An Uncaptured Castle So It's Chow Chow For Now

Today we took the short trip back to Tonbridge to investigate the 'top end' of the town that we'd bypassed completely on our last visit. In particular we were hoping to capture some images of the town's castle but when we arrived at the entrance it was cordoned off in preparation for an upcoming Christmas Fayre, meaning there was a complete lack of decent vantage points to get any shots from.
Our initial plans thwarted we decided to look for somewhere to have a spot of lunch and settled on frequenting The Ivy House pub which is just a stones throw from the castle grounds. It is one of the oldest buildings in the town, a tile-hung property which dates back to the 15th Century and started life as a toll-house before being converted into a public house under its original name of The Elephant & Castle eventually being renamed The Ivy House somewhere between 1950 and 1963, on account of the fact that at one time it was said to have been covered in, you've guessed it, ivy.
 You can certainly see all that history inside with the uneven floors, low ceilings and plethora of beams - it really was a very characterful place to enjoy our lunch of lemon and ginger chicken bites and katsu curry loaded fries. 
After our lunch we continued our walk along the High Street looking for more of the historic heart of the town and found most of its older buildings were actually off the main thoroughfare down some of its narrow side streets including a lovely honey coloured stone church and a cottage called Tyger's Head, which again dates back as far as the 15th Century.
For some reason I was unable to capture any images of this aspect of the town that I was happy with and it is was only as we took one last stroll along the High Street that the vibrant colours on the outside of this Chinese take-away, with its glorious 70's looking sign, grabbed my attention and I was sure I had got my shot for the day - it was just a case of it has to be chow chow for now! :-)
It also brought back some memories from when we were kids as our dad would sometimes get us a Chinese take-away on his way home from work on a Friday as a special treat.