Having no new pubs to report on in 2020 and having exhausted the interesting local watering holes, I thought I'd take a while away from blogging. But now, the pub world is waking up from its long slumber and my fellow bloggers have hit the ground running, so I decided to get back on the horse myself.
What better place to restart than this little gem tucked away on the Grand Union Canal near to Hemel Hempstead?
This was on the evening of Thursday 1st October 1992 towards the end of our first journey up and down the Grand Union in the days when our boat Emma Jane was moored down south. It had been an eventful trip encompassing floods and a fire in the engine room. The pub was very close to the boatyard from where we had begun our journey, but our final destination was another day away at Cowley Peachey.
Back in the early 1990's, The Three Horseshoes was a superb country pub that was both a local and did very good food.
Our next visit was at lunchtime on Saturday 18th September 1993 when we visited before setting off from our new moorings at Winkwell.
Not surprisingly, the pub was completely unchanged.
Another year later and again, prior to picking up the boat we 'retired' to The Three Horseshoes for lunch - it was Saturday 27th August 1994.
Nothing new to report, which is the reason I kept taking pictures from different angles!
The last year that Emma Jane was moored at Winkwell was in 1995 and we made two visits to the pub. First was on the afternoon of Saturday 3rd June 1995 before we set off on a journey that took us to Lime House Basin in London.
Our final visit was at lunchtime on Saturday 26th August 1995 as we set off from Winkwell for the final time to take Emma Jane to her new moorings at Lapworth.
Still unchanged and one of the best canalside pubs along that stretch of the Grand Union Canal.
Over the next years, our canal adventures didn't take us as far south as Winkwell until 2019, when we undertook a massive journey down the River Thames and back up the Grand Union Canal, starting and finishing at Napton.
This is how The Three Horseshoes looked at lunchtime on Monday 5th August 2019.
Just a few changes in 24 years, but nothing unexpected nor too untoward! As you would expect it is now more of a gastropub. Whilst the cosy, proper pub feel is long gone it still feels like an old establishment and has a selection of real ales...so all is not lost.
I'd like to tell you about the pub in more detail, but my stay was fairly short lived. I had to pop into Hemel Hempstead to acquire a new phone as my old one wasn't working since I fell into the canal a couple of days earlier!
I can report, though, that The Three Horseshoes has survived coronavirus and has reopened, according to their Facebook page.
Good read Pete.
ReplyDeleteGood to see so many pubs surviving the Lockdown too.
Despite working near Hemel for a while the Beer Guide never took me here. Looks a good stop.
It's in a great setting, but a bit off the beaten track if you're on land!
DeleteIt will be interesting to see how long some of the pubs survive in the new 'normal'.