The Middy Bar
The Middy Bar, or The Kitchener Arms, is the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway’s on-site bar.
The converted carriage is a popular local hostelry serving a range of real-ales, local cyders, and wines and spirits.
The bar is open on Friday evenings from April through to September, when you can also get a bar meal.
The bar is also open on most steam days and special events.
Bar Opening Hours:
- Friday evenings: 6pm-10pm
- Sundays: 12noon-4pm
Stowmarket Shuttle Bus Connection
The Middy have partnered with the Eastern Counties Bus Preservation Group to provide a bus connection from Stowmarket Rail Station to the Middy Bar.
The bus runs on specific Fridays whilst the bar is open, as given in the bus timetable below:
The Kitchener Arms
The Middy Bar was named after Field Marshal and Chief of Staff in the first World War, Lord Kitchener, now probably best remembered for the famous recruiting poster ‘Your country needs you.’
Lord Kitchener was a relative of the Chevallier family who owned Aspall Hall and ran the well known cyder business. In 1902, when building of the Middy was well under way, it was discovered that the great man would be making a family visit. He was persuaded to become technically the first ever passenger on the new railway, but things did not run smoothly and the story has it that Kitchener was taken to Mendlesham to join the train which was actually waiting for him at Brockford. He was not amused.
However, the bar (a grounded G.E.R. 3rd class 6 compartment coach), is much more successful, providing a range of local real ales, Aspall’s cyder, of course, and a variety of wines, spirits, soft drinks and beverages. The Middy Bar has become so popular that during the summer months it is also open on Friday evenings from 6.00p.m. for the benefit of the local Wetheringsett residents, who would otherwise have no pub of their own.
Middy Bar sign image not to scale.