GASS The Gentlemen's Ale Sampling Society 1982-2017 35 YEARS OF BEERS
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JUNE
GREAT LINES HISTORICAL PUB CRAWL Organisor - John Brice
We met at the KGV Pub in Brompton for a few and then we set off under the wise tutelage of a Ben, a local historian for a trip back in time to when we men were men and the French were nervous. We walked sections of the Great Lines, the Napoleonic Fort constructed between 1770 and 1812, Fort Amherst has been described by English Heritage as the most complete Napoleonic fortification in Britain - so it must be good!
We took in the newly opened bridges at Fort Amhurst with their superb views, and then up onto The Great Lines where in days of yore they held massive military parades and even had a full size horse racing course.
Having walked miles we were all gasping for a beer. John, famed as a man who cannot organise a piss-up in a brewery (and has actually managed to organise at least two brewery visits without said beer) went for a clean sheet. He personally hurried ahead to this building below that looked to us strangely like a pub, but he waved us on past, before disappearing inside alone. We trudged on, assuming there was a better pub marking the halfway point - wrong. John hurried to re-join us with the news that he had only popped in the pub to cancel our visit!!!
Suitably disappointed we trudged on downhill past other pubs, sustained only with JB's promise of beers on the Lightship LV21 moored at Gillingham Pier. This time he was true to his word and at the Lightship we were allowed to partake of the beers will have been pre-dumped to await our arrival. See the ship here http://www.lv21.co.uk/
The ship was great - but look mid-right on the photo for the queue for a small green shed - way more interesting.
We were shown round this amazing boat by the owner, including a climb into the lighthouse itself. The cheerful lack of concern about allowing a bunch of nutters to climb a 30' dead vertical ladder up the light tower was excellent. One slip and any of us on the ladder would have been a tangled mess of limbs and beer on the steel deck below.
The ladder up to the light Dan, our excellent guide, and JB
Great day, thanks Dan, thanks JB, thanks to the staff at the KGV for a great dinner.
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