"On a warm May evening, having decided to cycle to the next village to check out its pub, we ended up cycling on to the next village and then the next. Happening upon a closed pub, destined for more housing and then a pub called the Queen’s Head that was really a Thai Restaurant, but closed, we considered heading home defeated for a glass of something cold from the fridge. Thankfully we took a look at the Apple Map and noticed another Queen’s Head only a mile or so down a side road at Newton. Intrigued by a second pub with the same name so close we pedalled up the hill the first hill we had found cycling around Cambridge flying through the warm evening air down the other side to arrive at the marvellous Queen’s Head, Newton. As a student in Brighton in 1973 I developed a life long taste for Harvey’s Best Bitter and clearly remember the Gestetnered pages being circulated by the founders of CAMRA advising which pubs stocked real ale, the beginning of the British beer revival, a reaction in part to the mediocrity of product and huge advertising budget of Watney’s Red Barrel. Apparently the Queen’s Head played an important part of the creation of CAMRA after the Landlord decided to start stocking Adnams bitter, which meant meeting the brewers dray at a lay by near the Suffolk border in order to obtain supplies. This is a pub that has proudly retained its heritage and a menu unchanged since the early 70’s and I loved it. It will not suit everyone. If you want laminated menus with a long list of dishes, ready to heat packed in chilled plastic, you are advised to go elsewhere, and please don’t write a wingeing review here. If you want an authentic English Public House with excellent ales straight from the cask, a long family tradition of keeping a Free House, decent wines and a simple menu, then the Queen’s Head, Newton at this five ways cross, on the old main coaching road from London to Cambridge, is the place for you."
