The Rat is a pet pub for many

Feb 8 2008 by Alastair Gilmour, The Journal

IN TRUE Two Ronnies style, it’s a happy new year from me and a sun nien fai lok from him. The Chinese New Year began yesterday and ushered in a period of celebrating ancestral spirits, honouring family unity and anticipating a happy future.

As this is the Year of the Rat, among those gazing expectantly at the 12 months ahead are Karen Errington and Phil Mason at The Rat Inn, Anick, near Hexham in Northumberland.

Karen and Phil ran the Green Room restaurant at Hexham station until last summer with a focus on locally-sourced produce that had customers queuing and Michelin Guide entries totting up. The ultimate goal, however, was a pub of their own; a place where they could develop their undoubted culinary talents, transfer the commendable “buy local, serve local, eat local” thrust and flex a few mussels.

“We looked at every pub there is,” says Karen. “We didn’t want to move too far from Hexham as our children are at local schools, then when The Rat came up we had to make a quick decision and closed the restaurant. Luckily, we managed to move the bookings here without too much trouble.”

The Rat Inn, perched above Hexham, is believed to have been a drovers’ resting house in the 1750s and by the 19th Century was known as the Board Inn. Cattle driven from the Borders would have been rested around Anick’s high pastures before being taken to Hexham market. The old drovers’ road runs about half-a-mile to the east of the pub and is now called – for reasons known only to muddy-booted ramblers – Clarty Lane.

Karen says: “Before we took over the Green Room, both of us worked long hours and we’d just pass each other on Sundays. Phil was head chef at Thistle Hotels and I was commercial manager at Newcastle Falcons, so we thought, ‘let’s do it for ourselves’.”

The Rat is now scurrying along freely and the pair seem to be well pleased with progress. A fine range of beers sits on the bar – three from within a short distance of the pub which are rotated regularly alongside regulars Deuchar’s IPA and Draught Bass. This week it’s Allendale Golden Plover, Wylam Magic and High House Farm Nel’s Best; next week it could be something from Geltsdale Brewery in Brampton, Cumbria; one from Consett Ale Works, or a Newcastle-based Hadrian & Border Brewery beer. This appears to be giving Karen and Phil as much pleasure as presenting beef and lamb from West Mill Hills Farm at Haydon Bridge and game from David Ridley in Hexham. Provenance is everything in this operation.

“When one of the ales is finished we put another one on straight away,” says Karen, who has already anticipated our next question. “To have five ales on through the winter is quite something. This is the type of place where people want to try different beers and lots of men especially go for the ales with their food. And, people like a pub atmosphere.

“We haven’t stuck to the standard pub wine list, either, and have some really interesting ones at all prices. I’m surprised how well the rosé sells and we do champagne by the glass which is very popular.

“It’s hard work, though. We have people who come in every day during the day, then we have the early evening crowd and the later crowd. There’s a good company on a Friday night who come in after playing football and they always like to try something new. We had a beer from Hexhamshire Brewery recently which was really good. A lot of custom comes from around Hexham but a lot drive from further afield – we’re only 20 minutes from Newcastle along the A69.”

Phil is convinced people will go out of their way to find decent food and drink and to seek out the ambience they have drizzled in clouds.

“Most of what we sell is ale, we don’t sell so much lager,” he says. “People get to know quality and they’ll travel to get choice. They are interested in where things come from. I think it’s because the farmers’ markets have caught on in a big way.”

There are at least three versions of how the pub got its name. Some say it was the meeting place for local rat catchers; others claim the biggest rat ever seen was caught there, but Karen plumps for the historically plausible.

“Jacobite sympathisers in the 1700s would use pubs as meeting places,” she says. “The Government had spies everywhere trying to find them and the landlord at the time passed on information. After that he was known as The Rat. One of our regulars is an ex-Daily Mail journalist, he told us that one.”

The pub has a flagstoned floor which delineates the bar from the dining areas where exposed floorboards emphasise the difference. These are also divided by a knee-high wall which customers will no doubt park on at busy times, but is also where the day’s newspapers are scattered (is it just newspaper people or is there something extra appealing about a pub that supplies a range of reading matter? We must ask the man from the Mail).

The bar counter has undoubtedly seen service as a sideboard; it’s a prized piece which is probably much happier bearing the weight of handpulls, full pints and expectant elbows rather than neatly-folded tablecloths, serviettes and runners. A fine black cast-iron range blazes away at one end of the room, with a smaller one keeping up appearances at the other.

“I don’t think that one had been lit in 20 years, so I thought I’d give it a try,” says Karen. “It’s been lit ever since.”

Pews, stools, benches and brocaded chairs create a merry mix and on the shelves and walls sit mouse/rat figurines, a model of the pub, brass tankards, cigarette cards, a loudly-ticking clock and a range of chamber pots attached to the ceiling like Michael Bentine’s Bumblies. What’s the collective noun for chamber pots? A pissoir? A tinkleton? A goesunder? The Mail man would know. A conservatory room offers reasonable privacy and fabulous views virtually to Tyneside and across into County Durham. Another room was refurbished for people who prefer to eat restaurant-style rather than in the main bar area, and the terrace and beer gardens offer tremendous scope and endless options for summer days and evenings.

Menu-wise, the specials board changes daily with whatever is freshly available to be given the Phil harmonic treatment. For example, leek risotto with blue cheese glazed fennel looks fabulous, as does roast rib of beef, watercress, chips and bearnaise sauce. Now add a dash of Golden Plover, Wylam Magic or Nel’s Best. You don’t get advice like that in the Mail.

alastair.gilmour@ncjmedia.co.uk

‘The Government had spies everywhere trying to find them and the landlord at the time passed on information. After that he was known as The Rat.’