The insidious invasion by micropubs continues apace, knocking perfectly good locals serving Jennings Bitter out of the Guide as it goes. It was inevitable that small towns that had lost their “York National Bank ” or “Everitt the Butcher” would end up giving a recently retired couple the chance to serve beer like this, to a room… Continue reading NOW, EVEN HORNSEA GETS CRAFT
Month: March 2017
MAMMOTH PENGUINS & THE LAST CASK OF CLOUDWATER
A short break from east coast market towns (don’t worry, they’ll be back) as I put a tenner into the local economy on Wednesday night. £5 for some great guitar pop at the Portland Arms, and £5.20 for a pint of what might have been the last ever pint of Cloudwater. (It wasn’t). Could this… Continue reading MAMMOTH PENGUINS & THE LAST CASK OF CLOUDWATER
DRIFFIELD – LOSE AN EAGLE, GAIN A BUTCHER’S DOG
“A man who is bored of modest East Riding market towns lacks the willpower to finish the GBG” Driffield is one of the more handsome of those towns, but that doesn’t explain just how busy it gets mid-week. Busy enough to support a dozen pubs, so let’s not complain. But it doesn’t even have… Continue reading DRIFFIELD – LOSE AN EAGLE, GAIN A BUTCHER’S DOG
MARKET WEIGHTON & THE BRITISH REAL FISH & CHIP SHOP ADVENTURE
Time to leave the delights of Dronfield and head towards Driffield (or is it the other way round), with a stop in lovely Market Weighton. Clearly a town in the slipstream of euphoria engulfing our Capital of Culture, MD was awash with OAP visitors on Friday lunchtime. If they were aiming to complete the East… Continue reading MARKET WEIGHTON & THE BRITISH REAL FISH & CHIP SHOP ADVENTURE
MINING THE DRONE VALLEY
More Dronfield, in fact the new CAMRA branch’s pub of the year. You can see Hundall to the east of town on yesterday’s map extract, and there’s not much more to it than the Miner’s Arms and this tree. But it’s an impressive tree. Resilient, like the local area and its clutch of proper drinkers… Continue reading MINING THE DRONE VALLEY
DRONFIELD – THE GLOSSOP OF THE EAST
As noted many times before, the Beer Guide leads you to places the average Englishman has never heard of and will never visit, waiting instead for a Virtual Reality headset that allows them to explore Goole and Maidenhead from their living room. They’ll miss out on the delights of Dronfield, a resolutely traditional bit of Derbyshire despite… Continue reading DRONFIELD – THE GLOSSOP OF THE EAST
MELBOURNE 1 v DONINGTON 1
South Derbyshire isn’t much fun in the rain, unless you’re watching thousands of old blokes with Sabbath T-Shirts drowning in the mud. The countryside around the mudbath, airport and racetrack is unexpectedly hilly and attractive, though obviously with special appeal for fans of power stations. Last year’s rare visit to Castle Donington found the micropub… Continue reading MELBOURNE 1 v DONINGTON 1
BUT IS IT A PUB ?
I was delighted to read recently that the good landlords of Melsonby and Aigburth had randomly changed their opening hours to deny fellow GBG-completists Simon and Duncan the chance to finish North Yorkshire and Merseyside recently. They can see what a finished county looks like above; Lincolnshire looks splendid in pink. The Hare & Hounds… Continue reading BUT IS IT A PUB ?
FROM WEST BERKSHIRE TO LA SCALA
Another London Sunday night gig, another attempt to find nice things to say about N1. Having just completed the capital’s Beer Guide quota for 2017 (not all in one night), and with no obvious pre-emptives, I had a rare evening not dictated by The Book. So I rambled aimlessly for an hour or two… Continue reading FROM WEST BERKSHIRE TO LA SCALA
LEEK – BASS, BUCKETS, BALTI
Interesting series of Twits* about Leek last night, kicked off by this, "Got my 27,000th beer tick last Thursday" announced the rather excited & proud punter in a Leek pub who didn't appear to have any friends — Martin (@6TownsMart) March 26, 2017 reminding me to write up our mini-trip to “The Queen of the… Continue reading LEEK – BASS, BUCKETS, BALTI
