3. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk.

Details:- Lynne & I set out from Angel Hill, opposite the Great Gate of Bury St Edmunds Abbey, and the route mostly followed St. Edmunds Way; first around and then out of the city in a south easterly direction to the villages of Nowton and Sicklemere, before heading back again into the city centre. Distance:- 9 miles; Time Taken:- two and three quarter hours; Avge Speed;- 3.2 mph; Going:- easy peasy ; Map:- OS Explorer 211; Progress:- walked 28 - 472 to go. Photographs Hyperlink.

Bury St Edmunds Millennium Tower:-

Where was once a stump which gave the cathedral a hunchback-like appearance, is now an immaculately built stone tower; the final piece in the jigsaw that is St. Edmundsbury Cathedral. The tower cost £12 million, and was built of Barnack which is the most famous of the Lincolnshire limestones - the last remaining quarry seam was opened up for this tower. Finally then, this jumped up market town of a city has a landmark other than the brewery chimney! £7m of the above total came from lottery money, and £3.5m was raised by the people of Suffolk. Not bad when you think how little people actually go to church any more.

Greene King:- Are serious beer drinkers sulky old soaks or what?! Looking on the Greene King Brewery website; I see that in recent years they have expanded and bought out the following breweries:-

1. Ruddles (Rutland in 1997); 2. Belhaven (Dunbar, in 2005), 3. Morland (Abingdon, in 2000); and 4. Ridleys (Hartford End Essex, in 2002). Ridleys had previously bought out Tolly Cobbold of Ipswich, who are now effectively controlled by Greene King. 5. Hardy & Hansons (Nottinghamshire, in 2006).

Controversially for the real ale lobby all the acquired breweries except at Belhaven have been shut down, and the brewing moved to Suffolk. CAMRA is accusing Greene King of running a monopoly. Many beer drinkers are unhappy as the following blog exerpt demonstrates.

''A drop of disloyalty from disgruntled drinkers. Regulars at a pub in Lewes, East Sussex have been staying away in droves following the withdrawal of the local beer by the giant brewers, Greene King. Since the last pint of Lewes-brewed Harveys, the most popular beer sold in the pub, was pulled in the Lewes Arms on 10th December, there has been a boycott of the pub by its regulars who have held a vigil outside the pub at peak times during the two busiest drinking weeks of the year.''

C'mon you serious beer drinking fraternity; things move on! So you can't get Old Speckled Hen like you used to; but there's a whole bottle store of new beers out there produced by a new generation of small independent breweries. Vote with your purchase power; not your boycott of the landlord's livelihood.

Sign in Bridewell Lane for the Hyperactive:-