My Top 100 pubs will be places I could recommend without hesitation, particularly if I’ve been able to revisit them in the last six months. There’s also a tranche of brilliant places with a big question mark over them. The home-brew Globe in Glossop is one; the Duke William falls into the same category. I visited… Continue reading THE DUKE WILLIAM, STOURBRIDGE
Month: January 2016
STOURBRIDGE – BOSTIN’ BUT NO BATHAMS
Sorry for Black Country cliches, but they were all present and correct on Friday night. Friendly folk, cheap good quality beer and curry, “Noice”. There were a couple of Beer Guide newbies to visit, but the real reason to visit was a new indoor skatepark for my son to tick off (ticking starts young). We… Continue reading STOURBRIDGE – BOSTIN’ BUT NO BATHAMS
CAFE BEERMOTH
As Café Beermoth has had such glowing reviews since its surprisingly prompt opening last month, I thought I’d share a less happy tale. Last week I suffered a loss I’m only now coming to terms with. After the Manchester Beer Fest I appear to have lost the collection of CAMRA Newsletters I’d spent 2 hours accumulating.… Continue reading CAFE BEERMOTH
SPRINGTIME IN ST.NEOTS
I’m going to be spending a lot of Thursdays in St.Neots for the foreseeable future. This bit of Huntingdonshire/East Bedfordshire is still flat, but does have some decent walks along the Ouse and enough urban development to pass a couple of hours. In Potteries style, St Neots is a collection of villages either side of… Continue reading SPRINGTIME IN ST.NEOTS
BLUE MONKEY SPREADS ITS WINGS
What Arnold lacked in architectural interest it made up for in cheap dining options. Compared to Cambridge the many pubs and cafes were thriving on Wednesday lunchtime. The Spoons was packed with OAP diners, and even at £1.05 no-one wants to drink a coffee standing up. The most attractive looking alternative was The Coffee Grinder,… Continue reading BLUE MONKEY SPREADS ITS WINGS
ARNOLD LANE
Enough of the glamour trips to Wigan and Altrincham. Back to gritty reality today and a first real exploration of Arnold, something of an omission on my part, even given Gedling Borough’s status as a real ale desert. Most of Nottingham’s best pubs are within a mile of the central square. Nottingham itself continues to… Continue reading ARNOLD LANE
UNDERPASS
Just back from a dull morning in Ely, with no market on, and just the one Beer Guide pub that I wrote about on Mrs RM’s birthday. I was really struck by the lack of street art though. One of the great joys of urban walks, apart from the pubs, is the increasing quality of… Continue reading UNDERPASS
IN GRANTCHESTER
Weston Super Mare was eager to highlight its famous sons, but I only showed you Mr Cleese when I reported on my visit the other week. Lord Archer is its other claim to fame;’ I still can’t picture Jeffrey as the Brizzle Rovers fan though. Jeffrey’s books and plays have entertained me intermittently over the… Continue reading IN GRANTCHESTER
ON THE EVIL KEG IN LEICESTER
Having eulogised about the Manchester Beer festival, I should have expected a slightly frosty reception on my return home from Mrs RM, who is three weeks into Dryanuary (and Chocolatefreeanuary which is worse). To compensate, I drove her to Leicester today, ostensibly to take our youngest son to a refurbished skatepark; you can see that refurbishment… Continue reading ON THE EVIL KEG IN LEICESTER
THE TRAIN TO WIGAN BEER
This week at the Manchester Beer Fest I met the amiable Nick, a pub fanatic from the States via Erlangen. He’d been to many of Greater Manchester’s famous pub towns, and was later found (obviously) enjoying Stockport. I recommended Wigan for his next trip, and think he’s just found it great as I did recently.
I love Wigan; you probably could have guessed that. Last Summer I ended my first 25 mile walk there, walking most of the suburbs in a way that you wouldn’t contemplate in the featureless East, and collapsing in the impressive new Premier Inn.
The parks, from Haigh to the Flashes to central Mesnes, are consistently beautiful, and then there’s Worthington reservoir (strictly Standish). People talk to you, beer costs less than £2.50 a pint and you can get a pie on a barm, as well as good Thai and Italian food.
The town has come a long way in the 20 years since it I first visited Springfield Park, and the town had a somewhat faded allure. In those days the Beer Guide was full of Burtonwood (Pear Tree), Tetley (Springfield) and probably Greenalls, and very good it was too after a soaking on the terraces.
The last 15 years have seen the modernisation of the football, the pub scene, the Wiend and the shopping centre. Their Grand Arcade is better than it’s overrated namesake in Cambridge, but they’ve managed to keep their Victorian arcades. Wigan is a Victorian gem.
After a period when their pub scene seemed to be dominated by vibrant nightlife venues (Berkeley, Boulevard, Tudor House), Wigan has got the micro bug of late, and it does micro-pubs very well.
I missed the highly-rated Tap’n’Barrel on my recent visit, but Doc’s Symposium and Wigan Central were high quality. Prospect to my mind are one of our most underrated breweries, and their seating in Central as characterful as anywhere outside a Sam Smiths pub.
Elsewhere, I much enjoyed the décor at the Raven and John Bull’s Chophouse, the latter being the best advert for Thwaites I could recommend you.
And no mention yet of the Anvil, one of the UK’s best drinkers pubs. All Wigan needs now is a bit more variety in the suburbs, and the revitalisation of the Orwell.
I miss the proper boozers of Standishgate – the Royal Oak, Millstone & Bowling Green were minor classics, all now replaced in the Beer Guide by more modern bars and micro-pubs, but Wigan still has a rich and varied central pub stock that would be the envy of most towns
retiredmartin 