Stephen Peat

Well, it was a biker pub. And I was a motorcyclist. At that time I would have had probably either a XT500 or a CX500. I’ve still got bikes now.

As soon as I was sixteen I had a moped. As soon as I was seventeen, motorbike. Only when I got married I sold the motorbike, put it on the house, and then I was busting a gut for about three or four years before I could buy a motorbike again.

Where we used to sit in the Tavern there was loads of these things stuck on the ceiling. We used to sit in the first alcove on the right hand side. I think what they used to do is take the inside of the cigarette packet out, the silver foil and the paper backing, screw it up so there was a cup in there, and then I guess they used to spit in the one end, and chuck it up at the ceiling. And it used to stick there, and it never came down! It was there all the time I went in. For years. Three or four inches long. All hanging down, like inverted cups almost.

It was just a grand pub. I always used to go in Saturday dinnertime. Because we used to meet up, this little gang. The Viewers Diners, the VD club. We used to go and have a few beers. And the pubs used to close, then, about half two, summat like that, and we used to go down to the Market Tavern. That was open all the time, see, because it was a market pub. So we’d be in there, and when we’d finished there we’d go to the pictures, and when the pictures finished, we’d go for an Indian. But the crippler was that we took it in turns to pay. For everybody. So, when it was your turn there was a dish called Bombay Duck, which was like a bloody fish or something. A freshwater fish. It’s awful. If you’d get somebody to eat that, it took their appetite right off. You’d always try and get people to have the Bombay Duck!

It used to blow your mind when you come out the Tavern, hadn’t it? Saturday afternoon, you’d come out, the sun was shining, reflecting off the pavement into your eyes. Aargh! It was startling. Your eyes would be streaming. It was a bloody nightmare. But it was a good pub.

I would say probably stopped drinking there about ’76-’77, something like that.