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Combs Ford Gladstone Arms
Combs Ford Gladstone Arms
formerly Bold Buccleuch
Takeaway available Wed-Sun: 1600-2000. Delivery also available on Thursday.
Real Ale is sold here.
2 Combs Rd, IP14 2AP
grid reference TM 050 577
A large, open plan, single bar pub serving consistently good beer. It's situated just over half a mile from the centre of nearby Stowmarket. For fine weather drinking, the beer garden is located beside a small stream (the River Rat).
It is a sister pub to the Dove Street Inn in Ipswich and loyalty card holders from the Dove Street Inn may use them here.
As well as a range of up to 14 Real Ales plus a range craft ales, there are four or five ciders and a wide range of lagers, imported foreign beers and whiskies. Real Ales are served either through hand-pumps and on gravity
Sky Sport and BT Sport are shown.
There's a toilet accessible to disabled customers.
Facilities
Accessible to disabled customers
Beer festivals
Beer garden or other outside drinking area
Beer served direct from the barrel by gravity
Beer served through handpumps
Bus stop nearby (see transport links for details)
Cider (real draught, not keg) available
Dogs welcome
Evening meals
Family friendly: Indoors until 19:00 and outside till close.
Live music
Lunchtime meals (not just snacks)
Newspapers available
Parking
Pub sells beer from local brewers
Quiet pub - no electronic games, piped music or jukebox
Real fire
Sport TV
Traditional pub games available: Dart board
WiFi available: Free
Railway station about 0.8 miles away (see transport links for details)
Gallery
Nearest railway station
Other nearby Suffolk pubs
Historical interest
The name changed to the Gladstone Arms in 1878.
It was owned by Colchester brewery from 1910 to 1927. It was subsequently owned by Ind Coope & Co until 1961 when they became part of Allied Brewers. They sold the pub to Adnams in 1992.
The pub underwent a complete refurbishment during October 2014 and reopened on October 31st 2014.
Landlords
Footnote
Walter Scott of Buccleuch was a Scottish nobleman and famous border reiver, who led a raid against Carlisle castle on 13 April 1596 to release Kinmont Willie Armstrong who was imprisoned there. Walter Scott was later tried and imprisoned before being sent to London, and was even presented to Queen Elizabeth I. Bold Buccleuch was also once a popular name for boats and also a steamer that traded from Hull to Yarmouth in mid 1800s.
William Ewart Gladstone (29 Dec1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British Liberal Party statesman and four times Prime Minister of the UK (1868–74, 1880–85, 1886, 1892–94). He was also Chancellor of the Exchequer and a champion of the Home Rule Bill which would have established self-government in Ireland. Also famous for an intense rivalry with the Conservative Party Leader Benjamin Disraeli. The rivalry was not only political, but also personal. When Disraeli died, Gladstone proposed a state funeral, but Disraeli's will asked for him to be buried next to his wife, to which Gladstone replied, "As Disraeli lived, so he died — all display, without reality or genuineness."
Gladstone was famously at odds with Queen Victoria for much of his career. She once complained, "He always addresses me as if I were a public meeting."
(Most pub, location & historic details collated by Nigel, Tony or Keith - original sources are credited)
(detailed information from Neil Langridge - and also Brian Southgate - see their book "Stowmarket, Combs and Stowupland Pubs" published by Polstead Press in 2009)
(** historic newspaper information from Stuart Ansell)
