The Royal Oak - I think - the pub at Hooks Way in deepest Sussex north of Chichester had a superb song session or Friday or Saturdays in the mid-70s. Beer from a barrel in the back room. Public bar. Market-gardeners. Cheerfully obscene version of Old MacDonald. Perhaps the first pub song session I ever went to. Last time I saw the pub, the public bar had become a restaurant.

The Fox at Bucks Green, West Sussex. Had a song session on a regular weekend evening c 1975. Documented by Phil Gorton - Google for it - pub still going with an emphasis on its expensive fish menu.

Ram Ciderhouse - Catteshall, Godalming, Surrey - song session from probably the 70s - overtaken and dominated by instrumentalists despite changing to another evening - the instrumentalists joined that too. I found it on my neighbour's recommendation about '94, which got me back into folkie stuff. Ed Rennie popping in warning his Post Office uniform to sing or play melodeon, Phil Atkinson, Keith Calton, Kevin Gorton and many others.

The Ram fell foul of UK bureaucracy. Needed updating for hygiene and sound-proofing, but was a Listed Building - half-timbered with wattle-and-daub so couldn't be knocked about. A solitary neighbour was complaining to the EHO about noise from the amplified rock nights. Chief Exec of local council described it as a 'dinosaur'. She later left under a cloud, but the damage was done. And there was other stuff. Now a very expensive private residence.

The session from there has been round, not necessarily in this order:

Rose and Crown - stayed until Frank and Marilyn retired when that pub became a wine bar and the music moved.
Scratchers - Three Lions - forget what happened there.
The Freeholders, Farncombe - Banjo Bill the host moved out.
Richmond Arms - locals didn't like it so a short stay - but been back fleetingly.
Kings Arms - was postponed because of confusion over licensing, then management changed their mind.
Currently at The Star on a Monday and the Red Lion on a Wednesday. Fingers crossed.


There was a first Sunday session at the Merry Harriers, Hambledon, Surrey - had apparently always happened - pub didn't want to go through the PEL process. So it stopped.

There was a long-running ballad session at the Ram at Firle - saw a piece on the Times website to the effect that the pub had been tarted up and the hippies discouraged, so who knows?