We spoke at length previously about the demise of the High and Dry pub...all agree that its sad to see pubs like the High and Dry go. We ourselves as far back as the old doverweb days had many an evening there at one time....we used to go a fair bit for dinner in The Conservatory and so on. Very nice too on a summers evening, but all gone now.
Well in The Mercury today Page 25 it says that the building has applied for planning permission to be a cider brewery...with added cafe and office space. So at least if the application is successful the building and area will be saved for some enterprise of an alcoholic based nature, in keeping with tradition..
There has been a huge rise in the consumption of cider in recent times, no doubt this revival was brought into being by the massive advertising spend of the likes of Magners. The beer festivals have carried more ciders too in recent times, more traditional ciders rather than the gas filled Magners and Strongbows, and yours truly has lived to tell the tale after sampling a couple of pints of Crippledick at Crabble Corn Mill..although my eyesight has never been the same since.
But if the pub cant be saved as a pub, then its good to see it doing something like this.
Would be an interesting business this one PaulB, and I do hope it`s successful. One of my daughter`s loves cider, (in moderation of course), so I do know it has become very popular with the younger generation in recent years. Hope they use some English apples.
I'm not sure but you may be right with the term Cider Factory PaulB, I'm sure that when I visited a large scale cider press in Brittany they called it a factory, correct me if I'm wrong