The Angel And Blue Pig Inn

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Work starts early in the morning in the razed North Breeze garden. In preparation for the rear extension, soil has been dug out from the area behind the house. Presumably the digger is levelling off the heap. The fire is now concentrating on rubbish from indoors. We have a view across the pub car park to the fields beyond that the jungle has previously hidden from sight.

This is our garden from the same viewpoint. The blurred effects are from sunspots, not smoke.

Mark, who has bought the house, has given Jackie this pedestal from the lounge. He thought she might be able to put something nice on it. He wasn’t far wrong.

Having taken two more orange bags of garden refuse to the dump we drove on to Lymington to the Register Office seeking an appointment for a marriage. This, the website informed us, was situated at

Lymington Library.

What the website did not inform us was that appointments could only be made on line or on the telephone. There was nothing outside the library to confirm the location, but we found this at the back of the building. A very helpful librarian peered through the registrar’s office window and encouraged us to wait outside the room and nab her when she had finished with the people she was interviewing. This didn’t seem a particularly hopeful possibility, so we sat outside the small chamber and when I had managed to obtain a signal, I made a call to the general office.  Naturally all the staff were busy and I had to listen to repeated messages telling me I could do this on line. Eventually another very cooperative young lady took me through what we had to do to progress to the next stage, which would probably take two months. Then we would be given an appointment time. I’m sure the whole business was much more straightforward in 1968 when we enjoyed our first wedding.

Did I mention that Jackie’s ancient laptop died this morning? I thought not. This meant that our next visit was to Peacock Computers where Max, the sales person, was not available until 2.00 p.m. This left an hour and a half to kill.

We wandered down the High Street,

passing visitors clutching car keys, ice creams, and mobile phones;

and watching groups with pushchairs eagerly awaiting their chance to cross the busy road that mostly became clear when vehicles held each other up.

Our goal was

The Angel & Blue Pig Inn, where we enjoyed excellent lunches.

The i New Forest website informs us that ‘Since the 13th century the Angel Inn has welcomed weary travellers. It is notorious with tales of smuggling and in the 18th Century Lymington like much of the south coast was rife with the ‘Free Trade’. There was a tunnel running under Lymington High Street to a smaller inn opposite and from there it proceed down the hill to the water. Smugglers could then haul their brandy, silk and spices without catching the eye of the customs men.

The Angel also has a spooky reputation. Allegedly one of the most haunted hotels in Britain. Up to 6 ghosts including a coach driver, naval officer and a phantom blonde have been seen on the premises.’

The building was refurbished in 2013.

We ate outside, where we attempted to converse with the archetypal lapdog which took vociferous exception to me when it turned around.

A pair of iron pigs kept us company,

while a couple of cherubs, one coy, and the other sleeping, watched over us. At least, they would have done had they opened their eyes. Whoever modelled the sleeper certainly knows how baby boys are wont to crouch in their slumbers.

Another pig was suspended from a makeshift gibbet.

Most customers preferred the small garden area, but a few found the dimmer inside more comfortable.

My main meal consisted of wonderfully fresh fish and triple cooked chips with mushy peas and tartare sauce; Jackie chose salmon and haddock fish cakes and salad. We both enjoyed treacle tart with orange-flecked ice cream for dessert. I drank Ringwood bitter while Jackie drank Amstel.

That takes care of my customary culinary coda, so I will sign off after reporting that a satisfactory meeting with Max resulted in our ordering a new laptop for Jackie.

58 comments

  1. The Angel and Blue Pig (or to be frank just The Blue Pig) would have me won immediately. France has a (fair) reputation for being a tough place to be married (not the chateau or mountaintop fantasy marriage after you’ve done the business elsewhere but the real we are being married here thing) but we found that a tame mayor was the thing. I am fairly certain this doesn’t translate to England and I am sorry that the local bureaucracy thing is surely dead in Britain – it had its place) I should write a post about it really. But then the Brexit Brigade would probably stone me 🙂 Bon courage mon amie.

  2. A fascinating post, Derrick. Brought back memories of my own visits to Lymington, although hadn’t previously discovered the Angel and Blue Pig. I must rectify that one day.

  3. I was attracted to the Phantom Blonde but I see she avoided your lens. Ghosts sometimes do that.
    I like your next door neighbour’s “Space”. And the view of your garden from up top is stunning.

  4. After your experience with the lapdog it is a wonder the pigs didn’t snap at you.
    A lovely Inn, but did one of those motorists park by feel? It looks like a touching scene.

  5. I hope your neighbours create a beautiful garden too. Looking forward to wedding photos in the garden, if you ever get past the drones. Yours sounds worse than ours.

  6. I love how you drop little snippets of personal news into your posts. I was just looking forward to seeing a new kitchen unfold and now I’m looking forward to a wedding! There will be a problem however with the Official Photographer being otherwise engaged – shall I send mine?

  7. Clearly I’m not dropping into your blog frequently enough. You aren’t married and now you’re getting married? This is exciting news.

  8. Although I have lesser miles under my weary feet –and I think of Angel inn– than you, and I am not even sure I will be able to carry on

  9. This is one of the pitfalls of modern technology –the ‘Send’ button for comments is so perilously close to my right thumb that an accidental submission is becoming the norm. This has been been happening whenever I am trying to shift the cursor to correct a typo at the rightmost fringe of the slim comment box. Anyway, I will try and continue the thread of my thought…

    Although I have lesser miles under my weary feet –and I think of Angel inn– than you, and I am not even sure how long I will be able to carry on, but I am getting sick of how everything is being tossed to ‘clouds’. Just like you, I too prefer one-to-one interactions with a homo sapiens sapiens, but we are increasingly being discouraged to do that.

    Have you written a detailed post on that haunted inn? Something tells me the current dump I and my family are stuck in may have the ghosts of a woman and her child. While my kids have been complaining of noises of some child getting restless somewhere hereabouts at nights I have been dismissive of the idea in the best interests of us all.(There have been hushed murmurs of a suicide a few years ago). We are moving to an alternate apartment next month.

    I look forward to ogling at your marriage photography. You are exceptionally equipped to catch all kinds of lights.

  10. Love that shot of your garden. I fear bureaucracy has become even more widespread; perhaps people’s brains can’t keep pace with technology. Ah – those phantom blondes… 🙂

    1. The main problem is that those who now make the rules grew up with technology and have no idea how to relate to people who don’t understand why they can have no access to a person. Thanks, Mike

  11. You had a very busy day. The legalities of marriage can be so frustrating. I hope you get it worked out. I’m excited to hear more about the wedding!
    Our younger daughter was worried that they would not be able to get the marriage license a couple of years ago because there had been a tornado in S. Jersey, and the municipal building they had to go to –because it was in the town of the actual wedding site–was closed for a time. They had to go in person, but they lived out of state at the time.

    I like the view of your garden with the chairs that you showed above, and all the pigs in the inn. 🙂

  12. Seems like your typical day, doing this and that and including marriage procedure navigation–wait, did you say a wedding of sorts was afoot? I was momentarily flummoxed. then very pleased for you both. Looks like more fun ahead!

  13. Congratulations. That really will confuse the family tree for generations to come. 🙂

    Knowing the details of your wardrobe as I do from various posts – do you still have your shirt from last time?

      1. Will you have to buy a new one? Women can be funny about wedding clothes. Julia still complains that I didn’t buy a new suit for the wedding.

        My view was that I had a perfectly acceptable and nearly new suit (worn to only one funeral) and it would be extravagant to buy another.

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