The Corby Candle - Corby

If I've learnt just one thing from my recent visit to the Corby Candle pub, it's that I now know why the Corby Candle is in fact called the Corby Candle, and in so doing feel just that little bit more 'Corby' myself. So why the 'Candle'? Why not the Tavern In The Town, or the Welcome Inn, or some other generic New Town banality.

Well! There are, or at least were, two famous Corby Candles, only one of which (above) now illuminates the centre of town practically all hours of the day and night. Until the late 1970's when Corby Steelworks went into irreversible, and ultimately terminal decline, the waste gasses from the steel and iron making process needed to be burnt off, the gaseous flame emerging from the top of a huge steel chimney that flickered romantically over the town night and day.

This Welland Valley Wonder was known locally as the Corby Candle, and would have been quite a sight in its day. So much so that when Northampton's mighty Phipps Brewery was given the opportunity to open a shiny new-build pub in the commercial centre of town, they chose to commemorate the famous Corby Candle by naming their pub the…err, Corby Candle.

In fact my understanding is that the naming of the pub was put out to tender, arrived at via the time-honoured and locally democratic method of a newspaper competition. A competition which a Twitter friend of mine, a former Corby resident, proudly revealed her Uncle had won. Now that's winning!

Incidentally, a small section of the original Corby Candle stands at the edge of the old Steelworks site on Phoenix Parkway (above), a brightly painted memorial to Corbys industrial heritage that's unfortunately located nowhere near the eponymous pub, or any pub for that matter. Go see it anyway, it's a faded green marvel, and the parking's free.

So that's the name dealt with, and a very appropriate name it is too given that the saying in Corby back then was 'Keep the Candle burning, keep the town alive. Keep the Candle burning, and the town will survive'. A rhyme that reflects the very fragile position of industry and manufacturing in 1970's Corby rather than any fears the pub might close early! The Steelworks are of course long-gone now, but the Corby Candle pub, whilst not actually aflame most nights, still burns bright as Corbys premier town centre boozer.

Photo used with the kind permission of Alison Bagley

So a fitting start to this blog and my Corby pub explorations. A pub that'll surely be a shoe-in for Roger Protz's new book 'Five Pubs in Corby To Try Before You Die!', when he gets round to writing it. Anyway, less talk of dying, more about the Corby Candle.

I popped in on a Saturday at 11am, which for most pubs would be opening time, not so the Candle! I was greeted at the door with a cheery "Hello". There's always at least one person enjoying a smoke at the door so you'll certainly be greeted too, it's a friendly pub like that. I was greeted inside too by what I can only assume is the pub 'Greeter'. I got a toothy smile, a single 'thumb-up', and an equally cheery "Y'alright!" from a wiry chap of Scottish decent and uncertain age, as indeed did absolutely everyone who arrived after me. 'Very' friendly then, though I do have to acknowledge the possibility he thought I was 'Police!' This was going 'very' well indeed, time for a pint.

As you can see, the Corby Candle is a very traditional single-room post-war flat-ish roof townie boozer, quite recently refurbished with a strong delineation between the 'posh' carpeted side, and the main bar/games area which is where everyone, barring myself of course, was relaxing with a pint(s). Two entrances suggest it was a two-roomer at one time. My trusty local CAMRA pub guide of 1990 offers few clues, though even then it was top of the 'Other Pubs/Clubs' league table, holding Corinthian off the top spot for a record 50th successive season. “C'mon The Candle!”

Opinions vary on the current opening hours for the Candle, a frankly hard-to-believe 9am is one suggestion, more likely it's been put back to a more COVID-safe 10am. If I should find myself in Corby Town at 9am any time soon I'll confirm the truth of it one way or the other, don't hold your breath though, my eyelids are rarely open at this ungodly time, my stomach certainly not open to the idea of a pint.

I had the closest thing to a coffee on the menu, a creamy pint of Dublins finest export stout. This is one of Corbys rare 'No Real Ale' pubs, I don't think there's much demand for dimpled mugs and foamy lacings in the Candle. Everyone was drinking the Carling, and waiting patiently for Manchester United to kick off in just over four hours time. The Guinness was as good as Guinness ever is. Cold, wet, ...something! But I know now that I should have had a Carling too. In hindsight I don't think it was the Moleskin Hunting Jacket, Gold-tone Pheasant Brooch, Tweedy Hat, and freshly waxed Walking Boots that marked me out as 'definitely not local'. It was the Guinness. Stupid me!

Anyway, here's something for the Pub Carpet Bloggers, a modernist classic I think you'll agree. Talking of 'modern'... Progressive readers will be delighted to know there were two (2) women in the pub that day, one of which was behind the bar obvs! The other bustled in on her mobile phone, delighting the bar crowd with a running commentary on how she'd knocked her pint over with a wayward boob the other night. I felt this was well worth a loose change deposit in the pub charity box, these stories don't make themselves up you know! David Bowies 'Quicksand' dropped on the jukebox, quite 'feminine' I thought, and I judged it was time to go before Bon Jovi spoilt the moment. The barmaid bid me farewell, the 'Greeter' however was silent. Not his job I guess...

Other beers and cider are available of course, including the John Smiths Smooth that I foolishly missed first time round. Stupid Me!

I wasn't done with the Corby Candle! I need another visit, all the better to experience a later, potentially livelier pub. Because 11am on a Saturday is all well and good, but it's not Friday night is it! Not that I'm going on a Friday night you understand, I don't like the Friday night pub experience, Corby or otherwise. Too busy, too rowdy, too noisy. Two o'clock seems a more reasonable hour, approximately five hours into a typical Corby Candle weekday session. I still hold something of a candle for the Corby Candle you see... (tbc)