A weekend in Greater Bradford is the only way to complete West Yorkshire’s GBG entries; much preferable to finishing off the county in World Craft Central (L***s).
In Leeds, the Commercial would be listed under, er, Leeds in the GBG. Here it gives Thackley its first Guide appearance since Bradford were above Manchester City in the League.
The most interesting thing about Thackley is seemingly its proximity to Idle, home of the famous Idle Working Mens Club and not a lot else. Tell me otherwise.
The views from the hills behind the pub were better than my photo suggests.
The Commercial itself is a classic stone village pub that I knew would give me a good welcome and good beer. There’s dozens of pubs like this along the A657. Or at least there were before 2007.
It’s the sort of place that looks like it should be in the Beer Guide, and now is.
Just for once, I resisted the lure of Tetley.
“Roosters Chinook, please”
“There ya go my lovely“. Told you. “We always have that one on“.
I resisted the temptation to say something about foreign muck from Keighley, as I don’t do beer talk.
Rarely have I seen a first beer of the day pulled through as vigorously
In consequence, it was pretty marvellous (NBSS 3.5+). My notes say cool, intense and sherberty, which sounds like something I’d nick off RateBeer if I knew what that was.
To my left, a proper fire that suddenly seemed unnecessary as we approached the end of the Ice Age, even in Bradford.
To my right, a cheery group of four regulars enjoying lager and wine and a mild argument over whose turn it was to pay.
MY turn to pay” “NO, mine” etc
A cheerful conversation included several BRAPA-friendly gems.
“He can drink me under the table”
“He’s besotted with golf, and Hugo, his cat”
The soundtrack could have been chosen for them. “I feel good“, “Summer in the city” and “Somebody to love” are hard to beat. Though on reflection “Surrealistic Pillow” may not have been what they were buying in 1967.
Did beer have lacings this good in 1967 ?…..
Finally, you may have noticed the absence of food. It is still possible (and relatively common) to find a pub without table reservations round here. Though I did squeeze past a bloke with a huge cardboard box at the door, so perhaps folk live off scratchings and nuts. Very wise.
retiredmartin 
Magnificent lacings, magnificent views, magnificent looking pub…
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Obviously not Bradfordians if they are vying to pay!
Enjoy this pub while you can. It won’t be in the GBG much longer with that evil keg shite OTB if Ms #NoKegBeerInDonny #MyWayOrNoWay Atack gets her way! Catering for ‘all pub goers’, you know ordinary folk who don’t like ale – Never!
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Sigh. I can see I’m going to have to bring my tin helmet to Northampton 😦
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Can’t see a problem Peter, once we have sorted out which pubs are ‘just for CAMRA members’ from those pubs that are ‘for all pub goers’ . We wouldn’t want to go in any of the latter would we 😀.
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Well, Martin and I at least are planning to sample the c***t k*g in the Rifle Drum 😛
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I’ll drink any c***ts beer!
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So long as you don’t drink mine. You already have form with Bombay Mix 😉
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But there won’t be any complementary Beer on, will they?
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I still have Surrealistic Pillow in my old album box in a cupboard somewhere, brought it in 77 though, maybe I’m backward or just appreciate good music. I was 7 in 67.
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Well worth a spin.
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“(L***s)”
According to Si it’s only the vowels you have to star out. 😉
“would be listed under, er, Leeds”
Tsk, tsk. And you were doing so well. 🙂
“so perhaps folk live off scratchings and nuts. ”
Beats trying to live off of scratching your nuts. (rolls eyes)
I’ll get my coat.
Cheers!
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Oh dear, and you were doing so well ;-()
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Lacings were only invented post CAMRA, around about 1974 in Chapel-en-le-Frith.
There is a beer rating on Ratebeer that consists of “Through the eyes of fruitbeer, fruitbeer”. I fear it may be a missing post from Discourse.
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Was Chapel-en-le-Frith in Derbyshire or Cheshire back then ?
#AskingForAFriend
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Northumberland.
Jacked up and moved in a similar fashion to Sinclairs Oyster Bar and moved 1978-1982.
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Ah yes, I remember now. That was when Mr Protz had to be jetted in to sort out GBG boundaries, wasn’t it ?
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Yes, back when L**ds wanted every entry as all the Tetley pubs were the epitome of the Landlord’s art.
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I always thought lacings were were what tied your shoes up.
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CAMRA members are only allowed to wear clogs these days
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I can’t resist saying that I know someone who works in Chapel-en-le-Frith, a fine fellow named K. B. Simpson. He’s the brother in law of my friend in Macclesfield, who mails me the promotional “K. B. Simpson, Coal Merchant” calendar every year. 🙂
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I ended a large Bradford pub crawl in Thackley i was short on time and did the Great Northern then got a bus to Shipley.
I did nine pubs in Idle on the same pub crawl, the pubs are quite close to each other in Idle, i also did a crap blog on the pub crawl on my Never Ending Pub Crawl blog called Bradford Crawl 12th September 2015, it was one of my first posts and is really crap. http://neverendingpubcrawl.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/the-bradford-crawl-12-september-2015.
I do not think i will ever learn how to do a proper link to my blog or other peoples blogs, i must be far too thick as everybody else seems to be able to do it.
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http://neverendingpubcrawl.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/the-bradford-crawl-12-september-2015.html
I think it’s just those last four letters html that got missed, Alan. I’ve put the link above. Took me ages to learn.
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Thanks Martin,
I will try again when i think i need to try and do a link to your blog.
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The craft John Smiths smooth in the Rifle Drum was on top form when i went in with my brother in October 2016.
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I guessed you’d like the Rifle Drum with all its craft beers Alan !
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Yes i love them, that is why i went to Mexborough.
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Alan
What’s your e-mail address please ?
Send it to ; tworuddlesplease@yahoo,com
Let’s sort out this hyperlinks problem for you. A few step by step instructions should suffice and then you will be sorted !
Fred
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Cheers Fred.
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My other half is from Thackley and her parents live on the A657.
You are right, proximity to Idle is all there is to comment on really, though they did the FA Cup 1st round draw at the football club last year!
Like Alan says, Idle was, and still is a great pub crawl.
You may have noticed the Black Rat micro? Could be an entry next year, or the Cracker Barrel down at Greengates near the Albion.
The Commercial has a spell closed quite recently so glad to see it is doing well again.
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I did notice the micro on What Pub, but I’m happy to wait for the inevitable GBG19 entry.
I peeped in the ground, very traditional !
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