More isolated Northumbria for you now, just up the road in Alwinton.
Wikipedia tells me more about Alwinton and its 71 souls than it does about some southern dormitory towns of 71,000, and gives me this lovely photo by Chris of St Michaels and All Angels.
At 7pm I couldn’t see anything except a row of stone cottages and the “solid” looking Rose & Thistle. Those skies looked ominous, but they were still when I rested up in the campervan an hour later. It had POURED the whole 5 hours up from Waterbeach.
Northumberland has some great pub mirrors, including this rare one produced in the Bass mirror factory at Wrexham.
When you run a pub in a village of 71 people, some of whom won’t be leaving home till there’s a vaccine (or Newcastle win the Cup, whichever is later), you need to be an allrounder.
That can be tricky when you’ve basically one large room.
But there’s a group of mates on one large table, a cluster of couples spread around the edge, and a weird pub ticker from the Fens wearing a mask as he makes his last ever stand at the bar before table service comes in the next morning.
Was First & Last’s Equinox (again) from down the road the only beer ?
I hope it was. The single pump is the way forward. This was magnificent, in a beautiful Theakston glass. A rare NBSS 3.5+ in Northumberland if I’m honest, and I always must be when it comes to my beer scores.
As so often, the lacings never lie.
NB Better photos, as per, on Duncan’s blog here.
retiredmartin 
Pretty good score. Seems like you may have been the only one drinking cask.
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The handpumps often seem to be a design feature of country pubs, like smart flowers, or a stuffed animal, or old copies of Country Life. If the beer lasts 5 days and no-one complains, keep it on, but it’s the lager and wine that pays the bills.
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Great pictures of the sunset.
At first glance I thought there was a toy car sitting on the pub floor, which I could just imagine someone stepping on it. Or Simon had left behind. But then realized it must be a napkin or crisp packet slovenly discarded.
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Could have got to Alwalton a damn site quicker and the same sun would have been setting in the same direction
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Ha ! I thought that as I whizzed past Alwalton near Peterborough, Clive.
NB There’s 3 pubs in Alwalton, a Beefeater, Harvester and a Vintage Inn. All 3 sell Doom Bar ;-0. Now THERE’S a pub crawl.
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“SUNSET OVER ALWINTON”
Ok, now THAT’s a sunset.
(as opposed to the one outside the Redesdale Arms)
“just up the road in Alwinton.”
Not straining my eyes for that OS map.
(but, good news!, I finally get an eye exam on October 8th!) 🙂
“Those skies looked ominous,”
Ahem. Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.
“When you run a pub in a village of 71 people, some of whom won’t be leaving home till there’s a vaccine ”
I still can’t wrap my head around ‘the smaller the village, the greater the fear’. It’s like that over here.
“as he makes his last ever stand at the bar before table service comes in the next morning.”
Blimey. I forgot about that.
It may please you to know we can still have weddings of up to 50 in my neck of the woods. Helping my darling wife serve dinner at one on Saturday. We can still have 50 but they can’t touch the serving implements. 🙂
“As so often, the lacings never lie.”
Indeed. Just ask BBM.
(I’m talking football shoes now) 😉
Cheers
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Can’t touch the serving implements ? Grief . So everything has to be served out to you be staff who come close to you ?
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I believe it’s buffet style (saves on servers) so they can’t serve themselves. Hence, me helping serve, for free!
But at least we can have 50 at a wedding reception (what is it over there now? – 6, 12, 20?). 😉
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I think the rule is a maximum of 15, unless they’re dead, in which case it’s 30, or playing football, in which case it’s 500.
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Lacings 👍🍺🍺🍺
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