An interesting but pointless debate about our dullest county yesterday. The chap who rated Wiltshire below Bedfordshire is clearly the sort of troll this blog thrives on.
Lincolnshire gets bad press from the bourgeois and beer bloggers alike, mainly because of being flat and having seaside resorts that prioritise fun over prosecco. Which reminds me I need to go back to Skegness this year.
Slightly less exciting than the “bracing coast”, but Grantham called last week.
This used to be exactly an hour up the road from us on the way north (Yorkshire within 2 hours !); now with A14 “improvements” it’s more like an hour and a half. But on long trips we’ll always wait the extra 20 minutes ’till Newark, whose market square is a joy at 8am on a sunny morning.
Grantham isn’t unattractive, and its own Spoons is one of the best places in the UK to catch the rarer-spotted 9am lager drinker.

In fact the Stagger Inn appears to be competing for the pre-Spoons business. Opening hours of 6am to 9am will surely stretch even the Pubmeister and BRAPA.

Sadly, Grantham’s main attraction, the display of Lady Thatcher’s handbags in the town museum, was again closed, much to Mrs RM’s consternation.
The second best attraction is, of course, never shut;

“Why can’t we go in there ?” said Mrs RM, clearly an unprofessional drinker who never walks further than absolutely necessary.
“And must you keep stopping to photograph banks and dead cake shops ?”
In complete contrast to the Angel &Royal, where we once stayed for £35, BeerHeadZ is your typical micro pub in many ways. Except it’s now part of a mini-chain, so it can’t be. Quite why Retford and Grantham get one but Newark doesn’t, I can’t explain. That castle has been standing derelict for years.
Plenty of seating, so you can guess where the customers were.
But the locals parted like a Stoke City defence to let me see the pumps, then gave me the benefit of their beer advice. I like that. You instantly know which beers are selling fastest.
A North Riding Stout and a Tickety Brew Blonde for the blonde*, as it happened. Cool, beautifully presented in top quality glasses and with a Northern head. Noticeably, only cask being served at 2pm. Micro pub prices, as well.
Mrs RM looked at her phone, I joined in a conversation about the late, great Tom Petty whose career was being debated at the bar. Being a music bore, if not a beer bore, has its advantages when folk want to know where the Travelling Wilburys singles got in the chart. On cue, the lady in charge put on Tom’s greatest hits, a fabulous accompaniment to an afternoon’s drinking.
Quite how the conversation then got onto “Nellie the Elephant” I never found out. Anybody know the link ?
Very pubby, and Mrs RM liked it, which is all that matters.
Before Grantham CAMRA ask, yes I have done the other excellent pubs in town, including the inimitable Nobody Inn.
Any of them would make an ideal warm-up for Grantham’s curry scene, now centred on the three (count them) Nepalese restaurants. Not all on the same day, mind you.
*Am I allowed to say that ? Mrs RM is very keen to make it clear that she drinks the pints in our house.
In there Friday too! Nice post. Quite good I thought- believe one is planned in Lincoln.
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Lincoln would make sense, though on last visit there seemed to have been a burst of craft driven places in the county town
There is one planned for Nottingham. Alan may be first to review it.
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I would like to think i will be the first to review it,it is planned to be in an old building on Nottingham train station.
We are picking off new bars in Nottingham,yet to add them to Pubs Galore as i am so far behind,we spied another new bar on Friday,but to drunk to go in after a massive session at the Nottingham beer festival.
I was hoping that Stoke City were going to stuff you lot,but took great pleasure in watching Crystal Palace beat Chelsea on match of the day,Palace must have the best fans in the country.
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Good addition to the station, If that’s right.
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Now you’ve got me wondering where the Travelling Wilburys got in the charts. Not to number 1, I’m guessing. Sounds like a lovely afternoon; there aren’t many who can fill a greatest hits collection with so many back to back classics as Tom Petty. Loved the line “parted like a Stoke City defense.” 🙂
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Number 21 in UK, 45 in US. Thought it was more successful in the US.
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Imagine if they’d got the group together in the late 70s: Harrison, Dylan, and Orbison working together would have been much bigger news back then, and ELO at the very height of their success. The exact same songs would have got much more attention, I bet.
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Spot on. Might have sounded very different in’78, given Dylan’s preoccupations back then !
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6am to 9am – what sort of a place is that? No wonder every time I’ve been to Grantham it felt a bit dead, I mustn’t have been going early enough?
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If you left home at 4 you could be there for 6am.
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There is no BeerHeadz in Newark as Phil Ayling has financial interests in both Just Beer and BeerHeadz (or did).
The BeerHeadz website also suggests Melton as a forthcoming venue location, in addition to Nottingham and Lincoln.
Whilst I am here, may I just add how much I appreciate all the effort you (and your regular commentators) put into this blog. Keep up the good work !
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Thanks Mark, appreciate that and the clarification. Comments make a blog.
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