GETTING UP TO MISCHIEF

Chapter 1

So we were outgrowing Adam and Eve in more ways than one. Always packed every lunch and evening, but also the children were growing at an alarming rate and needed space to play. The Adam & Eve was small, the living accommodation, just two very small bedrooms, a living/dining room & one small bathroom. We shared the kitchen with the pub. One evening we were eating out at little French restaurant on Magdalen Street. Can’t remember the name, it’s not where Rocco’s Hobbs was, nearer to Howards Fish Shop, Roger loved going there as they always cooked Lapin à la Moutarde one of his favourite dishes. Think it may just have been called French Bistro. I recall we had a table by the window and could see the Mischief Tavern. The Mischief had been in the news as the occupants, an Irish couple had been given notice after losing their licence due to a fracas with a shillelagh! Roger thought it would be a great addition for us as so near the Adam we could manage both. So we set off to the brewery once more and enquired about the prospect of taking it over. This time two children in tow. We made an appointment to look over the property one Monday afternoon in early 1976. My sister Celia babysat. The tour was memorable in that the place was horrifically dirty. Piles of dog poo in the two small courtyards, dog hairs matted over the carpets. The toilets smelled of stale urine and the private accommodation was well let’s just say, my chicken run is cleaner……. The couple that ran the Mischief before the Irish pair were Billy & Leslie Izard, typical old style landlord and landlady. Always popular with the theatre crowd as Billy was I believe an actress in her younger days. Billy and Les were given a promotion pub and moved to the Bull at Hellesdon in Norwich where they were successful until retirement. I’m glad she didn’t see the state the Mischief had been left in! It was around this time Roger was approached by the Norwich & Norfolk LVA to sit on their committee. They needed young blood and as Roger was mid twenties now with boundless energy he accepted! More background work for me as within two years he was chairman due to the premature death of Freddie Crome of the Lord Raglan, and the resignation of the vice chairman due to ill health.

The problem was that it was Monday dart night and by sheer coincidence the Adam & Eve B team were due to play at the Mischief that night. That left me with a slight problem. How could I tell my team to come home to the Adam and not touch the sarnies offered at the Mischief. …. as I saw the landlady making the sandwiches in appalling conditions. We didn’t want to disclose that we had been looking at the pub with a view to taking it on. So I lied… an expensive lie as I promised free drinks plus bumper buffet if they came straight back to the Adam after the match ended. We did confess all after we made the announcement that we were the new licensees.

The Mischief clientele had degenerated somewhat after the Izzards left. Bikers, drunks, ladies of the night, one who threatened Roger with putting a knitting needle through his eyes if he tried to move her on! We took over the Mischief at around Easter 1976. A complete refit, knocking down the two walls between the three front room/bars to open it all up. Complete refurbishment of the toilet block, re plumb, new electrics. Builder Steve Munford worked under our interior designer Lee Johnson whose father, Vic Johnson, ran the American Club for our former employer Geoff Fisher. The spacious accommodation was also refurbished at the same time. Luckily we could still live at the Adam until the accommodation was habitable. It was a push but the renovations were complete and we opened with a bumper party in late August 1976.

At the opening party John Stokes, MD of Norwich Brewery, asked me a question. “If you could go anywhere in the world now where would you go?” I didn’t think for long I just thought I’d be a bit adventurous and say,” well I fancy China or Russia”! Two weeks later we got a letter to say we had won Innkeeper of the Year and were being taken to Moscow for a short trip with several other couples who had been outstanding! Before the trip we had to meet the other couples and were primed on what to expect, how to behave in Russia at that time. We must wrap up warm! We were warned about the strict laws in Russia at the height of the Cold War. We were told not to mention The Beatles or Rolling Stones but that chewing gum and Levi’s & ladies tights were in great demand. I must have had a reputation then as I recall customers joking that I’d probably end up in Siberia working in a prison salt mine! So in November that year we were off. I remember landing and being taken onto a coach from the plane, the coach had blinds so you couldn’t see out. I made a move to pull the blind back to look outside but was quickly stopped by a rifle butt on my shoulder! Not before I got a glimpse of a Nissan hut type of building! This was the Moscow arrivals terminal! Inside all our luggage was opened and inspected thoroughly. My copy of Cosmopolitan magazine – a new monthly was confiscated!!! Roger was questioned about the large number of tights in his suitcase!!! We stayed at the prestigious Hotel Rossia! Not like any posh European hotel, more a huge new block hotel but very basic. Each floor was guarded by a stocky female guard! We were also sure there were listening devices in our rooms. The food in the hotel was almost inedible! Lots of beetroot soup and most meats cooked in yak fat! We all booked a coach tour around Moscow, our female guide proudly admitted to us she was a member of the KGB, our visit included the fabulous St Basils Cathedral, the beautiful marbled underground stations lit with chandeliers whilst beggars paraded the streets with feet bound in scraps of rags. We visited the statue dedicated to the first Russian in space – Yuri Gagarin. The huge department store – the Harrods of Russia – was a store called Gum – more like an indoor market , very poor selection of clothing and electrical goods & the smell of halitosis. We visited Lenin’s tomb, queuing along with various other members of the public ranging from KGB officers to beggars! Nothing fashionable or any range of choice in any shop. The fashion seemed to be very 50’s. We attended the Bolshoi ballet – my personal highlight. We all dressed up evening dress expecting this to be “de regueur” but alas we were embarrassedly over dressed as many Russians were in very poor clothing. In the interval though we had a reception to attend with Champagne and canopies! Roger reminds me we all had thick coats to store but were told there was much pilfering so the boys bribed a guard with chewing gum to look after our coats – he was very obliging. Another evening we visited a large restaurant with a caberet stage. On arrival we were served a bottle of wine, a bottle of champagne and a bottle of vodka EACH along with lashings of smoked salmon and caviar! We couldn’t drink it all obviously so many of us passed the vodka and wine to the soldiers ! We were all “Starvin Marvin” by now so tucked in and drank rather too much. The show was great with a difference. All circus type acts such as strong man lifting, juggling, acrobatics and so on, no singing and defo no comedians! We sat on very long tables, very few tourists other than the 30 of us, but Red Army soldiers & KGB all trying to out sing themselves completely drunk on our booze! Roger had a dance with a very attractive female KGB officer whilst us girls found ourselves being chatted up ( we think) in Russian by a guy in uniform – I have no idea what he was saying but his commanding officer warned him off! Back at the hotel we managed to bribe the guards with tights and chewing gum so they allowed us to have a gathering in one of the guest bedrooms! Monica and Kelly from the Red Lion Stoke Holy Cross ( now Wilderbeast) had packed nibbles, biscuits and such like which we all tucked in to. The trip was amazing despite the restrictions and we made lifelong friends such as Sally & Norman Brown ( Sally Clements) Bob & his wife from the Royal Oak North Walsham road, Bob after he retired became our first ever cellar man at the Ribs years later.

The addition of ‘Hesters Carvery’ ( named after the wife of Alexander Thurston who built the original building as a merchants house ) a chilled food cabinet at the end of the bar was a helpful boost to our catering trade at lunch time. Our lunch trade was supported by the HMSO staff, many offices in and around the area, Jarrolds printing works and the Army recruitment office to name a few. Soon the catering trade at lunchtime was booming and we refurbished the back bar. We knocked the old toilet block and corridor down and put a bar in, then knocked through the wall to the old back bar and put in steps. We reopened this in 1981 Called it Alexander’s room! Beautifully furnished with dark green buttoned back leather furniture made for us by Alan Daynes of Norwich Reproduction, opposite on the corner of Fishergate, now a coffee shop. Another copper top bar from Trevor Hall. Alexander’s Room was in fact the old Jaquard Club before it moved to Magdalen Street. Alexanders room became popular as a weekday lunchtime restaurant and function room in the evening and weekends. business boomed and I found myself needing help in the kitchen and with the children. Help came in the form of my dear old friend Carol Squire and new lifelong friend Jilly Schmit (now Bulger). Jill and I produced some amazing buffets catering for many weddings & celebrations. If there was ever a dull moment we had a party but more of that later.

When we first opened The Mischief Roger was very proud to be one of the first owners of a sit down Pac-Man Machine! He got the idea from Amsterdam where he had seen it on our travels with Douro and Jenny Potter! Dear old Brian Bedford from Bell Fruit supplied it wondering if such a thing would take off !!! Roger would sit and play on it for hours in his break, despite me getting the children to call him for dinner! Later we extended the side bar at the front of the pub adding luxurious new toilets and a pool table. Always looking for more space, years later we added a cellar bar called The Pits!!! The entrance was from the front bar so gave us good access from our original cellar entrance. We had a cage built to house our private wine collection which could be viewed and admired. I say admired as Roger lost the key so we couldn’t drink any of the good stuff! That we had years later at Catton Old Hall with many great friends – another story fit later on!