DODGING DOOM BAR IN DODWORTH

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Another overnighter in the Kingdom of Barnsley, this time in Dodworth, about which I can tell you nothing.

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Except that it has two chain hotels (bargain Ibis), a business park, a health spa, two curry houses and six pubs.  Take away the health spa and you’ve got an attractive town there.

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The Ibis is next to a Toby, which we guessed wouldn’t quite match the pubby joys of Barnsley.  I considered suggesting to Mrs RM we walk into town to see if the Conservative Club was still serving Wobbly Bob, but I didn’t want to end up in Barnsley A&E.

So Dodworth Costcutter it was.  Alongside a tea of cream crackers, goats cheese and Balti mix, we had a choice of the following;

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Luckily, Mrs RM could see the shop assistant was hiding the “craft beers” alongside the prophylactics and paracetamol (don’t get them confused) behind the counter.  Blue Moon, Brooklyn and Brewdog.  And that was just the “B”s.

I need not bother telling you her choice, The fact you can get Punk IPA in a Costcutter in Barnsley, but can’t get Draught Bass in any Beer Guide pub in Cambridgeshire, says all you need to know about the genius of Messrs Watt and Dickie.  I think.

Well, we couldn’t resist the Toby Carvery on the way back. After all, we’d had so much fun in chain family pubs recently in Newark and Tankersley.

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It was still lively well past peak food hours, so Mrs RM found a seat next to the giant toy grabber. She couldn’t win the cat, but did find herself in earshot of another family group determined to play out their domestic dramas for our benefit.

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Back at the bar, for a moment I thought all the attractive pumps were dispensing Doom Bar.

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Stupidly, I paid the extra 60p for a pint of the Barnsley Bitter that Mrs RM described as “foul“.  It wasn’t that bad, perhaps NBSS 2, but I bet the Doom Bar was better.

American and Canadian readers may be interested to see the Toby Craft Keg range;

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A Toby Carvery is hardly a destination pub on the outskirts of any town, but when tied to Innkeepers Lodges they’ve always been a reliable place for a cheap roast over the years in places as exciting as Stoke, Wigan and Stockport (OK, Heaton Chapel*).

They’re distinguishable by the tat on the walls, which is often a collection of bawdy postcards, UK musical history, and Toby jugs.  Better than Ember, anyway.

For a while a decade ago they had some decent beer on, seeming to settle on Thwaites, then Brakspear, and now Doom Bar.

I can assure you that no-one else in Dodworth that night cared how well the cask was drinking.

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*Selfless research at IndyMan confirmed the Heaton Chapel Toby is now a faceless Miller & Carter steakhouse, without an obvious handpump. Bad news on the A6.

 

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

25 thoughts on “DODGING DOOM BAR IN DODWORTH”

    1. You’re just a posh Southerner then, mate. Toby are hardcore (used to sell house wine by the litre for about a fiver, that’s hardcore). They do smell of boiled cabbage though…

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  2. Farmhouse Inns were originally created by an independent company called Cloverleaf Inns before being taken over by Greene King. They opened one in Runcorn called the Evenwood Farm which I went to a couple of times for a meal when my mum and dad were alive. My impression was large portions of very ordinary down-to-a-price food. But they did have Moorhouses Premier Bitter before the takeover!

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    1. Moorhouses ! Grief. I took a look at the list of locations.

      Thornaby, Castleford, Grimsby, Oldbury, Paisley, Gateshead, Sutton-in-Ashfield etc. The last of those, King’s Mill is a big roadside pub I enjoyed in the Beer Guide recently, bu that’s the only one I’ve ever noticed.

      Clearly targeting the gentry.

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      1. I think they were originally North-West based – there’s another next to the motorway junction at Bury. I’ve written before about how the rise of the new-build family dining pub has largely fallen under the radar of beer bloggers.

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      2. Indeed, and you’ve also reflected that you often get a consistent pint there, even if it is largely Greene King in this case. Intriguingly, the What Pub entry for Sutton suggests a choice of northern or southern dispense for the IPA !

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      3. You’ve also observed what you might call a “proper pub atmosphere” in some of them, possibly a result of them being frequented by, er, normal people 😉

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  3. Tha shudder cot bus and gone inter tarn. In fact tha cudder walked it, it’s nobbut a mile n ‘alf. When wi missed last bus from tarn n ad to walk it, wi knew wi were abaht quarter o’ t way hooam when we got to Dod’rth!

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      3. Used to love it in Old Number 7, apparently it’s a real ale pub now? Acorn I think? But oh, back in the late seventies, what a place. When I was in 6th form, kids used to come to skool telling tales of having been in the downstairs bar in the #7 on a Saturday night, but they were liars because we would have seen ’em!

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      4. Didn’t know it had a history. It’s been Barnsley’s answer to North Bar (honest) for a decade. We ought to organise a night out in Barnsley for you. The Cons Club is a cracker.

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      5. Downstairs was always a bit edgy and the haunt of the local Punks. To be fair the entire town was a bit edgy at weekends and you’d alway see several fights every Friday & Saturday night. Last bus was, from memory, just after 10pm for us so we always took it in turns to drive.

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  5. “American and Canadian readers may be interested to see the Toby Craft Keg range;”

    🙂

    Ok, back to playing host to sisters and nephews and others on my darling wife’s side of the family for our Thanksgiving.

    Cheers

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    1. Hmm… there should have been a “shudders” before the smiley face. But I used which may do something different in viewing.

      Maybe I should have used [shudders].

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  6. I bought an Austin Maestro from Dodworth once. Didn’t manage to check the pubs out but did manage to get back to Stockport without a hitch. It was only a few months later driving over the Snake Pass when the oil seals went and there was a puff of smoke the same shade of blue as the car that I regretted my decision. Should have kept the beige one!!

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