The Haunted Staircase of Oundle

After exploring Peterborough, we opted to call in to the east Northamptonshire town of Oundle for a brewery tap and a pub with a ghost story.

Oundle is an ancient market town that is home to around 6,250 gentlefolk - and I'm sure they are gentlefolk...you're not in the wilds of Wellingborough here.
The market square has been a filming location for The Crown, there's an annual pipe organ festival, and Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickenson attended the 468 year old, very smart-looking Oundle School.

But we were starting our visit right on the edge of town, at a small retail complex where you can pick up some cycling gear, freshly baked bread, and a get your kitchen redesigned in contemporary style.  Oundle Wharf - for this is where we were - is also home to Nene Valley Brewery.
They have a taproom next door, opened in 2014 in a renovated waterside warehouse...

Tap & Kitchen (Oundle Wharf, Station Road, Oundle, PE8 4DE)
The Tap has a handy 11:30am opening time, although I still felt wary walking in pre-noon when a staff member pounced on us and asked if she could help.  It's a single room divided into several seating areas.  The kitchen seems to be the main focus, rather than the tap, although we were left to our own devices to order at the bar and chose where to sit.

There were three cask ales on offer, all relatively low strength, plus another six beers on draft.  All listed on a slightly awkward to read blackboard, with no labels on the pumps.
Our choices of 'Blond Session Ale' and 'Simple Pleasures' were...hmm...okay.  Served in decent condition, but just a little bit plain - I should have gone for the 'Egyptian Cream' on keg.

There is lovely seating outside on both sides of an inlet of the River Nene.  Although it could probably do with a bit of a clean-up - I spotted a bit of algae on the water...

No swimming

We made our way into the heart of the town, admiring the numerous picturesque buildings and making a visit to the Chapel of St Anthony. 
This has the tallest spire in Northamptonshire, at 210-feet high.

I'm afraid that we weren't so taken by the interior, but we had been in Peterborough cathedral at 10am that morning, so St Anthony had some pretty stiff competition on the day.
We moved on to the investigate the posh hotel with a ghost story...

Talbot Hotel (New Street, Oundle, PE8 4EA)
The Talbot was rebuilt in 1626 using stone from the ruins of Fotheringhay Castle, although there is believed to have been an inn on the site for many years prior to that.

We strolled into the bar to the right of the entrance archway, then down a couple of steps to the bar counter, waiting patiently (me, patient?!) for anyone from the staff to turn up and serve us.  Top marks to the lady who did eventually arrive to pull the beers - she was super-friendly and helpful, giving us a bit of history of the hotel.

At glance at Whatpub had suggested we'd have to endure a Doom Bar in the Talbot, so the choice of two beers by Digfield Brewery, located a few miles to the south of Oundle, was a nice surprise.

  
Mary Queen of Scots was executed at Fotheringhay Castle in 1587, leading to inevitable claims that she haunts the pub.  The staircase in the bar is said to be the very one that she descended on the way to her execution.
Here's the (allegedly) haunted staircase... 

A well in the yard was reputed to produce drumming noises as a portent of imminent death and there is a story that a picture of Mary's execution has been known to tumble off the wall of its own accord.
I thought I may have found a pub for a 2024 Halloween post, except there really was nothing very spooky about the Talbot Hotel.  All very modernised, with some garishly coloured furnishings, adverts for wedding receptions (from just £3999), and customers tucking into coffee and cake.

We skipped the Rose and Crown - which I'll probably now discover was the best in town - and walked along West Street to the Beer Guide listed Ship...

The Ship Inn (18 West Street, Oundle, PE8 4EF)
This is a fine looking stone pub with coaching entrance to one side and a hallway leading to a restaurant and bar.  It has a pleasing olde worlde feel to it, with black-painted wooden beams, a proper pub carpet, big fireplace, and decorative copper kitchenware.  Being called the Ship, there is a ship's wheel and lots of maritime paintings - they're just missing a display of knots.

We arrived when the pub was quiet - the staff giving the pump clips their weekly polish.
There were two beers on the bar: St Austell 'Tribute' or Brewsters 'Hophead'.  The latter for me - another sub 4% pale ale from the Lincolnshire brewery.

We squeezed in one more Northamptonshire pub after travelling across the county during the afternoon.
We made it to the village of Stoke Bruerne which has a couple of pubs and an Indian restaurant on the side of the Grand Union Canal, by the locks and narrow road bridge.
The Boat Inn is on the left-side of my canal pic - lurking in the shadow to defy a better pub photo.

The Boat Inn (Bridge Road, Stoke Bruerne, NN12 7SB)
This is a grade II listed inn which has been run by the same family since 1877.  It is a much extended place with a modern wood panelled bar on the car park side, and several extensions with tables ready for the food trade.
But step in through the door by the canal and there are a couple of cracking basic pub rooms.

The beer selection from the Marston's stable was plentiful yet not especially exciting: New World, Old Empire, Wainwright, Razorback, Banks's Amber, and a St Austell 'Tribute'.

My 'New World Pale Ale' was a decent form, accompanying a filling plate of food.

I was chuffed to see the Northamptonshire skittles... 

But just had one quick go at knocking down the pins, paranoid at how much noise I was making.

And that was our last port of call.  A day when the locations and September blue skies had been better than the beers, to be honest.
But at least I've got a lovely pub sign picture to end the post on.