LOITERING IN LOUTH

 

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The otherwise dull Lincolnshire has some towns that never disappoint, Louth being rather more reliable than Grimsby.

I know very few folk who’ve been to Louth.  Part of the joy of ticking pubs, rather than scooping unusual beers sitting on your sofa in your underpants*, is that you’re forced to visit places like Skegness, Aldershot and Knutsford that you wouldn’t otherwise touch with a barge-pole.

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Weird Louth walk in full

Like most places in the county, Louth suffers in comparison with Stamford, just as everywhere in Cheshire suffers against the Stockport standard.

Mrs RM and I first stayed in town (in the Masons) 20 years ago, when Guide entries alternated between Bateman and Boddington and John Smiths.  Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive etc.

dav

Not much has changed.

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Ceramics

The view from Upgate to St James is still gorgeous,

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Upgate
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St James

the narrow streets still lead to dead ends,

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and the cobbled lanes still have weird little flags along them.

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Cobbles

Clearly brioche wasn’t invented back in 1998,

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Craft

but Charles was thrilled with his first guided tour round Louth (I only charged him half-price as a mate), though disappointed we didn’t seem to be heading for the best looking pubs,

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Olde Whyte Swanne  – Russ would have a field day with spelling

but rather a modern housing estate out near the canal. The Woolpack, oddly new to the GBG, looked the part in the afternoon sun.

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Woolpack

With little lighting evident inside, it also looked closed at just after 2pm, and I was relieved to find the door squeak open.

It wasn’t the basic boozer we were expecting, with some plush benches and sofas contrasting with a gorgeous old bar.

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Brown
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Plush

Half a dozen in, and a nice mid-afternoon buzz, but I still look on a crowded bar with suspicion.   So the recently pulled XB for me.

Charles can never go for the simple solution.

“Where’s Grafton from, please ?”   (He’s well brought-up)

“Ooh sorry, no idea”

“Make it up then”

At least he didn’t humiliate me by asking for a sample.

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It’s from Worksop !!!

The XB had a scummy head, the Grafton was good too for a foreign beer, both NBSS 3.5. Another victory for BBB, and for Batemans.

dav
Scum

I liked the Woolpack, particularly as I couldn’t stick it in a neat box. The soundtrack moved from Barry White to Ultravox in a vain attempt to convince me the pub was entering the 1980s.

I love this bar feature too.  Not much good as a seat, though.

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*Sitting in your underpants eating Chinese takeaways is, in contrast, a perfectly healthy hobby essential to the survival of the indigenous takeaway industry.

 

 

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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.

22 thoughts on “LOITERING IN LOUTH”

  2. I did all open pubs in Louth on the 12th May 2007.
    It was not easy to get to,i had to get a train from Nottingham to Lincoln,then a train from Lincoln to Grimsby and a bus from Grimsby to Louth.
    I really liked the town and did 14 pubs there.
    The Woolpack was a proper Batemans tied house when i did it with more Batemans signage than you could shake a stick at.
    I thought The Wheatsheaf was the pick of the bunch.

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  3. Alan,
    If you’ve done all the pubs in Louth you could do all the pubs in Greenwich then all the pubs in the other towns on the Meridian.
    I doubt if many people have done that.

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  5. “Olde Whyte Swanne – Russ would have a field day with spelling”

    Pfft. Forsooth good sir! I have read a bit of Shakespeare in my youth. 🙂

    “It’s from Worksop !!!”

    Being a Python fan I would have had to opt for the Holy Grail. 🙂

    Cheers

    PS – “rather than scooping unusual beers sitting on your sofa in your underpants*”

    Saw that and thought it was pointed at me! But then I realized;

    a) I sit in a computer chair not the sofa;

    b) I only go pant-less when I’m using my laptop; and

    c) the description bit at the end mentions takeaways. My wife is too good of a cook to do much of that. 🙂

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    1. Russ,
      As for Ye Olde Whyte Swanne, in the top tourist destinations like Louth each extra “e” can add an extra few pence to the price of a pint. t

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    2. Russ, I also am a Python fan, but I must say when I had a bottle of that “Holy Grail” beer a couple years back I thought it was kind of terrible. Hopefully better on tap. But hey, they revolutionized comedy– we can’t expect them to be good at *everything.* 😉

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      1. That made me laugh out loud! Actually I always remember Grimsby as the autograph hunter capital of Britain …pro rata there were always more at Grimsby than anywhere else and usually with s photo you’d never seen before!!!

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  7. A proper “scummy head ” is an infinitely more honest review of a pint than the constant virtue-signalling of a beer blogging couple familiar to some readers.
    Their latest review is of a beer ” dedicated to tackling the problem of human trafficking and modern slavery “.
    And follows on from recent missives about tran-sexuals working in the craft beer industry and the woes of women generally in the licensed trade.
    The Woolpack looks gorgeous even without any BAME LGBGT PAYE MOT #FBPE DHL #METOO A-Z gender-neutral disabled people to balance out the locals.
    Did you asked the barmaid if she was oppressed ?

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