Two weeks I spent in North Wales at the turn of 2007/2008 led to my love for quaint British pubs. Seriously, it was there and then that I made it a habit to have a drink of local beer whenever I visited a pub in Leeds, York, Wales, or Essex. I spent over 7 weeks in Essex in 2010, working and living with a few other colleagues in the house of another colleague. On one occasion we stopped by The Plough and Sail pub in Paglesham, near Rochford. As I recall coming up to it by car, the pub stands by a sort of cul-de-sac: the cars can only drive to, and not past, the pub. On the pub’s territory were the cages with birds, and inside the pub there was this lovely display of miniature whiskey bottles.
The pub has stood on its place for some 300 years, and most of the building dates back to the times when oyster smacks were meeting at the pub, when they worked at Paglesham.
