Two days at home then off to the Dales with a night in Skipton, cruelly (?) overlooked in Mudgie’s “Beautiful Town” Vote.
I see this morning that Skipton isn’t exactly endearing itself to Pub Curmudgeon.
Now, firstly I would say this comparison with Slough is a bit harsh. On Slough.
Skipton remains a bit hit and miss with me, stately but dull. Recent Guide entries have alternated between twee and rubbish, and names like Woolly Sheep, Bistro des Amis, 5pies & mash Tun, and Herriots reveal the pitch for the tourist £.
But while Cambridge thrives on Chinese and Japanese tourism, Skipton seems to stay afloat on folk straight out of “Last of the Summer Wine”, a septuagenarian playground in fact. By the way, what happened to Holmfirth in Mudgie’s poll ?
Visitors come to see some of the UK’s top stationery shops,
and go on canal trips where they don’t charge you a tenner for a Cornetto and talk Italian at you,
and possibly pop in this new bar, one of the prescribed two new Guide entries.
Pleasant, unfussy, and open, the Boat house is a nice place to watch OAPs from.
Five beers you’ve never heard of. See my finger pointing to the one most likely have been pulled before.
Despite the most micro of micro loos, I liked the pub a lot, the OSB was a bit watery perhaps. “You should have come on a Friday night” shouts someone.
I liked Early Doors even more. If only it opened at 9am.
Yes, it’s very micro pub.
But it has traditional pub values, beer you’ve heard of, and some desirable pumps.
And the best quality beer of the month (Spring Wells NBSS 4.5). The owner is from Sittingbourne. It shows. Beer pulled through, tasted before serving, knows his suppliers.
And just look at those lacings (top).
retiredmartin 
That picture of the empty glass looks as if it’s immediately after you successfully answered a “down in one” challenge.
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Exactly my thought.
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Me ! Takes me at least 20 seconds. Now, Mrs RM…
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“Nice font”
Microgramma Bold. As seen in virtually all sci-fi TV and films in 1971.
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Though the lower-case “stationery” is in Eurostile Bold. As everyone knows, Microgramma only has capitals.
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I wish I was a world expert on something.
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Aren’t you a world expert at the unobtrusive disposal of duff beer?
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Yes. I suppose I am. An expertise increasingly in need.
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Unless there is a particular beer that I want, I always ask “which one is your most popular?” Chances are it is the one with best quality.
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Me too. When you’re first in the pub, that’s a bit harder, but otherwise, always ask.
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How can a ‘pub’ that doesn’t open before noon any day of the week possibly be named “Early Doors”?
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– it’s like a Butchers Arms only offering a vegan menu.
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At 10am last Saturday on my way from New Street station to Stonegate’s Brasshouse for a breakfast and pint of Greene king IPA I walked past the largest public library in the United Kingdom, the largest public cultural space in Europe and the largest regional library in Europe and was shocked to see that it didn’t open until 11am on any day of the week.
With everyone wasting their mornings it’s no surprise Britain isn’t the Great country it once was.
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Make Britain Open Early Again.
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Yes, and I’m quite sure that Tim mostly employs East Europeans in his high street venues because young Britons can’t get up early in the morning to do a proper days work.
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Not sure you’re allowed to say that, Paul.
Even if it is true.
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I do love the irony of a man drinking Green King IPA at 10am complaining about the youth of today wasting their mornings …
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A man drinking IPA at 10am in the morning, with hot pork baps and Bitter to come at noon, isn’t wasting his morning, he’s having the time of his life.
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P P-T,
Having been forced to accept medical retirement, after forty years working for Queen and country, would I be better spending a morning
(a) at home watching some absolute drivel on the television or
(b) drinking cask beer, and eating a breakfast, in a pub on the basis of “use it or lose it” ?
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Oh, the point I was just making. (I know the Prof was joking/jealous/temporarily insane just then).
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Actually it was breakfast in the Brasshouse, a quick ESB in the Old Joint Stock, lunch in the Sun on the Hill ( as the Wellington doesn’t do food ) tea in the Hen and Chickens and the 7.31pm train home.
10am to 7.30pm in Birmingham suits me best – and, rather than the more usual noon to 9.30pm, I’m not making the pubs look untidy as they’re getting busy during the evening.
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B’ham council can’t afford to open the library any earlier
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Shows how far we’ve come in 50 years, excellent at writing reports advocating closure, rubbish at running services.
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“How can a ‘pub’ that doesn’t open before noon any day of the week possibly be named “Early Doors”?”
Maybe it’s a riff on the band? 😉
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An ironic pub. Good band though.
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I’ve only got that now I’ve read Citra’s comment and then your again ! Was there actually an “early Doors” ? I thought they just “happened” in ’67, man.
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“Was there actually an “early Doors” ? I thought they just “happened” in ’67, man.”
Definitely an early doors. Little known fact; they didn’t start off well so their ‘window’ of opportunity closed. And thus, as the saying goes, when the window closed they had to make their big break through the doors. 🙂
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🙂
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I like the way the micro gaffa has arranged micro jam jars.
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Just shows, I’d be dubious about ordering a beer with Spring in the name in August.
Is an “augmented reality colouring experience for children” not some sort of gigantic water cannon filled with dye as used by Brapa on unattended twilds?
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Scott,
You won’t have realised how popular M&B SPRINGfield Bitter once was in the Wolverhampton area.
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Three quid a pint! Yes. 😉😉😉 Although was it as nice as your £4.60 Bass???
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It was really, really good. Sometimes you meet a landlord who cares about the beer, regardless of whether it’s Bass or weird stuff.
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Always makes a difference! Any retro Sainsburys bags a la Stamford?
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Ha ! Retro John Lewis bags more like.
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Ah Skipton -if I could drag myself away from Kent,this would be where I would like to live -shops,pubs,great fish & chips,Yorkshire Dales on the doorstep,a canal & a railway station to let me escape to London occasionally to see my lad & our chums in Leeds,close but not too close .It is unlikely to happen though !
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Pauline,
I wouldn’t want to live there but with about twenty pubs ( including Wetherspoons Devonshire open at 8am and Timothy Taylor’s Woolly Sheep open at 10am ) Skipton looks right for a Proper Day Out some time.
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I’d go for that. The “Early Doors” really was an exemplar little pub. Had such a good time I didn’t take notes, but loads of good examples of good licenseeship there.
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What keeps you down south ? (nowt wrong with Kent, but…).
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we have a nice house in a nice (if that is possible in the Stone )area -not sure if I could face a move.I also don’t want to be too far from our only child,although he probably doesn’t care !
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That’s the best reason of all ! Only asking in case there was an exciting reason like “Had a massive argument over karaoke in Halifax and can’t go back”.
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Pauline,
My parents moved up to Yorkshire when I was eighteen and that was fine for thirty years but the distance caused difficulties for the last years of their lives when they were old and ill.
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“Five beers you’ve never heard of. ”
Yep.
“Despite the most micro of micro loos, I liked the pub a lot,”
Did the view help with that?
“Yes, it’s very micro pub.”
I actually like the layout of the outside seating.
“And the best quality beer of the month”
I was going to say there isn’t much competition but 4.5 is impressive.
“And just look at those lacings (top).”
Yep, impressive. 🙂
Cheers
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It was my first beer of the day, my first really great beer for ages. I nearly kissed him metaphorically speaking).
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Kissing is ‘totes’ ok these days, thanks to LGBT.*
* – Liquor, Guns, Bacon and, um, Breasts. 😎
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Good to hear that the Early Doors is as good as ever. With a superb landlord, very good beers and friendly customers I’ve decided it’s a small pub. Then I can continue to say I don’t really like micros.
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What was wrong with Wishbone? They are making some exceptional beers at the minute and are supporting the promotion of beers from the wood.
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How on earth would anyone know if Wishbone are wonderful or wishy washy though. I’ve been in 600 pubs in last year, probably seen Wishbone twice, each time competing against five other pumps. What chance have they got. Tickety Brew were great and couldn’t get bar space. #TooManyBreweries #BrewItAllInWolves
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People should stop drinking mass produced beers from the likes of Marston’s and any ‘shell’ company they now own, or any of the many beers they contract brew. Likewise GK, although recent experience shows they can actually brew a very excellent beer. They just choose not to and peddle witch piss to the masses. People should experiment with local brewers, they might just be surprised, but they daren’t step out of their comfort bubble.
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But Marstons and Greene King have spent generations perfecting beer for “the masses” who have no intention of paying £5 for a pint of grapefruit murk.
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You tell him, Paul.
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Can a 3.8% beer really be called a “Best Bitter”? I’d say Best was 4% and over.
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I’d agree.
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It all depends how far back you go.
I remember Courage Bitter at 3.2%, the widespread Courage Best Bitter at 4% and Courage Directors at 4.8%.
That worked well – Bitter for the morning, Best Bitter during the afternoon and Directors for the evening, or the weekend when you’d got time for several pints.
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Directors was quite a common lunchtime pint for Mrs RM and myself in McMullen pubs in Herts on the early 90s. Courage Best at its best in the Cornubia in Bristol.
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