No.33 - The Bell Inn, Middleton, Suffolk

Saturday 13th November, 2010
The return to Heath House !
Unbelievably a whole year has passed since our last journey up the A12 to Leiston to stay at Heath House, where we managed to fit in a visit to the Engineers Arms. This year I was armed with another couple of venues to cross off and so while the girls weren't looking, all the men (Carl, Andrew, Adrian, Damo, Rob, Liam and Lewis) hopped into their cars and sped off to Middleton. Well, it wasn't quite like that actually. All the men were given permission by their respective ladies and we were permitted to take 2 cars, as they needed the others for their shopping trip to Aldeburgh!
1st stop was the Bell Inn at Middleton. Our 2 drivers, Damo and Andrew, did a splendid job finding the place with only one U-turn required during the journey. On arrival in Middleton you immediately notice the smartness of the village. It's a very clean, pretty looking village with the 17th century thatched village local taking centre spot. It's the kind of local pub that I'm sure we'd all like to have just round the corner.
The building itself is Grade II listed and backs onto to some lovely meadow like fields. In fact I had a sneaky walk round the back into the extensive garden, while Carl was getting the beers in, and could actually see for miles. Perfect for a late summer evening.

On entry to the pub you immediately enter the public bar, which this time of year has a beautiful open fire on the go. At the other end of the pub, where the dining area is situated, another open fire keeps the eaters warm. Open fire and eaters...hmm!
Adnams Old was the order of the day and it went down a treat. Broadside, Bitter and Explorer were also available but this time of year it just has to be the Old. There were a few Adnams Old virgins amongst us today, and I do believe they were won over by the end of the pint. So much so that they actually wanted to stay for another, but we had our instructions!
On leaving the pub I noticed that someone had quite clearly spiked Lewis's drink with some sort of growing agent. Here he is about to demolish one of the houses in the village !