Gotham City: Part 1 – Batman And Madmen

Kerpow!  Biff! Thwack! It seems somewhat apt to have a Batman related post on the day the doyen of comic book heroes – Stan Lee – passed away.  Anyone of a certain age (i.e the readership of this blog) will remember Adam West as Batman back in the day fighting off super villains with his tongue firmly in his cheek in Gotham City.

 

The likes of Christian Bale, Val Kilmer, George Clooney and Michael Keaton all took the caped crusader to darker territory with some classic films but you can’t quite beat the original in my opinion.

Whilst I am a massive Jack Nicholson fan…

…I don’t think you can beat Cesar Romero as The Joker along with other classic villains The Penguin and The Riddler.

However, this isn’t a Batman blog and the reason I’m reminiscing about Gotham is that I went for a drink in the Nottinghamshire village which apparently inspired the setting for the home of Bruce Wayne.

Gotham (pronounced Go-tum by locals) was, according to folklore, inhabited by fools and this fitted perfectly with original writer Bill Finger’s city in New York.

Bear with me on this but the locals allegedly feigned madness to avoid a Royal Highway being built through the village.  Madness was believed at the time to be highly contagious, (it still is as there are apparently people who follow Hull, Reading and West Bromwich Albion reading this blog) so when King John’s knights saw the villagers behaving as if insane, the knights swiftly withdrew and the King’s road was re-routed to avoid the village.

One of the mad deeds seen by the knights was a group of villagers fencing off a small tree to keep a cuckoo captive from the Sherrif of Nottingham!

I’m guessing that might have taken place next to the boozer I popped into a Thursday afternoon in the height of the summer drought the 305 – Cuckoo Bush NG11 0JL.

However, there was still signs of madness as the Bass was unfortunately vinegar when I tried a drop of Britain’s premier drink.

The Bass Association of Drinkers (BAD) which comprises of the likes of Ian, Martin and Mudgie would have been using all their superpowers to try and turn it back but once cask has gone, it’s gone.

However, the barman was more than happy to change it and I had an excellent drop of HPA (Wye Valley) and settled back to enjoy what is a glorious boozer.

It’s a three roomed affair with two of the rooms given over to drinkers…

(Craft bar for Rich)

…but a healthy dining trade too.  I sat in the beer garden and the head chef told me they had served 44 dinners that afternoon and were optimistic of far more punters that evening.

(anyone remember summer?)

The boozer was ticking along nicely and whilst not overly full there were punters in and they couldn’t have failed to be impressed by what they saw with low ceilings, wooden beams and history oozing out of every pore in this place.

It’s been in use as a pub since 1876 and clearly has plenty of life left in it as it’s well-kept with hanging baskets out the front…

…a sensible selection of beers…

…a multi-roomed approach with lots of history on view…

…bench seating…

…a dartboard and darts team…

…supporting local teams…

…pub quizzes…

…and plenty of chimney pots nearby.

(super heroes hiding in the car…)

It’s the sort of place I could imagine Stan Lee (yes, I know he was Marvel and not DC) and Adam West would have come for a pint and a chat about potential new villains whilst not taking life too seriously.

As Batman might say…the cliffhanger continues next time…..