You’ll know I’m not a Beer Festival fan.  There’s too many beers you won’t be able to drink in an evening, or ever see again in your local pubs, and as soon as the sun comes out the beer is a little too warm for my liking. But local CAMRA branches clearly enjoy putting them… Continue reading EVIL KEG FILTH AT CAMBRIDGE BEER FEST 2017

Pub Cat is just there to grab your attention. While I upload 367 photos to OneDrive, here’s 2 issues I’d appreciate some thoughts on. Firstly, forming queues in Wetherspoons.  What’s so bad about it ? The alternative is eight people strung along a bar, and a barman asking desperately; “Right, who’s next ?” “Pint of Carling”  says… Continue reading PAYING FOR BEER – A QUESTION OF PROTOCOL

  My first pub for ten (10) days, which tells you how much catching up I’ve been doing on the blog.  Mansfield/Sutton. Lymington and Ancrum still to come. But I need to bring you up to date on a great lunchtime session in Barrington today. The Royal Oak isn’t in the Beer Guide (yet), but… Continue reading BARRINGTON’S ROYAL OAK CEMENTS IT’S REPUTATION

Another in my occasional series of pubs you can walk to from the Motorway Service Station if you’re not quick (and you’re not driving, of course). A sort of alternative to Mr Protz’s guide to the Great North Road, perhaps. I haven’t heard from Alan Winfield for a while, I hope he’s OK. There’s something… Continue reading TIBSHELF SERVICE STATION PURPLE PUB

  Much of north Sussex looks like my in-laws home in the Wells; green, prosperous, as cluttered as an antiques dealer, but with faded charm. A place they put the tea in before the milk*. Attractive towns and villages like Crowborough and weatherboarded Rotherfield are really suffering from the effects of traffic these days.  They’ll get… Continue reading ANGELS IN THE (ROTHERFIELD) ARCHITECTURE

Trips down to Kent and West Sussex do seem to involve a lot of halves of Harveys.  I’m not sure any regional beer is as ubiquitous in local Beer Guide pubs as Sussex Best.  I’m a fan, but it’s rarely stunning, except (as here) in Hailsham. Twenty years ago Mrs RM and I stayed in… Continue reading EEYORE CONTACT AT POOH CORNER

This can be Number 1 in a series of posts advising American visitors to Sussex where to visit, or avoid. I can’t imagine that Dick and Dave will be able to contain their joy when they enter the Squirrel,on the western outskirts of Battle, to be handed a John Denver LP. Or if you’re really lucky,… Continue reading INTO BATTLE

  Last year I popped in to Andover at the end of Dryanuary and found it in rude health, at least as far as unpretentious pubs and beer quality go. What it lacks in classic architecture, Andover makes up for in budget hotels, ideally placed on industrial estates and service stations. Sadly the Premier Inn… Continue reading THE SLOW DEATH OF TUESDAY DRINKING IN ANDOVER

Nowhere on our sceptred isle is without charm, of course, but I’ll confess my heart sinks a bit as I hit the M3 roadworks for a third time in a month, en-route for the new GBG joys of Basingstoke.   Actually, I started in Silchester, a few miles north, and I doubt folk there see themselves… Continue reading BACK TO BASINGSTOKE

  Back from Scotland to a rare post about my home county (ish). You’ll be thinking that’s a spelling mistake at the top, particularly if you’re Pub Curmudgeon and know to expect them. Not so.  The Three Horseshoes in Graveley is owned by tiny J.Wadsworth wine merchants of St. Ives in Huntingdonshire, perhaps our  most low-key… Continue reading WADSWORTH IN HUNTS