Old West River, Cambs

[beardshave]

Back in the 70s I had a cruiser at Huntingdon and my favourite part of the Gt Ouse was the Old West. I'm trying to remember the name of a pub which had moorings , a campsite and used to open early morning for papers, bread , eggs etc plus the odd pint if one was so inclined. I think it was nr Stretham. There weren't that many pubs then and looks like they are all gone now.

[Quattrodave]

The only pub I can think of is the fish and duck on the junction of rhe old west & the cam...?

 

IIRC there's a campsite near Stretham Old Engine...?

Edited June 8, 2022 by Quattrodave

[GUMPY]

Lazy Otter ?

[enigmatic]

Lazy Otter sounds like the one since it has the marina in front and holiday lodges next to it.

 

Five Miles from Anywhere has plenty of pub moorings and had camping once, but you have to turn off the Old West towards Cambridge to get there.

Edited June 8, 2022 by enigmatic

[pearley]

18 hours ago, Loddon said:

Lazy Otter ?

Now closed, seemingly permanently.

[Slow and Steady]

Nice to see 5 miles from anywhere got a revamp, it was a bit of a dump 20+ years ago.

Lazy Otter I always wondered how they survived, a huge pub you had to drive to.

Fish and Duck was a dive too but in a nice spot and that was demolished.

Pubs you have to drive to can't really exist as pubs, they have to be eating places these days, it's a wonder these above 3 lasted as long as they did/have and IMO that was largely due to there being absolutely nowhere in Ely where you could go for a pub meal up until 20-25 years ago. Apart from the Cutter where you also had to be ready for a fight! Ely was a real backwater in the 90's, the town centre was almost closed, nowhere to eat - we could walk through town to the pub on a Friday/Saturday evening and see nobody at all on the way.

 

Edited June 9, 2022 by Slow and Steady

[beardshave]

The pub I'm thinking of was accessible by road. About 30 years ago I went by car and there was a large gathering of Hell's Angel-all v friendly and jolly. I don't know if that jogs any memories.

As I said in my OP back in the 70s it was " pub which had moorings , a campsite and used to open early morning for papers, bread , eggs etc plus the odd pint if one was so inclined" I also recall the landlord liked a large rum in his breakfast Guiness.

[beardshave]

Me again. I just checked a website on the Lost pubs of Cambridgeshire where I see the Lazy Otter used to be called the Royal Oak and I'm fairly certain that was it back in the day.

Thanks everyone for your help. Mike

[ditchcrawler]

4 hours ago, Slow and Steady said:

Nice to see 5 miles from anywhere got a revamp, it was a bit of a dump 20+ years ago.

Lazy Otter I always wondered how they survived, a huge pub you had to drive to.

Fish and Duck was a dive too but in a nice spot and that was demolished.

Pubs you have to drive to can't really exist as pubs, they have to be eating places these days, it's a wonder these above 3 lasted as long as they did/have and IMO that was largely due to there being absolutely nowhere in Ely where you could go for a pub meal up until 20-25 years ago. Apart from the Cutter where you also had to be ready for a fight! Ely was a real backwater in the 90's, the town centre was almost closed, nowhere to eat - we could walk through town to the pub on a Friday/Saturday evening and see nobody at all on the way.

 

Is the Lazy Otter still a goer. I read it was closing down

[pearley]

15 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Is the Lazy Otter still a goer. I read it was closing down

Not open currently. A petition going the rounds to stop it being turned in not a house but we've been past it a few times lately and it looks too late.

 

Nice GOBA moorings just downstream on opposite side. If you climb the flood bank a very large solar farm to your left and an enormous glasshouse to your right.

[Slow and Steady]

9 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Is the Lazy Otter still a goer. I read it was closing down

I've moved from the area 5 years ago after 25 years in Ely, but yes I read that too but wasn't surprised. Any evening I went there (a club meet) there was basically us and two or three other customers rattling around in there. Quite busy for Sunday lunch but I think that was about it hence me being surprised it hung on for so long. Nice little Marina moorings out the back though. Maybe without that and I think some kind of camp site propping it up it would have closed long ago. The petition to keep it open, baring in mind there was never anyone in there, made me chuckle.

 

 

I remember another petitioned pub in the area called The Dykes End in Reach was actually successfully taken over (maybe even bought) and run by the villagers when it was under threat and that one is still open so it can happen, but that one is in the middle of a village so locals can walk there. It's nice when you hear about a success like that. You can't get at it by boat though.

[Scholar Gypsy]

On 09/06/2022 at 18:01, Slow and Steady said:

I've moved from the area 5 years ago after 25 years in Ely, but yes I read that too but wasn't surprised. Any evening I went there (a club meet) there was basically us and two or three other customers rattling around in there. Quite busy for Sunday lunch but I think that was about it hence me being surprised it hung on for so long. Nice little Marina moorings out the back though. Maybe without that and I think some kind of camp site propping it up it would have closed long ago. The petition to keep it open, baring in mind there was never anyone in there, made me chuckle.

 

 

I remember another petitioned pub in the area called The Dykes End in Reach was actually successfully taken over (maybe even bought) and run by the villagers when it was under threat and that one is still open so it can happen, but that one is in the middle of a village so locals can walk there. It's nice when you hear about a success like that. You can't get at it by boat though.

You can get pretty close to the Dyke's End by boat -  a couple of hundred yards.