More Autumn loveliness before the floods.
You know where Lincoln is, I’m sure. In fact it’s locally known as “28.6 miles from Scunthorpe“.
Better to show you the close-up. It all happens north of the station.
Still one of the iconic views up Broadgate.
Not much street art on view, though there is a fading memory of the time Michael stopped in Lincoln for a pint of Bass in the Morning Star.
Next to Primark some state-sponsored art pieces were taking shape.
My first visit to Lincoln for 3 years apparently, which is extraordinary.
The Green Dragon still stands forlorn, waiting for a Sam Smiths style benefactor.
The big news in town is the marvellous redevelopment of the Cornhill Quarter near the transport hub. You can now get exotica like a “long black” and a “salted caramel brownie” without having to catch a bus to Market Rasen.
Frankly you can “do” Lincoln simply by walking straight up High Street and the Strait towards the Cathedral, diverting to peer down alleys on the way.
I don’t think Lincoln gets the visitors it deserves, probably because it’s in Lincolnshire. A redrawing of county boundaries to place it in North Yorkshire would solve that problem.
Or they could tackle that hill.
Honestly, you’d think folks younger than me had never walked up a little hill before. #SoftBritain
At the top, I see Sir Humphrey has installed a cannon to repel people using mobile phones from his marvellous pub.
The majestic cathedral is getting a refurb, Brunning & Price style no doubt. But it was the £8 admission charge that made me limit myself to the external shot.
BeerHeadZ, almost as old as the cathedral, doesn’t open till 1pm (why ?) so I took in some more north Lincoln marvels.
Five points for identifying this classic.
I’m ambivalent about BeerHeadZ. The staff are good, the beer is decent, but they’re either empty of full of belching beer tickers.
I guess these pics won’t have the Proper Pub brigade heading for their train timetables. It’s impossible to travel west to east in this country anyway.
In its defence, lovely young chap, “Pour Some Sugar On Me” from a Mudgie-friendly soundtrack, and the North Riding Simcoe was a rich and foamy 3.5. So there.
Nice beer pic for the beer bores too.
I don’t remember paying that much for visiting what I think is a fabulous cathedral. The walk up Steep Hill has got to be one of England’s best city walks. Really beautiful. Is access difficulty the main reason one of the beer crawls has not happened in Lincoln? I thought there were a lot of really nice pubs there.
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I think it was free last time, £8 now. Worth it if you’ve time yo linger.
Trains from Stafford take about 3hr20, from Stockport or Cambridge an hour less.
Worth exploring.
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Trains from Birmingham are about three hours with a change at Nottingham. So not beyoind the realms of possibility.
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I once did a day trip to Lincoln on the train when I was at university in Birmingham. It’s a bit of a slog once you’re past Nottingham or Sheffield, though. It’s worth considering, but I’d say there are plenty of places higher up the list.
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Given that we’ve yet to do Nuneaton and Runcorn I’d have to agree.
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Paul has made the case for Atherstone – it could be the new Shifnal.
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Paul made a stronger case than I could have managed myself 😉
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“Given that we’ve yet to do Nuneaton and Runcorn I’d have to agree” – maybe one till 3pm and the other from 5pm.
I’m not suggesting there’s anything wrong with Nuneaton but one of Mrs TSM’s brothers and his family live in Nuneaton and I’ve never known them to use a pub there.
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Charles and I had a great night there in 2016 but I fear the mile walk out of town to Harthill may be too much for some of our party.
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But there’s no need to walk a mile out of Atherstone or Shifnal or Stafford or Uttoxeter or Lichfield or Chester or Burton or Stockport or Manchester or Liverpool or dozens of other towns.
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And walking a mile out usually necessitates walking a mile back.
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If you remember.
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Also, are they sticking US flags in American IPAs these days?
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It’s only North Riding from Scarborough I’ve seen do that. Their beers are among my favourites.
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Is the five-point challenge the Strugglers?
The problem with Lincoln is that there isn’t really very much to the “touristy” part, and much of the rest is reminiscent of Rotherham or Grimsby.
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You are a winner.
Nothing wrong with Grimsby!
Oh, yeah, there is.
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Interesting Mudgie. I thought the cathedral area a really underrated area and the hilltop just gorgeous. That part of the city rivaled York for me and benefited from a lack of tourists. We crawled the city fairly extensively and I came away pretty impressed. Interesting to see different reactions to locations.
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Some great photos there. It’s been many years since I visited Lincoln and I’ve never had a pint there! I grew up in a village called Scotter (7 miles from Scunthorpe!) and we used to go for occasional shopping trips to Lincoln…still looks as magnificent as ever!
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From memory, White Swan in Scotter plus possibly another one.
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White Swan was the nearest to our home, then the Sun & Anchor and then the Gamekeeper (which wasn’t a pub when I was a young child, but was converted to a pub when the village coffin maker died in the 70’s…I think!)
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I too am ambivalent about Beerheadz, unless I’m in the Grantham branch which is pretty proper, or the Nottingham one which shouldn’t work but it does. The Lincoln one doesn’t work at all for me, even though I spent more time in there than any other over the course of a few days last year. Rough-cut pallet wood furniture is never the best perch for a pint, no matter how good the pint, and I live in hope that once these places have settled in and turned a decent profit the management will give them the refurb they deserve.
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I disliked the Nottingham one intensely because of the obnoxious customers, though the staff and beer were great.
I’m not a fan of poky small narrow pubs but obviously they tend to be more economic.
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Ah, sorry about that, we do tend to use it as a last stop so slightly worse for wear by then. The locals do tend to crowd the bar counter, but what I like about the Notts Beerheadz is the constant throughput of travellers. It’s like a proper station buffet but without the curly sandwiches. Tables barely take a Shove Ha’penny though, and shuffling the Doms is a nightmare on planks, so certainly room for improvement…
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Mark,
The sandwiches won’t be curly on Codsall Station next Friday.
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Fond memories of Lincoln my brother used to live next door to the Victoria on Union road a cracking pub
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Vic is probably the best known pub, isn’t it.
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Yes always seems to get into the GBG
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That last picture is terrific…aside from Sincil Bank I’ve not had the pleasure of Lincoln. Worth a visit?
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Depends if you can walk up hills.
The mile from Sincil Bank to the cathedral and castle gets progressively more upmarket!
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I’m not much good at walking up hill now – and I think you know why.
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