retiredmartin

March 2026. Waterbeach. Waterbach Gault looked rather lovely last Tuesday. Less so, the contents of the skip we’d hired to clear muck from garage and potting shed. The house sale rumbles into its 15th month, quite the most stressful 15 months of my life. It’s inevitable, really, that everyone walking past a skip will cast… Continue reading ON SKIPS, AND SAMPLES IN THE SUN

March 2026. Chesterton. Back down in Waterbeach, where Dad was looking better groomed than myself, and then a catch-up with Dortmund Annie to discuss “stuff” at the Haymakers. A possible answer to a quiz question, Milton (via Waterbeach) Brewery’s flagship is the only pub in Cambidge High Street, which is actually in the underpubbed suburb… Continue reading THE SNUG IN THE HAYMAKERS

March 2026. Sheffield. We have more honoured guests arriving next month, so we used Sunday to do a risk assessment on the nearby streets leading to pubs, starting with the toughest of them all. Actually, the Blake Hotel isn’t too bad to reach from ours, you just wouldn’t want to run up it from Upperthorpe… Continue reading VANDALS

March 2026. Norton. North Yorkshire.. Not THAT Norton, Dave If you include virtually contiguous (love that word) Norton as well as Malton the population is 12,275, I read that somewhere. Norton is very much Malton’s hidden away ugly nephew, even though it’s somehow bigger, and has fewer pubs. I head there now, via the blue… Continue reading AMAZINGLY, NOT A PINT OF LANDLORD IN NORTON

March 2026. Malton. North Yorkshire. Before I cross over the picturesque Derwent to my second pub, I must reflect on Malton’s astonishing pub scene. Ignore those grey Ps (unless in Wolverhampton); I make that fifteen (15) pubs for 4,888 people in a town mostly famous for cafes and bistros and hidden food courts. Let’s explore… Continue reading MALTON – 4,888 SOULS, HOW MANY PUBS !

March 2026. Malton. North Yorkshire. This won’t make a lot of sense to most of you, but my brain only really comes to life when I’m taking in new sights, sounds and smells experiences, which is why the repetition of those A1 trips from Sheff to Cambridge are so exhausting. But stick me on a… Continue reading THE “SLASHED Ø” IN ØMNI

March 2026. York. You might think the hardest part of the pub ticking game, the toughest in the world, is working out which one of the sods are going to deign to actually be open when you tip up. But actually it’s the logistics of travel, deciding whether to take the campervan to Guisborough or… Continue reading 22 MINUTES AT YORK STATION

March 2026. Long Sutton. Lincolnshire. A couple of nights down in Waterbeach seeing Dad, eating Nepalese mixed grill at the White Horse, and trying to fathom out the new post box on The Gault. and then, like Supertramp, the long way home via Curry Charles and Dereham Spoons. Charles is in splendid form, though he… Continue reading GBG EXCITEMENT IN LONG SUTTON. YES, LONG SUTTON !

March 2026. Heeley. Sheffield. Mrs RM couldn’t bear being inside any longer either, and on Tuesday we took the tram out east to the housing estates of Park Grange, with a view to Bramhall Lane and not much else. 20 minutes downhill brings you to Heeley, “beloved” of the Sheffield middle-classes for its organic knitting… Continue reading A HEELEY VIEW

March 2026. Sheffield. Sheffield is a great city but I can’t spend a whole day there. Mid-afternoon on Monday I headed down to the station, intending to bring you exciting reports from, I dunno, Retford or Adwick. But there was “trouble beyond Worksop“, and my sister called, and I abandoned my mission at the Rutland… Continue reading WHAT’S ON THE JUKEBOX AT THE RUTLAND ARMS, THEN ?