retiredmartin

One of the few downsides of the improvements to the A1 (Newcastle in 3hrs 30) is that it’s much harder to turn-off to little Knottingley these days.

That’s meant that our custom for West Yorkshire’s finest pizza takeaway has rather dried up.

Dario’s is still hanging on in the fairly grim little arcade along the A645, but just along the town has been boosted by a smart Lidl and Morrison. I stopped in the latter for one of those proper giant yorkshire puddings (£3) you don’t get down south, and admired the mural. It was a filling breakfast, and kindly Morrisons don’t tell you the calories.

The kick-boxing club called out to me, but instead I tried to walk those calories off.

What a lovely place (really), countless crossings of the River Aire give you a real hotchpotch of views. Greener than you’d think, but with those gorgeous chimneys all around.

You’ll have to visit Selby to get industrial views as good as this;

The cobbled area down by the church is foreboding but attractive.

Shame about the pubs.

A succession of boarded-up and burnt-out casualties of 2007 made grim viewing. Pub Curmudgeon wrote about keg pubs this week; I bet the majority of pubs in Knottingley were keg after John Smith’s Smooth edged out cask. I thought keg pubs aren’t logged on WhatPub yet, but it must have been my fat fingers as there’s loads of them listed by lovely Wakefield CAMRA.

Plenty of factory social clubs to admire, and of course it’s possible that Rockware and Stolz is about to add Cloudwater DIPA to it’s Carlberg/Stella/Fosters roster. Possible.

One great survivor, even if it’s been edged out of the Beer Guide this year by a craft invasion.