retiredmartin

Having had to do a post without any photographs yesterday,  it was inevitable I’d find a forgotten cache of pictures from the summer while housekeeping today.  So here’s a bonus post on the magic of Melton.

We visited the town as it opened an impressive new skate park, in those nervy moments before the first burst of graffiti marks the park as officially “rad“.

Melton Mowbray is now “rad” itself, as a fairly new micro puts it in the same pub league as Gillingham, Leighton Buzzard and of course Driffield.

There’s only so much you can say about micropubs, but the Gas Tap had the regulation bench seating, local beers from the barrel (Brewsters NBSS 3) and those packets of olives that keep Mrs RM happy.  It certainly had a lived-in feel, perhaps a little too lived-in for some, and sits well alongside the other basic places along Burton Street.

Longer opening hours, but only us in on Saturday lunchtime, which was sad.

It’ll be a while before Melton gets “Beer Destination” status, but the pork pies bring the OAPs into town on an almost Bakewell scale.  The official pie shop had sold out by 1pm, but the pork pie platter in Nigel’s Coffee Shop was as legendary as Nigel claimed. You wouldn’t necessarily live long if you just ate that, but you’d live well.

That alone was worth the trip, but so was the town museum, packed with the sort of displays on fox hunting, pub games and weird animals we’re deprived of in Cambridge. Some small girls were very scared by the ones below, which would have impressed Simon immensely.

There’s some gorgeous stone buildings round the church, including what may be Everards flagship pub (top). This is an unpretentious town, with no sign of the craft revolution apparently tearing up the rest of the East Midlands. Craft cheese and pies will do for me.