This post title only works if the locals really do pronounce it CRY-ch, of course.
Crich is the first place out of Derby or Nottingham where you’re really aware of the Peak. Their transport Museum makes a useful place to entertain toddlers who are young enough to be fobbed off with brightly coloured trams, before they realise Thomas the Tank Engine is somewhere else.
It’s a solid village.
I took some photos of Crich but they are irredeemably dull so I’ll spare you the rest. Oh, alright, here’s the Hovis sign.
And you thought there was quality control on this blog.
Good hilly walking, and plenty of ramblers to prop up some good pubs, including an overdue GBG newbie in the Black Swan.
A decent turnout of folk in oversized socks carrying laminated OS maps, and I can’t even claim they’d only walked from Tesco as there isn’t one.
It’s an Ashover pub, so I scoured the bar from right to left looking for a beer I’d heard of. Wait ! What ?
Due to the amount of time being taken up in Parliament by other business, there has been no repeal of ancient laws that make it ILLEGAL to pass up Draught Bass in the Amber Valley.
I’m not sure if they understand their sacred mission; I couldn’t even see Bass on their list of beers, and the red triangle was lacking from the otherwise excellent glass.
It clearly wasn’t the beer of choice of the walkers-cum-tickers, and while good (NBSS 3) it couldn’t match the highpoints of Stockport or Staffordshire. I’ve said it before, eight beers on the bar is an awful lot in a village pub.
Let the lacings (or lack of them) reveal…
But I’m quibbling a bit. If the Oakham or Nethergate had been my choice I wouldn’t have mentioned the lack of sparkle. And it’s a lovely looking pub, again offering some cheap, hearty grub. And pies.
A soundtrack of 60s reggae (“Let your Yeah be Yeah“) and 70s rock would have satisfied both Beer Mat and Mudgie.
On the downside, that perennial invader of toilet walls Mr Jools Holland was at it again ? How do you avoid Jools ?
retiredmartin 
There used to be some good Kimberley pubs in and around Crich.
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I remember a few in the GBG; not all became managed GK houses either.
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Fantastic post! Not been to Critch but you can rely on Derbyshire for solid pubs and Bass! Surely too many hand pumps?
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That’s my line, Ian !
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Copyright Taylor @2018
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That Bass looks a tad hazy. Eight pumps outside a city centre or beer anorak venue is just daft.
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But, but, people want GHOICE !
That Bass was fine by the way. Just not classic.
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Since it’s your own comment…
“But, but, people want GHOICE !”
Was GHOICE yet another beer that wasn’t on the list? (heh)
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General Hoppiness Only In Caskconditioned Eh!
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Well done with the ‘eh’. (LOL – thumbs up)
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I do like the owner of Ashover’s openness to other breweries. He said to me once “people want choice.” I agree that selection may be too many options, but nice to see the variety of breweries in what appears to be a tied house.
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If the choice is between an attractive pub with eight guest beers of OK quality and a plain pub serving life-changing Bass it’s a hard call, I’ll give you that.
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Tram museum for toddlers! Much better without them and the beer in their pub, Red Lion?, is a decent standard. But only 2 hand pumps both Bass.
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That entrance to the Black Swan is really lovely. Jools Holland is one of those “famous in the UK” people– due to his TV show, I gather?– who remains nearly unknown over here. I think of him mainly as “the guy who did those delightful keyboards on ‘Piccadilly’ by Squeeze.”
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Jools Holland, where do I start ?
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“Should be in the middle”
I see it waaay over on the left. 🙂
“Bar Snacks”
Is the Apple and Poets tipple Chutney made with real poets? 😉
And concur with mark; it looks like another luverly pub.
Cheers
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Bass should always be in the middle of the bar, and the other pump clips should be left in the middle of the draw 😉
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“Who does that resemble ?”
Hmm… suspicious amount of lacing halfway down I’d say… as a student of the emerging science of scumology, I believe it could indicate a Bass drinker who re-envigorates his ‘fine but not classic’ Bass halfway down by blowing through a straw (paper, not plastic one of course)…
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Ha Ha.
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I could have said that I was picking up a faint outline of Jools Holland in the lacings….but I was worried that it might have put you off Bass for life…
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Ah, yes, I remember Crich about thirty years ago before the Hardy’s and Hanson’s shareholders put their greed ahead of the interests of Nottinghamshire drinkers ( not that I’m saying there’s anything wrong with Greene King beers ) and the Kimberley Brewery had all four pubs in the village, the Black Swan, Cliff, Jovial Dutchman and Rising Sun. I remember we had a meal, I think in the Jovial Dutchman, that was no better than I would now expect in a ‘high street barn’, the licensee asking how it was when he collected the plates, me replying “I’ve known worse”, him being most offended and me thinking that he shouldn’t then have bothered asking.
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Tricky subject, asking and giving opinions. Easy when a pint or a pie is “off” or too hot/cold, much harder when it’s just unexceptional.
I was just reading the distraught owner of a restaurant responding to 3 star reviews on Trip Advisor with “If it wasn’t great why didn’t you tell yours server at the time” !!!
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