Combe Downer Alert

That Jekka Gal said:
Just been served a pint that was a good inch and a half from the top of the glass so, as you do, I pointed out to the landlord that he’d just served me a Combe Downer.

Tumbleweed.

Obviously a blow-in from London with no local knowledge so, I explained, the term Combe Downer originates from the days when the stone used in the construction of Georgian Bath was quarried on Combe Down on the southern edge of Bath. These quarrymen were a boozy lot and the pubs would serve them takeouts that were carried down into the mines where they were at work but to prevent any spillage they would be filled to within an inch of the top of the glass. Hence a Combe Downer.

Miserable sod, I was expecting a free drink for that inneresting little factoid but he could barely bring himself to even top me back up. The days when my local knowledge = kerching-a-ding-a-ling are sadly over it seems.
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Are you a Bathonian? I have lived and worked on Bath for the last 20 years (and 12 before that from birth to the age of 12, then lived away for a few). And my wife also a born and bread Bathonian (grew up a stone's throw from Combe Down) is the only person I know that has ever said that when in the pub!

I've always asked if there was a shortage!
 
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