The Royal Standard of England

I met up with an old work friend yesterday and we went to The Royal Standard of England, the oldest freehouse in England.

We went for lunch but didn't even think about booking a table, there was a large party and all of the other tables were reserved. Fortunately, some tables were free until 2pm and we got there just before 1pm. The large party were all dressed in medieval clothes, it was quite a sight! We ordered quickly before the large group and sat at table 13, we were a bit worried because my friend and I are both slow eaters! I had the steak and kidney suet pudding and my friend had the cottage pie, the food was lovely it was fairly expensive but worth it. We didn't have the time or room for pudding! 

A couple shared our table and I thought I recognised the lady and I was right - I looked after her son at a nursery about six years ago.

I took a few photos of the inside of the pub but only on my phone so they didn't come out very well. It was really nice but quite dark and cramped inside, they had a couple of fires going, the atmosphere was nice and the staff were really friendly.

2pm came round quickly but we had both finished our meals so we finished our drinks at the bar then went to sit outside at this tree table.

We sat for a while then we went for a walk. They had a map on the website of two walks nearby but the map wasn't very clear and we couldn't work out where it started! My friend thought we should go along the track in front of the pub and she was right as it led to, what we thought was, the first turning. When we got back we realised the first turning was actually right by the pub and we had missed it as it is quite overgrown.

We ended up doing the longer walk, which was nice although a bit muddy in places. We walked through the Wildflower Meadow, there wasn't much colour but we did see lots of, what looked like, chrysalis' on certain stems. I couldn't get my phone to focus but we think they were Burnet Moth chrysalis'.

This is one that was open so I brought it home. The brown bit was inside the silky, papery part. There were quite a few the same but also a lot more that weren't open.

This was a field further along, we could see three tractors in the distance.

One tractor was cutting the grass, one was putting it into bales and the third one (below) was picking up the bale then it spun wrapping around it and dropped it off the other side. We thought this was really clever!

Some horses, the one with a cover on kept nodding at us!

Now we were on the way back towards the pub. We passed some lovely houses behind where we stood here.

We walked quite slowly and it took us about two hours but we think we did an extra bit that isn't on the map!

I really enjoyed seeing my friend as I hadn't seen her since last summer and it was a great day but I did feel completely shattered when I got home.

I hope you've had a lovely weekend too!