Nicki Jennings – Landlady of The Hand in Hand

 

Nicki behind the Bar during opening hours

 

Long view of the Bar of the Hand in Hand

One sunshine filled morning in February, I arrived at The Hand in Hand at 11.00 o’ clock, a full hour before opening time. Nicki Jennings, the Landlady, had agreed to talk to me about her work and role in the pub. A hard-working vacuum cleaner was being ploughed up and down the carpets by a Bar Assistant who stopped when I asked to  see Nicki.  Sitting at a table overlooking the newly landed Poppyfield Green, it was easy to see everything was ready for incoming customers; surfaces gleamed, Menus advertising Mother’s Day were prominently displayed; the bar was ready for action.

The view from the window towards Poppyfield Green

Menus awaiting customers.

When Nicki arrived, we left the diligent Bar Assistant to his vacuuming and  moved towards the back of the pub, where Nicki, who is one busy lady, managed to find an hour of her time for me.

***

“I’m originally from Winston Green, near Stowmarket and moved to Felixstowe when I was twelve. I started working at The Hand on a part-time basis when my son was eight months old, back in 2008, It was very convenient, as I was living in Trimley at 372, Elm Tree Cottage – about a two-minute walk away. I started off doing about three shifts a week and it gradually built up from there. The landlord at the time was only here for a few months. Since then, there have been five or six different Landlords. The Landlady immediately before me was Louise Askins who was in charge for about fourteen months, which was the longest time since I’ve been involved with the pub.

I moved into the Pub during Covid when my partner and I moved into The Hand, although I was running it from 2026. It’s owned by Punch Taverns, who also own The White Horse in Old Felixstowe. I was one of the first to embrace the Partnership and am of the longest serving. It certainly helped working here beforehand as I knew what to do. All the partnership pubs have good communication through a WhatsApp group which helps if there should be any problems. The Children were very, very excited when we first moved in. They wanted to help behind the Bar, but I had to explain, they couldn’t. Being here has really helped their social skills and luckily, they’re never disturbed by the pub noise. My partner also loves living in pub.

As far as COVID was concerned, I was very fortunate because although I had to pay the Staff furlough that was about it. Friends of mine in a tenanted pub really struggled but we got off comparatively lightly on that front. After interminably long months, the Pub re-opened on 12^th April 2021, when we were permitted to serve food and drink outdoors but not inside.

 

The Hand in Hand re-opens after a long cold Covid winter

12^th April 2021.

Well-separated tables outside The Hand on re-opening day.

12^th April 2021

Now the pub is open every day of the week from twelve until eleven at night. On Sundays we close an hour earlier at ten, but when we have a band we run from twelve ‘til midnight. Wednesday is probably the busiest day of the week as the weekly Beer delivery arrives at seven. It’s the day I clean the lines, which are flushed through in stages, and it takes two to three hours to complete the process. The dusting, cleaning, and polishing happens every day and all of us take turns. We have about ten staff now on different rotas. The wages are done by an accountant but it’s ordering which takes the greatest time.

We choose the stock from the Brewery list. Yes, we do have guest ales but not they’re not necessarily Suffolk ales. When it comes to re-ordering our bestsellers are  the real Ales. They do very well and I’m very particular about my ales; we have a Cask Mark. everything has to be kept clean because the aroma and the taste have to be just perfect. I always check everything from the glasses to the cellar. My other good sellers are shots. They’re very popular in the evenings. Wine drinking for both men and women has increased and there isn’t much distinction their drinking patterns.

I love the pub, I love the people in it, they’re almost like family and I’m not alone in feeling that way.. One of the staff calls it her warm space. We’re a proper community pub. It’s never intimidating and always so friendly. We have some very long-standing regulars amongst the people coming in. At least two have been drinking in here for seventy years, Denny for fifty years and some for at least thirty years. And I’ve been here for seventeen years, one way or the other. The best hit is always the customers and I look forward to coming to work every day… I can spend a lot of time downstairs on my day off.”

Outside the pub is Toppy’s Bench. He and his wife Margaret were regulars. After her death, he continued to come to the pub. On Music nights, he would dress up and jig around.  He died about five or six years ago.

The bench in front of the board is for Toppy and Maureen.

As for the history of the pub, well, I’ve been told there were three cottages behind the pub, at what used to be the bottom of the garden. They’ve all gone now. (Note: High Hall Close now occupies the space where the  Pub Garden and earlier houses were situated.) Our last big extension was in about 2015 when Louise was here. The Bar hasn’t been touched very much and is probably the core of the building. Upstairs we have some large hooks hanging from the ceiling, perhaps a left over from earlier businesses.

The increased room means we can hold about a hundred and fifty people, absolute max. Our Band nights always attract a lot of attention, and we easily attract over hundred people or more. We hold these fortnightly, usually on a Saturday, sometimes a Sunday. The Brewery pay the music licence which is part of the benefit of a managed partnership.

Band nights in March and April 2024

Clearly the kitchen plays an important role in the life of the pub. Originally, I wasn’t involved in this branch of the business but due to a period of staff sickness about eighteen months ago, I started helping. and  can now add this to my skills set.Like many other food outlets, finding a Chef is a real problem. The best sellers probably the Roast dinners. The Vegetarian option includes Butternut Squash and Lentil and there are vegan dishes available as well. In fact, there is an increased take up on the vegetarian and vegan front although usually most customers are meat eaters.

Dry January doesn’t affect us at all, but we do have a choice of non-alcoholic drinks: ale, lager, and cider. I didn’t see any change this year to others.”

***

I asked Nicki if people have different taste in  beer glasses nowadays. It seems to me as though dimpled mugs are no longer so prevalent, and they appear to have been superseded by taller lager glasses. Do people continue to keep their own mugs behind the Bar? Nicki replied by saying one customer drinks from a leather mug and she does have a box of older pewter mugs which keeps in a box elsewhere as there is no room behind the Bar. They will not be thrown away although the owners are unknown. Nicki went off to fetch them for a photo opportunity. They landed in front of me as if from a different century, which is probably the truth. After they were dusted down, they were placed on the table, a salute to those anonymous earlier drinkers.

 

Pewter mugs from a different age.

So much has changed since The Hand started life as a Beer House, probably in the Eighteen Forties. It has seen rough behaviour and good use. How many of Trimley’s past inhabitants have been through the doors since it first opened? Impossible to say. The Pub has altered with additions and alterations. The gardens, the gravel car park to the side and the brick bus shelter have all gone. But it seems to me, the one constant is the warmth and hospitality of this friendly local now closely protected by its’ latest Landlady.

“It’s my baby”, says Nicki in affectionate accents.

And indeed, it is.

ADDENDUM

Since publishing this Blog, Les Farthing has been in touch to say the naked lady tankard  belonged to him. He left the village in 1982

If you have any comments or would like to be part of this Trimley St. Martin project, please contact me at:

trimleystmartinrecorder@gmail.com

LR  26/04/2024

 

Rowing Club Award dating back to the nineteen nineties.