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Visit to Wainfleet & Batemans Brewery

Saturday 6th October 2007

Thirteen members gathered at Hinckley Station to catch the 0831 train. After two changes, along with a contingent from Loughborough CAMRA who joined our train en route, we arrived, on time, in the small town of Wainfleet at about 1130.
 

After 3 hours on Central Trains, a beer was called for, so the landlady of the Angel on the High Street, got a good start to her Saturday lunchtime takings. There was a session beer on offer called Classic; we were told it came from a brewery in Skegness, but I can find no trace of either the beer or a brewery! There was also a stronger beer from the Grafton Brewery of Retford. I tried the Classic & liked it a lot, especially at £1.50 a pint!

The next pub along the High St. was a Batemans pub called the Red Lion, unfortunately this was closed with an advert in the window asking anyone interested in running it to contact Batemans Brewery.

The next pub was the Woolpack Hotel offering a selection of Batemans beers. I started with the XB and then tried the aptly named England Expects; England were about to kick off against Australia in the Rugby World Cup quarter finals!

Most of our party chose to have lunch here, having seen the fish, chips & mushy peas on offer! Someone enquired of the waitress if the fish was from the North Sea, only to be informed "No, it's from Grimsby!"

The last pub was the Royal Oak a busy locals pub with beers again from Batemans plus one from Jennings. We had to tear ourselves away from the imminent rugby match, to get to the Brewery in time for our 2:00pm tour. Some of our party were already there, sampling the range of beers in the Brewery Tap (GBG08 p280) or sampling the Steak & Ale pie in the restaurant.

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We were escorted on our tour by Adam, who was both informative and entertaining. He was obviously used to the daft questions and 'witty' remarks that tend to emerge from a party of 'happy' visitors. The tour lasted about forty five minutes and included into our £4.95pp admission fee was a half pint of beer, so it was back to the Tap until they closed at 3:30pm.
Brewery History

More Photos in the Brewery:

We decided to walk back down the High Street and revisit the Royal Oak. Here the TV confirmed the rumour that England had beaten Australia and were through to the World Cup semi finals - a cause for great celebration. If only France could now beat New Zealand . . . ........ This was considered most unlikely!!

Our last call was to the Woolpack for a final taste of England Expects, then back to the station for the 5:40pm train which got us back to Hinckley by 08:30pm

Words by Alan Cooke
Photos by Chris Davies & Norman Hall

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