retiredmartin

It feels like only a fortnight ago I was in Selby trying to scratch that irritating North Yorkshire itch and leaving feeling frustrated.

Actually, it was only 14 days ago.

My original target on the trip home from Durham was an equally irritating pub in the slightly better known county town which will remain nameless.

Obviously pubs can open when they like, but a switch from pre-Lockdown open all hours to this,

came as a surprise.

I cheered up a few hundred yards from BRAPA Towers with a mucky salad box from Partisan.

Luckily, Duncan had alerted me to the fact that the Nelson had re-opened.

“You have to go round to back door at Selby” he said, noting the complete absence of opening times or any indication of life at the front.

First, I did the Abbey, also closed for exciting reasons on two previous visits (weddings and the plague).

I entered by the back door, one of only a handful of visitors, and was astounded.

The centrepiece, of course, is this statue of an exhausted St. Simon of BRAPA being supported on the road from Guildford to York after completing the 51 Stations (pubs) of the GBG this week.  I wept.

Abbey apart, there’s enough to detail the curious tourist for 27.5 minutes.

In contrast, the most exciting aspect of the Nelson was getting in, after a nervy 20 seconds knocking on the back door.

“Just a minute !”

The two ladies were lovely, though the temperature checks, track and trace and step-by-step instructions took longer than my decent Brown Cow to drink.

The Facebook page for the pub is what we call “dormant“, but the one for the Fans of the Nelson had been pleading for reopening news for a while, so the demand is there.

It’s a bit modern young persons pub for my taste, more East Lincs than West Yorks.

Simon hated his beer, I thought it was decent, but I’m easily swayed when a Landlady calls me “Darling” on the way out.

No idea what Si thought of the jukebox, but I know one Stopfordian who’d have approved of the Ultimate Power Ballads.