I finished the Cheshire Guide entries at the weekend, and the county’s new GBG pubs were as varied as you could hope. There was a clutch of entries south of Northwich, many with the irksome opening hours that Beer Guide tickers love so much. I seem to have missed Moulton off my travels, and I… Continue reading MOULTON’S LION – SALT OF THE EARTH
Month: August 2016
WINSFORD – SUBSTANCE OVER FORM
South Cheshire has some of the biggest contrasts between adjacent places anywhere. Old fashioned Nantwich struggles against craft-capital Crewe, while Sandbach and Holmes Chapel feel a world apart from the salt mining towns on the Weaver and Wheelock rivers. Middlewich has a pleasant canal network, but it was harder to see the merits of Winsford… Continue reading WINSFORD – SUBSTANCE OVER FORM
WARRINGTON – LOOK UP
When Mrs RM and I first started crossing into the The North (at Catchems Corner) 25 years ago, Warrington was a bit of a bellwether town. Multi-room pubs, boarded-up shops, folk dressed up for their curry as if they were going to a wedding. Don’t see that in Cambridge. I still stay there occasionally; there’s half a… Continue reading WARRINGTON – LOOK UP
SWANSEA – SKATEBOARDS, SPOONS (AGAIN) AND SUMMING-UP
I am now an expert on UK indoor skatepark exteriors, having taken my son Matt to nearly all the UK’s scruffy looking shacks. The best one is in Warrington, the one in Stockport is genuinely terrifying but at least there’s good pubs nearby. The discussion* about Swansea‘s revival tends to focus on the marina, but… Continue reading SWANSEA – SKATEBOARDS, SPOONS (AGAIN) AND SUMMING-UP
DRAUGHT BASS & JOE’S ICE CREAM IN THE MUMBLES
2015/16 season was the first for a while I failed to get a ticket for Swansea v City, which has always a good chance to get soaked in May and make a few more inroads into Glamorgan’s huge slice of the Beer Guide (93 entries !). While Matt competed at the scary looking skate park,… Continue reading DRAUGHT BASS & JOE’S ICE CREAM IN THE MUMBLES
DEEP SLADE DARK BY THE GOWER
We were on the home strait now, with a last Welsh stop in Gowerton on the edge of Swansea. Two minutes off the M4,unless you’ve got a tall campervan in which case it’s twenty minutes to avoid the railway bridge. The bikes came off the back for the first time Caernarfon but oddly only I… Continue reading DEEP SLADE DARK BY THE GOWER
A TALE OF TWO SPOONS
We’ve been to a lot of Wetherspoons in Wales. In fact, so many that I’ve used all my quarters 50p vouchers already, which surely qualifies me for some more. With Spoon’s current relative retrenchment, I can’t see them opening a lot more in Wales, but they already have them in some fairly small places like… Continue reading A TALE OF TWO SPOONS
CARMARTHEN CYFEILLION
Our last stop was in Carmarthen, given short shrift by the new “Rough Guide to Wales” so obviously a vital stop for us. Actually we stopped in Johnstown, right outside the Friends Arms. Mrs RM sent the boys ahead to buy laver bread, leaving the crisps and nuts for ourselves while we nipped in for a… Continue reading CARMARTHEN CYFEILLION
WHERE AM I ?
I stopped in a long street of a village, nondescript till you get to the eastern edge, which contains a couple of attractive looking pubs, the church, and some well marked walks. In the Beer Guide pub It was good to see craft lager from nearby(ish) Wrexham, but I went for a Congleton classic, a… Continue reading WHERE AM I ?
ABER ABER HEY
Our journey round tourist Wales progressed five miles inland to the farming village of Llanarth, whose immaculate caravan park was conveniently placed 2 miles from civilisation. Lovers of the Fens (seemingly anyone but me) would enjoy the calm. You could see the sea from one spot on top of the toilet block. The main activity of… Continue reading ABER ABER HEY
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