As
featured in The Daily Telegraph
British pub guide:
The Anchor Bleu, West Sussex
Our guide to British pubs. This week: The Anchor Bleu, West
Sussex. By Jonathan Goodall 23 Jan 2009
Back in the
Seventies my parents owned a boat in Bosham. For us children,
the most effective "cure" for post-traumatic sailing disorder
was nursing a bottle of Cresta and a packet of Monster Munch on
the garden wall outside The Anchor Bleu. It felt strange to
venture inside on a return visit many years later.
As you step down
inside The Anchor, the bulging, beamed ceiling brushing the head
of anyone much over six feet. There's a worn flagstone floor in
the dimly lit bar area where the pump handles are reflected in
the burnished brass counter. In the two cosy dining areas twin
fireplaces warm the cockles (not to mention the seafood gratin
tartlets) of a closely packed, merry throng. And what's this? It
seems they let children in these days.
The Anchor's fare
ranges from Thai crab cakes to smoked haddock, prawn and leek
pie. The lobster and Cognac pâté made my Seventies reverie
complete. We had a three-day week back then but now a record six
pubs are closing every day. The Anchor, thankfully, doesn't feel
like it will be one of them.
We head through to
the back of the pub where a foot-thick steel flood door opens
onto a charming waterside terrace. Most of Bosham's pretty high
street backs onto a tidal creek. At high tide the water laps at
the defensive garden walls, submerging any cars left by the
unwary. It kept us endlessly entertained as children.
Today, on a bitterly
cold evening, a silver moon shines weakly on the flat, silent
water. Our visible breath mingles with fragrant wood smoke from
a nearby chimney as we gaze across the pewter sea at the flint
cottages on the other side. Swans glide between rows of boats
and incongruously fluorescent orange buoys.
It's a fabulous spot
to enjoy the real ales served here – Ringwood Fortyniner,
Butcombe Bitter, Hogs Back's TEA (Traditional English Ale) and
Sharp's Doom Bar on this occasion.
They say King Canute
chose Bosham for his Turning-Back-The-Sea routine – and you have
to be careful how you say that after a couple of Fortyniners.
But just for the record, it's pronounced "Bozzum".
The Anchor Bleu, The
High Street, Bosham, West Sussex (01243 573956)
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