“Dear Brother, I find myself this evening with an English friend in an inn in the heart of the country far from the screeching howl of London. Yours H.” This post card of The Lytton Arms was sent in 1907 to Freiburg in Germany. It shows the pub before its stables were removed to create the entrance to the car park. Stables were more useful to a village inn than a car park in those days.
I have just returned from this same forecourt with a basket full of delicious walnut bread and a box of mince pies, purchased from the pub’s neighbour Derek Hughes, who’s been setting up his bread stall, The Earth’s Crust, here every Sunday morning. It is such a pleasure to buy bread from a local in front of the local.
I hope we all get to spend much more time inside our two Knebworth locals in 2021 – and all continue to support our local businesses, almost all of which have struggled in the lockdowns and restrictions of 2020. With an image of this happy duo sitting “over a glass of English stout” in The Lytton Arms 114 years ago, I share the messages they send from 1907, “many salutations” and *your health!” for 2021.
Henry Lytton Cobbold
@HenryCobboldKH
