PINT
The Old Fourpenny Shop, Warwick
The Old Fourpenny Shop Hotel – there are rooms upstairs, but a defiantly pub-like pub downstairs – was the cheapest pub in town. It once charged the navvies digging the nearby canal fourpence rather than sixpence. What they got for that fourpence remains a matter of conjecture. Several theories were floated on either side of the bar. “Somewhere to sleep in the yard,” said one. (And maybe someone to sleep with?)
“A pie and a pint,” said another. “Whiskey,” said yet another. Yes, whiskey with an “e”. There are a fair number of Irish brands still on sale and an advert for Tullamore Dew on a wall surrounded by an array of beer mats from near and far. Black Bush (a personal favourite, albeit not at lunchtime) would set you back £4 today.
A pie and a pint? Well, I opted for a pork pie plus the Pale Ale from Church Farm Brewery in nearby Budbrooke, price £4.70. This turned to be a very pale ale, weighing in at 3.8 ABV, with an astringency that tautened the taste buds for the treat ahead.
No, not a pork pie, but a substantial halibut fillet resting on fluffy mash, beneath which lurked “seasonal greens” in a rich sauce full of mushrooms and bacon chunks. Sixteen quid, since you ask, from a “Fourpenny Menu” ranging from exotic to traditionally “pubby”.
For my second fact-finding pint, I alighted on Humble Pie “ruby ale”. Quite dark ruby, with an almost chocolatey richness, it had come to the Old Fourpenny Shop from the Old Pie Factory Brewery down the road.
I sat in the top bar, with a slate floor in front of me and Ralph Steadman cartoons on the wall behind, listening to the gentle hum of conversation. Tomorrow, the pub would be noisily packed with punters en route to the racecourse a few furlongs down the road. They’d be here from breakfast-time onwards, some assiduously perusing the Racing Post before passing on certainties for the 2.25.
Must be profitable, I suggested to Chris Proudfoot, the licensee. “As long as you take no notice of the tips,” he ruefully replied.