The ticking has really re-started this last week.
A few in Hampshireto take me within a couple of completion (both micros with wobbly open hours), and now a raid on North Yorkshire. On a Monday !
Look at that little bit of floating Yorkshire in the bottom left.
That’s Greater Selby, the bit I always deny the existence of. Just like the Isle of Wight.
Only 2 hours 28, technically my shortest journey to a new GBG tick.
Not your typical smaller North Yorkshire pashmina market town like Thirsk or Ripon or Wetherby; it’s more akin to the Fenland fried chicken towns of Chatteris and March.
Only with a better church.
“Gritty”, I’d call it. But it’s spick and span, bustling with gentlefolk, and boasting some decent pub architecture. 25 pubs for 15,000 souls is good going.
I’d raved about the Cricketers in 2015. 4 years later Sam Smiths were looking for a couple to run it. Putting up the price of a pint by a quid will be a hard sell in Selby, I feel.
On my last visit the New Inn scored higher for “Pub” than beer, if I’m honest.
There’s a new craft bar, Doghouse, that I’ve no doubt will be in the next GBG. Being craft it wasn’t open yet.
I was back for the Nelson, though frankly a complete absence of reports on t’internet had already told me was likely to be a forlorn effort at a tick.
“Closed until further notice” said the note on the door. I’m treating this as deleted from the GBG, and BRAPA agrees with me.
I found another GBG target, and used up half an hour in the Spoons.
You may hate them, but Mrs RM and my eldest lad and I think they’ve done aa good job with their New Normal.
Clean, spacious, cool pubs with cheery staff.
Just a LOT quieter than I’d expect.
Quite a decent effort on the local ales, all for naught as I went soft.
“Gunna Muscovite is a cunning combination of fresh lemon, mint and a twist of ginger“. Highly recommended, matched with my usual chicken bites.
“Here you go sweetheart. Enjoy it, darling” said the nice lady, mistaking me for Simon, before buying the chap in the electric scooter his Pinot Grigio with a fistful of coins as he didn’t have a phone.
Whatever you think of the boss, Tim’s staff rarely let him down.
retiredmartin 
In a previous existence, the first Mrs PBT’s and I stopped off at the Board Inn, in Selby for a forlorn attempt at tracking down the elusive Selby Ale.
I’m sure Stafford Paul will remember that Selby were probably the first of the new brewers who started up in the wake of CAMRA, back in the mid-1970′ s.
No Selby and no other cask at the Board Inn either, so an unsuccessful beer tick on that occasion. 😢
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Forgot to add, even after 40+ years I’m not in a rush to hurry back.
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But they built a statue of you after your visit, Paul….
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Yes, it was Martin Sykes that re-established a Selby Brewery in December 1972 eighteen years after one had closed. It was the second new British and first new English brewer of our lifetimes and, if I remember correctly, the first to have “intentionally hazy” beer. I cycled to their sole tied house the Board Inn at Howden on 26th July 1974 to drink it.
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That was the pub Paul, and it was Howden, rather than Selby – which was the name of the beer. I’d better take back the unkind words I said about Selby. I never got to taste the beer, though.
Time plays funny tricks with the memory after 40+ years!
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You’re quite right that Selby is more Wisbech or Spalding than Ripon.
I’ve been in the New Inn on the National Inventory trail, but it leaves a lot to be desired as a pub, as opposed to a piece of architecture.
The Abbey is glorious, though.
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I couldn’t get in the Abbey, again (last time there was a wedding on) but will make it back for the Craft bar in GBG21.
I also preferred the Cricketers to the New Inn.
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Loved that last “Here you go sweetheart” passage. As always it’s the human element that makes these places great.
That being said (and I hate to conform to the stereotype of Americans wanting everything to be “Ye Olde” over there), if every pub had an interior that looked like the one in your “Send peas and milk to table 77” photo, I would be very hard pressed to be a fan of pubs!
Is 2 hours 28 really your shortest journey to a new GBG tick? It would seem with this quest that as you near completion the finish line grows increasingly distant. 😉
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The lady was very nice to the Gent in the electric scooter, taking his coins to buy his wine. I’d have bought him Doom Bar, of course.
You’re right about the Wetherspoons looking very unpubby.
And yes, it was my shortest journey. The micro in Ironbridge may be a few minutes quicker but it’s shut. Planning my next trip is a challenge.
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At school we were told that there was a letter in the Anglo Saxon alphabet called something like ‘thonc’ (renderings seem to vary) which stood for ‘th’. It was mistaken for a ‘Y’ (there were similarities) by the Victorians and hence the ‘Ye Olde’ usage grew up.
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Ian,
And there’s a few proper Anglo Saxon words that Humphrey doesn’t allow customers to use in his pubs.
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