psmv5: Horseshoes: continued

This being continuation of the post at reference 1, starting with my trying to find out a bit more about the place, that is to say the 'Three Horseshoes' gastro-pub in Madingley.

First stop gmaps, if for no other reason to tell me where the roads are, so that I can locate the place on older maps.

Next stop Scottish National Libraries, with this map from fairly early in the 19th century showing the building but not labelling it as a public house. Which is not, I imagine, to say that it was not one.

But by the end of that century it had acquired the label.

Then Bing turned up the snap above, with the caption: 'Three Horseshoes, Madingley, 1929 (L Cobbett – MoC)'. I then learned that the place burned down in the 1970s and what you see today, snapped at the top of this post, is the rebuild, probably including some surviving bits and pieces.

Plus the rather strange chimney sat in the middle of the ridge.

I failed to find much more history myself, but Google's AI search assistant offers what is snapped above.

Lots of pictures at reference 2, the first of the references above, from which we learn that the house joined the Cambscuisine family of public houses in 2018.

Reference 3, the second, offers a short history of Madingley plus a paragraph about the pub:

Tiny Madingley, dwarfed by the Hall and its gardens, has one pub, the Three Horseshoes. It has been in existence since 1765, if not before. Attractively thatched, as is the village hall nearby, the pub we see today was built in 1975, following destruction of an earlier building by fire.

Reference 4, the third, is a glossy booklet about Madingley Hall and the surrouding estate, including the Three Horseshoes, bought by Cambridge University in 1948. Nothing about the pub, but I am reminded that we used to take Sunday afternoon walks in Madingley woods when I was young. And the Rackham, noticed, for example, at reference 15, gets a mention here.

Going further afield, reference 5 does not add much history, although it does remind me that they went in for the expensive looking plague pods that we first came across when we stayed at Denham Grove, most recently noticed at reference 6.

Reference 7 comes from a database which looks to be maintained by an archaeological heritage operation and tells of plans to build some B&B out the back plus various other improvements. Which leads to the full-on, lavishly illustrated new-and-badger report, aka Preliminary Ecological Appraisal, to be found at reference 8. I quote:

Stands of Japanese knotweed and land within a 7m radius (which is likely to contain contaminated material) is considered to be within an infested area and it is advised that entry into the infested area is avoided. Should the works require entry into the infested area, it is recommended that a bespoke Invasive Species Method Statement is firstly produced detailing measures to mitigate the potential spread of the existing infestations.

What with heritage and newts, it is all getting a bit out of hand.

Reference 9 was a red herring, it taking me rather longer than it should to work out that a pub in the village of Asthall, which I now know is in the middle of Oxfordshire, was the wrong one. I think the chain of thought, such as it was, went place burnt down in the 1970s so not that surprising that it looks a bit different in old pictures. But it did make me wonder how careful the likes of Gemini are about such matters. How easy would it be to trick it into conflating material about several horseshoes into the one that you are interested in? The same problem is going to arise in spades with the names of people. While reference 10 is more a food report than a history report, but at least it is about the right place.

So after all this, failure: I have failed to find out anything much about this establishment in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, apart from confirming its existence.

And while the last three of the AI overview's five points about the place are corroborated, the first two are not. Maybe I should ask Gemini.

I also remember having trouble running down the history of public houses on the Internet before. And then, maybe with the old building being burnt down well before the invention of same, no-one has much bothered about its history. Maybe one should go to the County Record Office? Or to the archives of Madingley Hall? Where one might find records of tenants, rents and repairs.

But moving onto the visit proper, I kicked off with a pint of Lacons, a brewer I remember as having houses in Cambridge when I was young, too young to go into such places. Presumably the present Lacons is a proper descendant of those Lacons. Which the about page at reference 11 suggests might be the case - up to a point, Lord Copper. Good beer though.

Amuse bouche; a pleasantly different variety of humus.

Soup; served in an impressively large plate.

Main; an interesting presentation of pie. All good stuff, if a little light on greens. Maybe I should tell them about the excellent greens probably sold at the nearby Bar Hill Tesco's. They certainly do at the Ryde Tesco's. We shall probably be having some of them tomorrow.

In any event, too full to consider dessert, settling instead for another go at Lacons.

On the way, giving some thought to how Gemini would do answering test questions about Shakespeare's Richard III. I did try this later and will be reporting on that in due course.

And being reminded about Clive Wearing of reference 13. I thought perhaps I might have read the memoir at reference 14, but perhaps I read about him in one of Oliver Sacks' books. The tragic story of what might happen if you lose the ability to form new memories. No trace of any of this in the archive this evening, but I will try again.

PS: gmaps might know all about Madingley, but the blogger spell checker, clearly from another part of the empire, does not.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/07/horseshoes-preliminaries.html.

Reference 2: https://onetwoculinarystew.com/2018/02/03/the-three-horseshoes-madingley-cambridge-uk/.

Reference 3: https://adam-yamey-writes.com/2021/04/05/a-small-village-near-cambridge-2/.

Reference 4: https://www.madingleyhall.co.uk/assets/article-image/Madingley-Hall-and-Estate-walk.pdf.

Reference 5: https://threehorseshoesmadingley.co.uk/about.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/05/harefield.html.

Reference 7: https://casework.jcnas.org.uk/case/132688.

Reference 8: https://docs.planning.org.uk/20240801/179/SDL3T8DXIP400/sc5b8br0kuxd9had.pdf.

Reference 9: https://www.carolebamford.com/rediscovering-the-three-horseshoes/.

Reference 10: https://honeyandricotta.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-three-horseshoes-madingley_6.html.