Yesterday I was invited to meet Ā the Area Manager of the Stonegate Pub Company, to view the changes they have made to the former Molly Millar near Wokingham station.
I did meet the local Manager who showed me the new facilities and told me they are now trading successfully following the re opening. The pub has been renamed the Station Tap to remind people that it is opposite the station, and now has a door on the side facing the trains. It has a range of food, hot and soft drinks as well as the usual range of alcoholic drinks. Some of the new trade comes from people arriving home at the station, or wanting something to eat and drink Ā before catching a train in the morning. They are open from 7 am for breakfast, and have extended opening until 2.30 am with sports tv and various weekly events.
If you are going by car remember to take Ā£2 for the car park, as you have to pay to stay but there are reclaim arrangements if you buy drinks. The driver better stick to the coffee.
May 12, 2018
“If you are going by car remember to take Ā£2 for the car park, as you have to pay to stay but there are reclaim arrangements if you buy drinks.”
Like Oliver Robbins’ “customs partnership” scheme, then, which HMRC has reportedly condemned as “incredibly complicated” and “unviable”:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/05/11/hmrc-says-customs-partnership-wont-work-astheresa-may-softens/
Incidentally I notice the SNP has no representative on the Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, which is a pity really as they could have told the committee how to solve the border “problem” using “parallel marketability”.
May 12, 2018
I didn’t know that being an MP and indeed a former Secretary of State entailed giving free publicity to public houses.
May 13, 2018
What a mean spirited post, Margaret. The promotion and encouragement of enterprise in his Wokingham constituency is part of JR’s remit.
May 13, 2018
Seconded, except obviously if the owner is a distinguished Conservative supporter of JR.
Reply Not so. I was invited to see a new business investment in my constituency and agreed to attend. I pay for my own election campaigns!
May 13, 2018
Mr Redwood is perfectly entitled to write about any subject he chooses on this, his own diary. You are perfectly entitled to read any or all entries as you wish. Long may both cases exist.
May 13, 2018
It his constituency, Margaret. It is his local railway station. They are his constituents. It is his job to represent, help and inform them.
You may have overlooked that the station caff of ‘Brief Encounter’ died the death long ago. A refreshment facility at a local station selling coffee, tea and breakfast (which was the point JR made) can only be welcomed, and publicising it can only be in the public good.
May 12, 2018
Association with a witch named Molly, who may have lived by the wayside, is an interesting aspect of pub history; not lost in the re-naming. āStationā in the re-name might link only loosely its location, in view of the obtuse variety of pub names elsewhere.
Combinations such as the āKebab & Calculatorā tend to indicate when those names were created, although their premises could precede. British pub character is a valuable aspect of life. Long may it continue with Wokingham’s enjoyment, & best wishes to those who maintain its appeal.
May 13, 2018
The pub was originally called “the station” and had a bar called “the station tap” before it was renamed “the Molly Millar”
May 12, 2018
Good write up
May 12, 2018
Cheers to all those who sail in her and every other like real English pub.
I see the current argument as to our future relationship, re trade with the EU as a basic approach to life. There are those , possibly the majority, who choose for what they see as the certainty of a regular salary, taxes paid, mortgage paid solution which includes the customs union or some version of it, and accept all that it entails. They do not see what it entails as significant in their lives.
Then there are those irrespective of the existence of the EU who do not accept limits or horizons to their lives. They are the strivers for goals, the self employed, those who see no limits to human endeavour. They are the visionaries, the risk takers who historically have always driven human progress. For them departure from the EU is a challenge to progress, remaining is anathema.
This is the struggle we are witnessing, and I pray that we see the future as did Francis Drake, IK Brunel, Barnes Wallis, RJ Mitchell and many many others. Our future as a nation is not in the grey. It is a challenge, lets grasp it.
May 13, 2018
SuRie Eurovision. She did her duty.
May 13, 2018
…and went down with her microphone. š
May 13, 2018
Brit
“She did her duty”
Indeed she did, she did not stop the music and ask for a debate about the merits of the protesters so called gripe, with follow up meetings planned for later in the month, and many others until they reached an agreement, before she continued in a couple of years time..
Just got on with it and completed what she had to do, in the right and true spirit.!!
The fact that others could not recognise a quality song with a professional performer from the mixed quality of the opposition, was not her fault.
Funny how so many Countries sang in English this year, as opposed to their own native tongue.
May 13, 2018
In most cases, “It’s English, Jim, but Not As We Know It.”