Better than Sliced Bread

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My friend had a job she wanted me to do: sign a document or something. We spent half a hour talking about how she could get it to me so I could sign it, and then how I could get it back to her. It was urgent, she said.

Eventually I suggested that we meet somewhere about half way between us, and we could do the whole signing thing in one go, and have a nice lunch. "Okay," she said, "where?"

"What about that pub opposite Lord Byron's gaff?" I asked. "It's haunted, does a good crumble with plenty of custard and we might even get there early enough this time to see inside the house."

The last was a feat we had never managed to do before. Usually, we arrived at the end of the mile-long drive to Newstead Abbey just as they were lowering the portcullis and raising the drawbridge.

Once, we had got there in time but took a stroll round the grounds first and got caught up in a re-enactment of a local battle from the 17th century Civil War between Cavaliers and Roundheads.

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Source The Seige of Newstead Abbey

I really like The Hutt. It was built around 1400 on the site of a 12th century building and used as a garrison by the men-at-arms who guarded the King's Highway through the Royal Forest.

Now the A60, the Highway, at the time just an ill-defined wide sandy track, was one of the oldest continuously used roads in the country and was part of the route from London to York.

No ploughing or ditch could be built within two perches (about 33 feet or 10 metres) of either side of the road. This meant that all the early settlements in the Forest were built well back from the Highway and with their own connecting tracks.

This made the Highway a lonely and dangerous road to travel for the individual. The Hutt became a gathering place for solitary travellers who waited until there were sufficient numbers to continue their journey through the infamous Thieves Wood.

By the 18th century, The Hutt had become a Coaching Inn, one of the stopping places for mail coaches travelling between Nottingham and Leeds.

It has a 'secret' (everyone knows it's there) tunnel that the monks used to get from Newstead Abbey to the Hutt, and the legend of it being haunted comes from stories about monks being trapped in the tunnel.

Our server told us he had seen the ghost one time, but he couldn't say whether it had been wearing a monk's habit or not.

The medieval building has low beams and flagged floors and many nooks and crannies where you can sit and enjoy a meal or a glass of beer. It's very comfortable and they've done a good job of adapting an old building for modern tastes.

I always like this quiet corner with the window shaded by shrubbery in the garden. We're at a table to the left of the window by a radiator, which was lovely, given it was a bit nippy outside.

We'd planned the visit on Thursday night, when I'd fancied a steak dinner, but looking at the lunch menu, I had to have fish and chips! The lunch time main meals are between £6 and £9, and you can have a starter and a pudding for £3 each.

I was tempted by the Chef's Vegan Burger, "A revolutionary plant-based burger, full of flavour", but the fish and chips won.

The lunch time fish is Pollock - on the main menu, it's Cod (you can have the main menu if you prefer), but at £11.99 I was happy with the Pollock. It was freshly cooked and very nice. The chips were good, too, especially with a bit of ketchup, as were the mushy peas and tartare sauce.

But the really great thing was the bread and butter: fresh sour dough door stops hand cut from a proper whole loaf and a square of real, hard butter - none of your spreadable tosh.

My friend thought it was delicious and it turned out that she couldn't remember a time before there was sliced bread. I mean, she's only 56, and these young'uns know nothing.

"Didn't your mum ever send you for a bloomer or a farmhouse or a split tin loaf?" I asked, incredulous, "No, it was only ever Mother's Pride, sliced, and wrapped in waxed paper."

(Sorry, the picture only shows what was left after our rampage, but you can see it's proper bread).

We had thought we would have a starter, but then we thought we would save ourselves for a pudding. But all that bread and butter filled us up, and even with two drinks each, it was a reasonable price for lunch for two. And very good value, given how much we enjoyed it :)

The service was great, and I can't remember a thing about the toilets.