Thank you Simon! I was being a bit lazy on this occasion, I didn't really do any research beforehand about the history etc, and didn't even read CAMRA's listing for its historic pub interior! I have been to the Harrow a few times before and figured if I just got enough footage of the pub it would sell itself. That proved to be a bit more difficult than I expected because everyone was so friendly! At most pubs (particularly in London) I check behind the bar first if they're OK with me taking some interior shots, and after that everyone generally ignores me. Whereas here people kept striking up conversations! Which was delightful of course - it's so nice to be in a pub where everyone clearly loves the place and wants to talk about it.
Good afternoon, Tweedy. Fantastic little pub. Especially like the proper Ploughman's Lunch - just a big chunk of cheddar cheese and "big doorsteps" of crusty bread, tomatoes etc 😃👍 - no eclectic "artisan" cheeses, flat breads and olives, etc !!! 😲✔️ Lovely "properly" old interior too - not a fake rework and NO "F & B" paint jobs to be seen 😁✔️ The old outside toilets are another great feature that hasn't yet been "modernised and updated" ✔️ I will definitely seek out The Harrow when next in that part of Hampshire 😁👍 Thanks for that one.❤
Thanks Lee! It really isn't rocket science to get a Ploughman's right - it's just a case of using good ingredients! Good traditional bread, good traditional cheese and good chutney (and of course good beer or cider to go with it). Unfortunately so many places seem to struggle with those simple rules! Yrs it's a lovely pub and definitely worth a visit!
Great to see a classic country pub not spoilt and turned into a gastro place I think you enjoyed your cider and ales there Mr Tweedy 😁 just my type of pub 🍻
Another lovely video Tweedy, many thanks. Your pubs and outdoors channels have had a small influence on a momentous (to me) decision I took about three weeks ago. Deciding that I would more usefully spend time walking the coast and interior of our lovely country before I become too old to manage it rather than working to pay bills and make shareholders even wealthier, I quit my job and got all the stuff necessary to wild camp for a year or two. Tomorrow I visit Castle Howard with a lady friend by way of saying goodbye for a while and then a couple of days later I will set off for Whitby (I'm in North Yorkshire) and just carry on probably clockwise, we'll see!
Wow! Congratulations on freeing yourself from the shackles of the 9-5, and that sounds like an epic quest you're embarking on! Are you planning on documenting it in some way?
20 minute walk to get there ...2 hour stagger back. My wife would adore that repast. Unfortunately, I am banned from imbibing cider...apparently I get somewhat rowdy. What a splendid vid...Thank you Mr Tweedy.
@@TweedyPubs Looks to be on a par with The Bell at Aldworth. A pal of mine mentioned The Harrow to me 30 odd years ago but just never managed to get there. I will do now its back on the pub radar. Also the The Plough in Little London is worth a visit.
I often visit this lovely pub. I get the bus up from Havant and walk in from Petersfield town centre. I usually take the longer walk past Beedales school taking in Steep church. After enjoying a pint of Double drop I then walk on to the next village of Sheet and have a pint in the Queens head before finishing at the Townhouse pub in Petersfield town centre. Keep up the good work .
That's a bit of a trek! Not too bad if you're already in the London area for some other reason. The fastest trains from Waterloo to Petersfield take just over an hour, then it's a pleasant stroll down a country lane from there.
Thank you! The Harrow is absolutely the star of the show here, all I had to do was show up, take some shots of it, and stay just sober enough to talk coherently about it for a few minutes! Given the quality of the beer/cider that was actually a bit challenging but I think I just about pulled it off.
Spectacular. Once upon a time pubs like this would have been commonplace and it’s difficult to see how anyone can prefer what we have now! I love the concept of “pub continuity”! The ploughman’s, the bars and even the toilets. Everything as it should be. Thank goodness the Force was with Obi Wan on that occasion!
Yes it's almost depressing isn't it? A reminder of the scraps we put up with (and try to convince ourselves we're enjoying them!) in most modern pubs. This is probably going to sound controversial on a channel which mostly focuses on London pubs but I prefer the Harrow to any pub in London. There are a few places in London which have clung on to some sense of pub magic - Ye Olde Mitre and The Seven Stars spring to mind - but even these haven't escaped the ravages of modernisation to the extent the Harrow has. I also much prefer the beer/cider offering at the Harrow to any pub in London, which is increasingly drowning in non-British beer styles, and if there is any cider it's going to be fizzy nonsense. Moreover, not that food is normally a criteria on which I evaluate pubs, I can't think of any pub in London which provides such utter bliss-on-a-plate as that Ploughman's at the Harrow.
@@WC21UKProductionsLtd That's interesting - I did a quick search out of curiosity on CAMRA's Pub Heritage site for the North West and although there were a good number of handsome Victorian pubs in the cities, I didn't find much in terms of unspoilt rural hostelries. Of course it could be there are examples that CAMRA have either missed or deliberately chosen not to include for some reason or other. They are certainly a rare breed in the country as a whole!
@@TweedyPubs from memory, there are 2 in North Yorkshire and 4 in Cumbria, on CAMRA's site! Plus some Victorian ones in Carlisle, I think. If you go into Lancashire, you start to get a lot of fine Victorian pubs, but rural pubs that haven't been "improved" are scarce here!
It's the kind of pub you'd expect to bump into Jack Hargreaves of Out Of Town TV fame, or maybe even Jolly Olly. There are still lots of lovely country pubs up and down the country. This pub reminded me of a pub set on the River Wye in the Forest Of Dean. That pub had two chestnut horses tied up outside with the riders having lunch. I once took a Japanese student to a country pub in the New Forest, where sitting outside having lunch we were raided by two New Forest donkeys after our food. There's a pub in Salisbury that has it's own retractable bridge across the river, extending from the end of the beer garden. I'd have liked to have seen a big chunk of pork pie on my plate.
In America, we call this a slam dunk, a home run, the real deal....I can nearly taste that hunk of bread slathered with country butter and the cider to wash it down with. Just wondering Tweedy, how does this place do proper trade if it is off the beaten path as it is?. Nice to see Sir Alec, he was magnificent in Tunes of Glory indeed.
I think it helps that the two sisters who are the landladies own the pub outright, so they're not paying any rent or anything. I think they also have very longstanding relationships with their suppliers - mostly small local companies - so hopefully they are getting good deals with them. In the winter I get the sense the pub is mostly just heated by the fire, and it's a fairly small building so I would hope their fuel bills are relatively low. One of the sisters runs the kitchen and the other does what I suppose you could call "front of house". When I've been before there has usually been just one other member of staff. On this occasion there were two additional members of staff, but I think that's because one was new and was learning the ropes. There's clearly a very loyal crowd of locals, and it is well known among pub enthusiasts for being very well preserved, so lots of people make a special journey to go there. My visit was on a Thursday lunchtime but there were a decent number of customers there - perhaps 20 or 30 at peak? They don't open throughout the afternoon, and they're only open three evenings a week - I suppose that all helps keep costs down.
Thanks John! I was trying to strike a balance there - it's potentially a bit distasteful to film inside the toilets! ...but I do also think it's an important part of the experience, and after all that was one of the things the locals fought to preserve when the pub was threatened with remodelling in the 1970s.
I loved this video. Just enough history and more importantly, to me at least, a real sense of the atmosphere and the people involved in the pub. No doubt made so much easier by the fact that everyone is so enthusiastic about it. It does look absolutely lovely, the archetype of a perfect pub. Thanks for taking the time to make the video!
Thank you! I decided to skip the usual history research ahead of my visit for once and let it all just happen at the pub instead! So it was serendipitous to meet Alistair and I think the story of his parents and Sir Alec was just right on this occasion, as it ties into what is so special about this pub: that it is so well preserved.
What an absolute gem, will pay a visit if I’m ever nearby. Also a fantastic intervention to the proposed ruination, proving you really do get Genuine Class from Alec Guinness 🫡
Hi Tweedy. Oh my. I remember a time when such pubs were relatively easy to find. Today they are definitely on the endangered list and a huge thanks needs to go out to the landlords, landlady’s and customers of such veritable establishments. Long may they continue to deliver such beautifully simple fare. What is better than a real traditional ploughman’s, cider and ale. Heaven indeed. 👌👏👏😀🍺🧀🍞🧈🧅🥒
Hi John, A great story attached to this one, it really is a step into the past. My early drinking days were out on the downs not far away. We would drive out in one of my mates cars and play pool and darts. Often it was South Harting or Elsted. The pubs were deserted so they drew a blind eye to our age!! I've been here before after playing cricket at Steep. I think we were a little too boisterous for the locals. Next time I'm back, hopefully in September, I think I'll take my Mum there. Would appreciate some tasting notes on the cheese!! The bread looked perfect. Not sure about the cider though, it looked too orange!! Thanks for going back, will you appear in a ditch later? All the best!!
Thanks David! Yes I forgot to talk about the cheese didn't I? Hard to know how to summarise it really other than it was very tasty! Rich and creamy - maybe not extra mature, just mature I would assume? So it wasn't yet going all crumbly as older cheddars would. I probably should have been a bit more adventurous and gone for the Stilton, but I actually think I have a very mild allergy to blue cheese - if I eat too much my throat starts getting a bit itchy which is a bit unnerving! Great to hear that you have a history with the pub and the surrounding area - I think I recall you might have mentioned that before. It is very special isn't it! Alas the Tweedy Outdoors side of things didn't amount to very much on this occasion, the pub was definitely the main event!
@@TweedyPubs Yes, I'm sure I've burbled on about this area being my neck of the woods, aways enjoy going back even if it is virtually. Cheese sounds just right for me. Don't think think I have an allergy but a chunk of Stilton that big would be too much for me I think. What a great mix of architecture in such a small village!!
Thanks for doing a feature on this Tweedy, genuinely intrigued with this pub and on the strength of video it deserves a visit to the area. It appears that the Shipwrights Way goes straight past the pub as well. - Always one I wanted to do. Thanks again Phill
Beautiful Movie and a beautiful pub. Thanks. The first time I remember visiting this pub they had plans of the A3 Petersfield Bypass (opened 1992) on the walls along with lots of material protesting about the road. 🍻
A gem of a pub… Tweedy does it justice.. don’t go there if you aren’t prepared for what it is.. If you’re looking for fine dining and Prosecco then it’s not for you! Respectfully ask that if you visit embrace it for the character and timeless nature of days gone by. Well done Tweedy, glad to have made your acquaintance. 🍺
Thanks Alistair, it was great to meet you, and thank you again for sharing that fascinating piece of your family history - which helped to preserve this beautiful pub.
As I said in the ploughman's lunch video I love the Harrow but haven't been in a while. I will have to go back, although parking is limited. Swift One from Bowman Ales is a great pint, it's brewed not far away in Wallops Wood near Droxford. I usually pick up a polypin of Swift One for Christmas.
Great to see some non-London pubs featured. Would love for you to do a video on Hastings pubs as I think there are few gems down there, especially in and around the old town.
Very idyllic pub with lots of atmosphere. And it's interesting to see how much someone like Sir Alec Guinness valued his local pub. - Cider ("Äbbelwoi" in the local dialect) is popular in my neck of the woods as well!
Looks like a gem of a pub. Decent looking Ploughman's too, great portions, though maybe lacking a pickled onion or half an Apple - I wouldn't complain though!
Nothing like a country pub😊 Great video. I got a request, but it is a London pub. It’s a pub called The Swan, located in Bloomsbury, a side street of Southampton Row. It’s a Greene King pub. It’s my personal favorite pub in London, and I would love to learn more about the history of that pub 😊
What a really lovely untouched pub and so good that it is hard to access. Keeps it special. Well done Sir Alec Guinness for fighting off the pub wrecking monsters Whitbread. Wonderful man and a great actor. While filming The Last 10 Days (of Hitler) he had to rush off set to meet someone and had no time to change. He left Shepperton Studios dressed as Hitler and hailed a cab. After a few minutes the driver turned around and said 'You is an actor ain't you guv? You isn't REALLY him is you guv?'
It is actually very close to the A3, and I almost wonder if that might have been a saving grace in a way. It forms a barrier to stop the village of Steep getting swallowed up by nearby Petersfield, and does make it feel more remote somehow. You can drive a slightly longer way round to get there but whenever I've been there it seems a decent number of people have got there either on foot or by bike. That's a funny story about Sir Alec, - that's the one costume you really would have to make time to change out of!
I had a little wander round Petersfield before I headed to the Harrow, and I really liked it actually. Partly it was the contrast from where I live (relatively central London) :even small novelties like actually being able to go into a bank to withdraw cash were surprisingly gratifying! I've passed through a few times before, including once late on a Saturday evening and I was really taken aback by how lively that town square was!
Very good video... I have just got a network rail card so will use it wisely, and visit The Harrow this Bank Holiday Monday.. yesterday was at The Edgar Wallace near Temple, very enjoyable as per your video.
Looks fantastic - I`ll try and visit it next Wednesday after my music lesson in Chichester - might be a bit dark by the time I get there going down the lane though! Reminds me a bit of my favourite pub, the Square and Compass at Worth Matravers in Dorset. Again, family owned for ages, and serving from a small hatch, with an interior which seems untouched for a century or more, and a geological museum.
I had to look up Petersfield on Google maps to see if it was within easy reach for our next visit to London. It's down near Portsmouth for those similarly challenged. There is a train from Clapham Junction ( near Battersea ) that appears to leave about every 30 minutes or so during the day and takes either an hour or an hour and a quarter depending on which one you get ( they appear to alternate faster and slower trains.) This looks like a perfect day trip from London. The town / village of Albury looks like it may be on the same train route and is apparently a lovely spot to spend a few hours which would make the trip to the Harrow Inn and back even more productive. Thanks again Tweedy.
Thanks David! Yes definitely manageable for a day trip from London - it's just worth bearing in mind the opening hours of the pub, as it doesn't open throughout the day. Their website has lots of useful info: www.theharrowinnsteep.co.uk/
😂 I believe it's actually the uncle of the pair of sisters who now run the place. From talking to Claire it sounded like he was quite a character in his own right. There is a lovely photo in the pub's scrapbook from the 1960s which appears to show him judging a local beauty contest - reminiscent of Father Ted's "Lovely Girls Competition".
@@TweedyPubs Hey, thank you for the background, Mr Tweed, your work is appreciated. Despite my silly joke, I offer all respect to Mr Uncle, and Mr Holder.
Thanks for this video. We sought out the pub and it was absolutely fantastic. My all-time favourite. And here, in the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley we're pretty spoilt (including the Boat at Redbrook). Come back this way and do our brilliant micropubs and taprooms. The Queen’s Head in Chepstow, The Dog House in Coleford and The Griffin in Monmouth next time yr back in the area. Message me if you want a tour.
There was a spin-off from CAMRA in the early days called CAMROT - Campaign for the Retention of Outdoor Toilets. One of the founders was Spyke Golding of Nottinghan, who favoured the Newmarket Arms there until an icy evening in January. On his visit to the facilities he slipped on the cobbles and broke his ankle...
I love your stuff. Would you be up for doing a mini series on haunted pubs? You are great at the history on pubs and doing a haunted ghost story one would be brilliant
Yes that occurred to me too! I assume filming had already completed a long time before that. Although it does make you wonder if his time "in a galaxy far far away" made him treasure what he had closer to home that bit more. As I recall he apparently didn't have a particularly fun time filming Star Wars, and he didn't rate the end result very highly either.
Not sure there is a pub in the North East called the Harrow Inn, but when I lived in Wiltshire, nearly every village seemed to have a Harrow Inn, it was the same in nearby Berkshire. Looks lovely. Have you ever been to the Bell Inn in Aldworth?
Interesting to hear it might be a more common name in some parts of the country than others - I wonder if that says something about geology? Is the use of a harrow more necessary in certain soil types perhaps? Yes I have been to the Bell in Aldworth - and it is another fantastic pub in a similar vein to the Harrow! In fact the icon I use for Tweedy Pubs is me sat in the porch at the Bell. I included it in a video, but it was before I started this channel, so instead it's on my other channel (@TweedyOutdoors): th-cam.com/video/8oEyilJ5LdQ/w-d-xo.html I was a bit too timid back then to take more than a few seconds of interior footage and it's all a bit jerky! I should revisit at some point and give it the proper Tweedy Pubs treatment.
@@TweedyPubs I've been going to the Bell for over 30 years now. Only a few times a year as I live a 20 min drive away. If you didn't know, they've started making their own beer as well
If I might suggest the Suffield Arms, Gunton in Norfolk. Right by Gunton station, great beer, good food (big Spanish influences) and Gunton station has been beautifully preserved in a pre war style
Superb; these places should be treasured and-where necessary-publicly funded in the same way as 'community projects'; I live in a North Wales village with permanent population c. 188 (sadly one lady passed away); our pub is a treasure- intellectual discourse and up-to-date information on the trout , salmon and bass fishing; Robinson's bitter and grand food for the hardy visitors who make it down from Snowdon/Yr Wyddfa in large numbers and keep us going. Pub is named for the church at the back which is at least 14th century- worth keeping...?
In most pubs for cask ales it normally would be "cellar temperature" which should be something like 11-13 °C (52-57°F). Although here there's no cellar! Or at least not an underground one. If you look in the video around 3:40 there's two things in use there to keep the beer cool. Some of the casks (I think these are ones they're not yet pouring from) have insulated jackets, and the other two have kind of curved racks over them. I believe these are for cooling, and there's at least one system like that where cold water is constantly pumped through - in one pub I went to in Devon which had a similar setup that was fed by the local stream. None of the beers / cider I had seemed particularly warm. Definitely not ice cold like a lager from a keg might be served but it felt to me roughly in that cellar temperature range.
I didn't know places like that existed. I envisaged the Shire, a hidden world insulated from big city lunacy. I don't suppose there are any hobbits there?
Used to live in Petersfield, so please dont push the Harrow too hard, it will get coach loads........You deserve a medal for the message you are pushing. Can we save a much loved part of UK life from the profiteering Macro brewering buggers?
Thanks Martin, and it is a good point you make - we definitely want the Harrow to be a thriving business but nobody wants it to be swamped! I suppose that's one of the good things about the way TH-cam finds niche audiences - I'm pretty sure just about everyone who watches my channel has a keen interest (and respect for) historic pubs... I don't think anyone just looking for generic "Instagrammable" tourist hotspots would end up here.
Yes indeed I do! I have a video of it, but it's from the early days of the channel and maybe doesn't entirely do it justice. Beautiful pub though - five generations of my family have drank there.
@@TweedyPubs That used to be my local back in 1979-83. I knew Norman, the father of the current landlady (though her children now probably run the place). I did some video of the inside and interviewed some regulars back then. I am an historian and have specialised in personal testimony over the years. Hence why I like what you do. Norman told me some great stories but the best is about von Ribbentrop being a regular in the late 20's. Apparently, once a year he used to visit on a 'sales' trip for his wine business. He loved speaking English and used to sit with the regulars chatting. Good luck to you mate. Was only talking about a good ploughmans last week and now a trip to the Harrow has to be on the cards. Best. Jack.
The whole planet needs more of this close by. All places designed for people to meet and have a drink are special by nature but clearly some are special beyond special. I would likely stab a man I call friend for a chance to have something like this pub in my area. What an actual treasure.
Thank you, Tweedy. Nobody but you could have crafted such a perfect tribute to this glorious pub. I was in Heaven watching your being in Heaven!
Thank you Simon! I was being a bit lazy on this occasion, I didn't really do any research beforehand about the history etc, and didn't even read CAMRA's listing for its historic pub interior! I have been to the Harrow a few times before and figured if I just got enough footage of the pub it would sell itself. That proved to be a bit more difficult than I expected because everyone was so friendly! At most pubs (particularly in London) I check behind the bar first if they're OK with me taking some interior shots, and after that everyone generally ignores me. Whereas here people kept striking up conversations! Which was delightful of course - it's so nice to be in a pub where everyone clearly loves the place and wants to talk about it.
One of the values of your channel is that you bring to light these true gems.
So glad to see you back at The Harrow. An absolute gem of a pub and the ploughmans I grew up with. Long may it last!
Looks like an amazing place.
Good afternoon, Tweedy.
Fantastic little pub.
Especially like the proper Ploughman's Lunch - just a big chunk of cheddar cheese and "big doorsteps" of crusty bread, tomatoes etc 😃👍 - no eclectic "artisan" cheeses, flat breads and olives, etc !!! 😲✔️
Lovely "properly" old interior too - not a fake rework and NO "F & B" paint jobs to be seen 😁✔️
The old outside toilets are another great feature that hasn't yet been "modernised and updated" ✔️
I will definitely seek out The Harrow when next in that part of Hampshire 😁👍
Thanks for that one.❤
Thanks Lee! It really isn't rocket science to get a Ploughman's right - it's just a case of using good ingredients! Good traditional bread, good traditional cheese and good chutney (and of course good beer or cider to go with it). Unfortunately so many places seem to struggle with those simple rules!
Yrs it's a lovely pub and definitely worth a visit!
@@TweedyPubs 😃👍
Great to see a classic country pub not spoilt and turned into a gastro place I think you enjoyed your cider and ales there Mr Tweedy 😁 just my type of pub 🍻
It is an absolute cracker John - and so friendly and welcoming as well!
Another lovely video Tweedy, many thanks. Your pubs and outdoors channels have had a small influence on a momentous (to me) decision I took about three weeks ago. Deciding that I would more usefully spend time walking the coast and interior of our lovely country before I become too old to manage it rather than working to pay bills and make shareholders even wealthier, I quit my job and got all the stuff necessary to wild camp for a year or two. Tomorrow I visit Castle Howard with a lady friend by way of saying goodbye for a while and then a couple of days later I will set off for Whitby (I'm in North Yorkshire) and just carry on probably clockwise, we'll see!
Well done Steve.
Courageous! Wishing you success🎉
Wow! Congratulations on freeing yourself from the shackles of the 9-5, and that sounds like an epic quest you're embarking on! Are you planning on documenting it in some way?
@@TweedyPubs No, I'm not really planning anything, just seeing how it goes.
@@SteveDonaldson-r5k Sounds great - I hope you have a fantastic time!
If there is a pub in Heaven it must surely look like the Harrow.
20 minute walk to get there ...2 hour stagger back. My wife would adore that repast. Unfortunately, I am banned from imbibing cider...apparently I get somewhat rowdy. What a splendid vid...Thank you Mr Tweedy.
Your dad is a massive booze clown. Left his jacket. Went on tour anyway, dropped an album. Fair play to him.
20 minutes to walk there, 2 hours back. The difference is staggering.
@philcollinson, such a shame you are bannned from imbibing cider as, imho, it is THE drink of high British summer.
@@johnstout5767 OMG, HAHAHA
That's the best pub you have ever reviewed. What a total gem.
I agree Graham - thank you!
@@TweedyPubs Looks to be on a par with The Bell at Aldworth. A pal of mine mentioned The Harrow to me 30 odd years ago but just never managed to get there. I will do now its back on the pub radar. Also the The Plough in Little London is worth a visit.
This is a pub I have to visit.😛😛
Excellent pub. That cider looked very drinkable and thats one of the best and most traditional ploughmans I've seen for a while!
Thanks WIC! The cider was a very eye catching colour wasn't it? Really delicious.
Looks charming and so picturesque! Loved seeing this.
beautiful pub
I often visit this lovely pub. I get the bus up from Havant and walk in from Petersfield town centre. I usually take the longer walk past Beedales school taking in Steep church. After enjoying a pint of Double drop I then walk on to the next village of Sheet and have a pint in the Queens head before finishing at the Townhouse pub in Petersfield town centre. Keep up the good work .
If I can get down from Glasgow,before summers end,will try and visit this lovely wee pub.Tweedy great shout again.😊
That's a bit of a trek! Not too bad if you're already in the London area for some other reason. The fastest trains from Waterloo to Petersfield take just over an hour, then it's a pleasant stroll down a country lane from there.
Superb tribute to a what I consider a country pub to be, just delightful.
Your on good form Mr Tweed. 🍺
Thank you! The Harrow is absolutely the star of the show here, all I had to do was show up, take some shots of it, and stay just sober enough to talk coherently about it for a few minutes! Given the quality of the beer/cider that was actually a bit challenging but I think I just about pulled it off.
Spectacular. Once upon a time pubs like this would have been commonplace and it’s difficult to see how anyone can prefer what we have now!
I love the concept of “pub continuity”!
The ploughman’s, the bars and even the toilets. Everything as it should be.
Thank goodness the Force was with Obi Wan on that occasion!
Yes it's almost depressing isn't it? A reminder of the scraps we put up with (and try to convince ourselves we're enjoying them!) in most modern pubs. This is probably going to sound controversial on a channel which mostly focuses on London pubs but I prefer the Harrow to any pub in London. There are a few places in London which have clung on to some sense of pub magic - Ye Olde Mitre and The Seven Stars spring to mind - but even these haven't escaped the ravages of modernisation to the extent the Harrow has. I also much prefer the beer/cider offering at the Harrow to any pub in London, which is increasingly drowning in non-British beer styles, and if there is any cider it's going to be fizzy nonsense. Moreover, not that food is normally a criteria on which I evaluate pubs, I can't think of any pub in London which provides such utter bliss-on-a-plate as that Ploughman's at the Harrow.
@@TweedyPubs when I moved to the rural north west I imagined there would be lots of pubs like the Harrow. There aren't any!
@@WC21UKProductionsLtd That's interesting - I did a quick search out of curiosity on CAMRA's Pub Heritage site for the North West and although there were a good number of handsome Victorian pubs in the cities, I didn't find much in terms of unspoilt rural hostelries. Of course it could be there are examples that CAMRA have either missed or deliberately chosen not to include for some reason or other.
They are certainly a rare breed in the country as a whole!
@@TweedyPubs from memory, there are 2 in North Yorkshire and 4 in Cumbria, on CAMRA's site! Plus some Victorian ones in Carlisle, I think.
If you go into Lancashire, you start to get a lot of fine Victorian pubs, but rural pubs that haven't been "improved" are scarce here!
The Harrow is heaven, and Claire is truly amazing
Cracking!!
Everything anyone could ever want from a pub!
Great stuff as usual 👌
Thanks Paul, I agree - everything I want from a pub.
It's the kind of pub you'd expect to bump into Jack Hargreaves of Out Of Town TV fame, or maybe even Jolly Olly. There are still lots of lovely country pubs up and down the country. This pub reminded me of a pub set on the River Wye in the Forest Of Dean. That pub had two chestnut horses tied up outside with the riders having lunch. I once took a Japanese student to a country pub in the New Forest, where sitting outside having lunch we were raided by two New Forest donkeys after our food. There's a pub in Salisbury that has it's own retractable bridge across the river, extending from the end of the beer garden. I'd have liked to have seen a big chunk of pork pie on my plate.
In America, we call this a slam dunk, a home run, the real deal....I can nearly taste that hunk of bread slathered with country butter and the cider to wash it down with. Just wondering Tweedy, how does this place do proper trade if it is off the beaten path as it is?. Nice to see Sir Alec, he was magnificent in Tunes of Glory indeed.
I think it helps that the two sisters who are the landladies own the pub outright, so they're not paying any rent or anything. I think they also have very longstanding relationships with their suppliers - mostly small local companies - so hopefully they are getting good deals with them. In the winter I get the sense the pub is mostly just heated by the fire, and it's a fairly small building so I would hope their fuel bills are relatively low.
One of the sisters runs the kitchen and the other does what I suppose you could call "front of house". When I've been before there has usually been just one other member of staff. On this occasion there were two additional members of staff, but I think that's because one was new and was learning the ropes.
There's clearly a very loyal crowd of locals, and it is well known among pub enthusiasts for being very well preserved, so lots of people make a special journey to go there.
My visit was on a Thursday lunchtime but there were a decent number of customers there - perhaps 20 or 30 at peak? They don't open throughout the afternoon, and they're only open three evenings a week - I suppose that all helps keep costs down.
A delightful video! “Al fresco” gentlemen’s accommodations….hilarious choice of words!
👍
Thanks John! I was trying to strike a balance there - it's potentially a bit distasteful to film inside the toilets! ...but I do also think it's an important part of the experience, and after all that was one of the things the locals fought to preserve when the pub was threatened with remodelling in the 1970s.
I loved this video. Just enough history and more importantly, to me at least, a real sense of the atmosphere and the people involved in the pub. No doubt made so much easier by the fact that everyone is so enthusiastic about it. It does look absolutely lovely, the archetype of a perfect pub. Thanks for taking the time to make the video!
Thank you! I decided to skip the usual history research ahead of my visit for once and let it all just happen at the pub instead! So it was serendipitous to meet Alistair and I think the story of his parents and Sir Alec was just right on this occasion, as it ties into what is so special about this pub: that it is so well preserved.
Awesome stuff, wish I could get back across the pond to experience a nice pub again...
Thanks for the nice video and taking us along to that great, wonderful and traditional pub. 👍
Thanks Ysgolgerlan! It is a great pub.
What an absolute gem, will pay a visit if I’m ever nearby. Also a fantastic intervention to the proposed ruination, proving you really do get Genuine Class from Alec Guinness 🫡
Hope to see you there someday. What a beautiful, happy thing to see!
Hi Tweedy. Oh my. I remember a time when such pubs were relatively easy to find. Today they are definitely on the endangered list and a huge thanks needs to go out to the landlords, landlady’s and customers of such veritable establishments. Long may they continue to deliver such beautifully simple fare. What is better than a real traditional ploughman’s, cider and ale. Heaven indeed. 👌👏👏😀🍺🧀🍞🧈🧅🥒
Captures all that is best about a country pub. Well done🎉
Hi John, A great story attached to this one, it really is a step into the past.
My early drinking days were out on the downs not far away. We would drive out in one of my mates cars and play pool and darts. Often it was South Harting or Elsted. The pubs were deserted so they drew a blind eye to our age!!
I've been here before after playing cricket at Steep. I think we were a little too boisterous for the locals.
Next time I'm back, hopefully in September, I think I'll take my Mum there. Would appreciate some tasting notes on the cheese!! The bread looked perfect. Not sure about the cider though, it looked too orange!!
Thanks for going back, will you appear in a ditch later?
All the best!!
Thanks David! Yes I forgot to talk about the cheese didn't I? Hard to know how to summarise it really other than it was very tasty! Rich and creamy - maybe not extra mature, just mature I would assume? So it wasn't yet going all crumbly as older cheddars would. I probably should have been a bit more adventurous and gone for the Stilton, but I actually think I have a very mild allergy to blue cheese - if I eat too much my throat starts getting a bit itchy which is a bit unnerving!
Great to hear that you have a history with the pub and the surrounding area - I think I recall you might have mentioned that before. It is very special isn't it!
Alas the Tweedy Outdoors side of things didn't amount to very much on this occasion, the pub was definitely the main event!
@@TweedyPubs Yes, I'm sure I've burbled on about this area being my neck of the woods, aways enjoy going back even if it is virtually. Cheese sounds just right for me. Don't think think I have an allergy but a chunk of Stilton that big would be too much for me I think.
What a great mix of architecture in such a small village!!
Thanks for doing a feature on this Tweedy, genuinely intrigued with this pub and on the strength of video it deserves a visit to the area. It appears that the Shipwrights Way goes straight past the pub as well. - Always one I wanted to do. Thanks again Phill
Beautiful Movie and a beautiful pub. Thanks. The first time I remember visiting this pub they had plans of the A3 Petersfield Bypass (opened 1992) on the walls along with lots of material protesting about the road. 🍻
Tweedy - wonderful to see you so passionate about a pub! Makes me long to go there.
A gem of a pub… Tweedy does it justice.. don’t go there if you aren’t prepared for what it is.. If you’re looking for fine dining and Prosecco then it’s not for you! Respectfully ask that if you visit embrace it for the character and timeless nature of days gone by.
Well done Tweedy, glad to have made your acquaintance. 🍺
Thanks Alistair, it was great to meet you, and thank you again for sharing that fascinating piece of your family history - which helped to preserve this beautiful pub.
Looks wonderful a pub with history and a great place to escape to going back to a simpler time relaxing great cider and a proper ploughman's lunch
My wife and I popped in yesterday for lunch and had the stilton and rare beef ploughman's. What a lovely pub. We'll definitely be back.
As I said in the ploughman's lunch video I love the Harrow but haven't been in a while. I will have to go back, although parking is limited.
Swift One from Bowman Ales is a great pint, it's brewed not far away in Wallops Wood near Droxford. I usually pick up a polypin of Swift One for Christmas.
A wonderful pub and a wonderful channel. Thank you, Tweedy!
What an interesting film John. Thanks.
Great to see some non-London pubs featured. Would love for you to do a video on Hastings pubs as I think there are few gems down there, especially in and around the old town.
Wow, Stunning. Thank you for sharing this.
Thank you. What a beautiful place, I think I need to go there.
Just a pub. Just brilliant. Just go!
Very idyllic pub with lots of atmosphere. And it's interesting to see how much someone like Sir Alec Guinness valued his local pub. - Cider ("Äbbelwoi" in the local dialect) is popular in my neck of the woods as well!
Wonderful.
Another excellent video
Wonderful video and it seems like a very nice Pub.
Excellent vlog and what a nice pub !!!!
Excellent and lucky you looks a fantastic place to waste a few hours in 🍻thanks 👍😁
Really enjoyed this. Lovely old skool boozer. Cheers tweedy.
Great video! I was the one who served you on the bar, it is indeed a very good cider (I chose it!)
Wow, thank you! That cider really is spectacular stuff - and thank you for your wonderful hospitality during the day, I had a great time there.
Once gain that Ploughman's lunch just looks spectacular.
Looks like a gem of a pub. Decent looking Ploughman's too, great portions, though maybe lacking a pickled onion or half an Apple - I wouldn't complain though!
Yes I would have liked a bit of apple too - but then I think this time of year it's hard to get English apples.
Obi-Wan Kenobi, using the Jedi Mind trick through pen and paper. Who says he wasn't a powerful jedi? 😆
Nice one Tweedy, cool pub too! 👍
Nothing like a country pub😊 Great video. I got a request, but it is a London pub. It’s a pub called The Swan, located in Bloomsbury, a side street of Southampton Row. It’s a Greene King pub. It’s my personal favorite pub in London, and I would love to learn more about the history of that pub 😊
Lovely pub, when I lived in Hampshire, used to go occasionally. Very lucky in this part of the world because cracking pubs are numerous
Stunning , will be visiting .
Good health, beautiful pub🍺
This is wonderful.
What a really lovely untouched pub and so good that it is hard to access. Keeps it special. Well done Sir Alec Guinness for fighting off the pub wrecking monsters Whitbread. Wonderful man and a great actor. While filming The Last 10 Days (of Hitler) he had to rush off set to meet someone and had no time to change. He left Shepperton Studios dressed as Hitler and hailed a cab. After a few minutes the driver turned around and said 'You is an actor ain't you guv? You isn't REALLY him is you guv?'
It is actually very close to the A3, and I almost wonder if that might have been a saving grace in a way. It forms a barrier to stop the village of Steep getting swallowed up by nearby Petersfield, and does make it feel more remote somehow. You can drive a slightly longer way round to get there but whenever I've been there it seems a decent number of people have got there either on foot or by bike.
That's a funny story about Sir Alec, - that's the one costume you really would have to make time to change out of!
That was really interesting, thank you
Beautiful looking food in a gorgeous pub.
Shame places like this are so hard to find these days.
What a little gem. Nearby Petersfield is still very much a market town. I got totally wrecked once in a pub on the town square, forget the name.
I had a little wander round Petersfield before I headed to the Harrow, and I really liked it actually. Partly it was the contrast from where I live (relatively central London) :even small novelties like actually being able to go into a bank to withdraw cash were surprisingly gratifying! I've passed through a few times before, including once late on a Saturday evening and I was really taken aback by how lively that town square was!
@@TweedyPubs Winchester has a pub that claims to be one of the oldest in the country (don't they all?), 11th century. Hope you make it there one day.
That cider looks absolutely scrumpy-tious!
Excellent video
Very good video... I have just got a network rail card so will use it wisely, and visit The Harrow this Bank Holiday Monday.. yesterday was at The Edgar Wallace near Temple, very enjoyable as per your video.
Looks fantastic - I`ll try and visit it next Wednesday after my music lesson in Chichester - might be a bit dark by the time I get there going down the lane though!
Reminds me a bit of my favourite pub, the Square and Compass at Worth Matravers in Dorset. Again, family owned for ages, and serving from a small hatch, with an interior which seems untouched for a century or more, and a geological museum.
I had to look up Petersfield on Google maps to see if it was within easy reach for our next visit to London. It's down near Portsmouth for those similarly challenged. There is a train from Clapham Junction ( near Battersea ) that appears to leave about every 30 minutes or so during the day and takes either an hour or an hour and a quarter depending on which one you get ( they appear to alternate faster and slower trains.) This looks like a perfect day trip from London. The town / village of Albury looks like it may be on the same train route and is apparently a lovely spot to spend a few hours which would make the trip to the Harrow Inn and back even more productive. Thanks again Tweedy.
Thanks David! Yes definitely manageable for a day trip from London - it's just worth bearing in mind the opening hours of the pub, as it doesn't open throughout the day. Their website has lots of useful info: www.theharrowinnsteep.co.uk/
I must get out of Ruislip and spend a day there. Wonderful.
An unexpected cameo appearance from Noddy Holder in that vintage photo at 3:23...
😂 I believe it's actually the uncle of the pair of sisters who now run the place. From talking to Claire it sounded like he was quite a character in his own right. There is a lovely photo in the pub's scrapbook from the 1960s which appears to show him judging a local beauty contest - reminiscent of Father Ted's "Lovely Girls Competition".
@@TweedyPubs Hey, thank you for the background, Mr Tweed, your work is appreciated.
Despite my silly joke, I offer all respect to Mr Uncle, and Mr Holder.
Well found. Suprised it's still open giving ita location.
Ploughman's to happy days
Thanks for this video. We sought out the pub and it was absolutely fantastic. My all-time favourite. And here, in the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley we're pretty spoilt (including the Boat at Redbrook). Come back this way and do our brilliant micropubs and taprooms. The Queen’s Head in Chepstow, The Dog House in Coleford and The Griffin in Monmouth next time yr back in the area. Message me if you want a tour.
I gotta go there, except why are all the tables for shaving?
😂 Now you mention it does look a bit like shaving in that handwriting!
There was a spin-off from CAMRA in the early days called CAMROT - Campaign for the Retention of Outdoor Toilets. One of the founders was Spyke Golding of Nottinghan, who favoured the Newmarket Arms there until an icy evening in January. On his visit to the facilities he slipped on the cobbles and broke his ankle...
What a belter.
Fantastic 👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻😎
Lovely place
Nothing harrowing about the Harrow inn 😍👍
I love your stuff. Would you be up for doing a mini series on haunted pubs? You are great at the history on pubs and doing a haunted ghost story one would be brilliant
It would be nearly worth the trip to the UK just for this genuinely British experience.
Alex Guinness wrote that note shortly after Star Wars was released in May 1977.
Yes that occurred to me too! I assume filming had already completed a long time before that. Although it does make you wonder if his time "in a galaxy far far away" made him treasure what he had closer to home that bit more. As I recall he apparently didn't have a particularly fun time filming Star Wars, and he didn't rate the end result very highly either.
Not sure there is a pub in the North East called the Harrow Inn, but when I lived in Wiltshire, nearly every village seemed to have a Harrow Inn, it was the same in nearby Berkshire. Looks lovely. Have you ever been to the Bell Inn in Aldworth?
Interesting to hear it might be a more common name in some parts of the country than others - I wonder if that says something about geology? Is the use of a harrow more necessary in certain soil types perhaps?
Yes I have been to the Bell in Aldworth - and it is another fantastic pub in a similar vein to the Harrow! In fact the icon I use for Tweedy Pubs is me sat in the porch at the Bell. I included it in a video, but it was before I started this channel, so instead it's on my other channel (@TweedyOutdoors): th-cam.com/video/8oEyilJ5LdQ/w-d-xo.html
I was a bit too timid back then to take more than a few seconds of interior footage and it's all a bit jerky! I should revisit at some point and give it the proper Tweedy Pubs treatment.
@@TweedyPubs I've been going to the Bell for over 30 years now. Only a few times a year as I live a 20 min drive away. If you didn't know, they've started making their own beer as well
Wow. What a place.
If I might suggest the Suffield Arms, Gunton in Norfolk. Right by Gunton station, great beer, good food (big Spanish influences) and Gunton station has been beautifully preserved in a pre war style
Superb; these places should be treasured and-where necessary-publicly funded in the same way as 'community projects'; I live in a North Wales village with permanent population c. 188 (sadly one lady passed away); our pub is a treasure- intellectual discourse and up-to-date information on the trout , salmon and bass fishing; Robinson's bitter and grand food for the hardy visitors who make it down from Snowdon/Yr Wyddfa in large numbers and keep us going. Pub is named for the church at the back which is at least 14th century- worth keeping...?
Outdoor toilets are for the hardcore boozers😂👍i had a Ploughmans Lunch the other day...he was fuming😂😂
So the beer and cider in the kegs is served warm? That's a UK thing?
In most pubs for cask ales it normally would be "cellar temperature" which should be something like 11-13 °C (52-57°F).
Although here there's no cellar! Or at least not an underground one. If you look in the video around 3:40 there's two things in use there to keep the beer cool. Some of the casks (I think these are ones they're not yet pouring from) have insulated jackets, and the other two have kind of curved racks over them. I believe these are for cooling, and there's at least one system like that where cold water is constantly pumped through - in one pub I went to in Devon which had a similar setup that was fed by the local stream.
None of the beers / cider I had seemed particularly warm. Definitely not ice cold like a lager from a keg might be served but it felt to me roughly in that cellar temperature range.
Long live The Harrow.
Cheers.
Lovely. And I just learned that a zucchini is also called a courgette.
I didn't know places like that existed. I envisaged the Shire, a hidden world insulated from big city lunacy. I don't suppose there are any hobbits there?
Sir Alec Guinness got big Star Wars money after 1977, when he wrote that letter.
Used to live in Petersfield, so please dont push the Harrow too hard, it will get coach loads........You deserve a medal for the message you are pushing. Can we save a much loved part of UK life from the profiteering Macro brewering buggers?
Thanks Martin, and it is a good point you make - we definitely want the Harrow to be a thriving business but nobody wants it to be swamped! I suppose that's one of the good things about the way TH-cam finds niche audiences - I'm pretty sure just about everyone who watches my channel has a keen interest (and respect for) historic pubs... I don't think anyone just looking for generic "Instagrammable" tourist hotspots would end up here.
Out of interest, did you visit any other pubs in Petersfield/Steep ? Any recommendations?
Do you know The Bridge at Topsham in Devon? If you haven't been there then this is one for you!
Yes indeed I do! I have a video of it, but it's from the early days of the channel and maybe doesn't entirely do it justice. Beautiful pub though - five generations of my family have drank there.
@@TweedyPubs That used to be my local back in 1979-83. I knew Norman, the father of the current landlady (though her children now probably run the place). I did some video of the inside and interviewed some regulars back then. I am an historian and have specialised in personal testimony over the years. Hence why I like what you do. Norman told me some great stories but the best is about von Ribbentrop being a regular in the late 20's. Apparently, once a year he used to visit on a 'sales' trip for his wine business. He loved speaking English and used to sit with the regulars chatting. Good luck to you mate. Was only talking about a good ploughmans last week and now a trip to the Harrow has to be on the cards. Best. Jack.
@@TweedyPubs So you will know all about 'the snug'.!
At about 4:20, you see a perfect Auditor Trap.
The whole planet needs more of this close by. All places designed for people to meet and have a drink are special by nature but clearly some are special beyond special. I would likely stab a man I call friend for a chance to have something like this pub in my area. What an actual treasure.