Essex Days Out

We must have driven past The Compasses at Great Totham a hundred times or more over the years. It’s on the B1022, halfway between Tiptree and Maldon. In recent years it’s been in the hands of the Pubmaster chain, which, with all due respect to Pubmaster, generally means a pub with average beer and average food. At best. However, in recent months blackboards outside the pub have been proclaiming ‘Six Real Ales!’. I think the term for this mismatch is ‘cognitive dissonance’.

So, on the way back home from the Museum of Power Steam Gala Day, we decided to drop in. It was a Saturday lunchtime, and fairly quiet inside, but that gave me a chance to have a chat with new landlord John, drafted in by new owners, and the good news is that he’s a public who likes his real ales. The good news for local brewers is that the pub is now featuring brews from them, so there were beers from Farmers, Mighty Oak and Nethergate on offer. I had a pint of Farmers’ Hotel Porter, which was in great condition, and we decided on the spur of the moment to have lunch.

There was plenty of fish on the menu, and omelette’s (clearly a speciality!), but we opted for salads – a fisherman’s salad, and a farmer’s (featuring seafood and ham respectively, rather than the usual ploughman’s cheese and pickle).

And the portions would not only have suited someone who has put in a solid day’s manual labour, but were also well presented, and, most crucially, very tasty. The pictures below do give a good indication! And further good news is that the pub is running a beer festival over the St George’s Day Bank Holiday, with 26 real ales on offer. We’ll be there!

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