Apart from reading comments from you, my readers, and asking Mrs RM irritating questions about women’s trousers, nothing gives me greater pleasure these days than reading Mumsnet.
I have to conclude I’m NOT normal. Any day in which I don’t leave the county, never mind my home, would be considered a wasted day. The last time I didn’t leave my house at all was September 1987 when I lost the door key and spent the day playing Elvis Costello LPs.
Back in 1993 Mrs RM and I went on a crazed tour of Britain, once driving to Goole Fields and back just because it was called Goole Fields. The so-called “cress in curry” incident ensured that Mrs RM didn’t wish to return to Goole, but she did pick the Canal Tavern in Thorne for our lunch stop on our triumphant return from completing East Yorkshire.
Thorne (pop. 17,295) looked a little down on its heels as we drove through, but the pubs are always lively. The Canal Tavern is your best bet for genteel gentlefolk dining action, though.
We tipped up at 13:50, the lovely barmaid nipped into the kitchen to confirm the chef hadn’t gone home, and I noted the craft on offer on the walk through to the (packed) restaurant.
If you want to visit a pub where the decor will divide opinion for hours one end, come to the Canal Tavern.
And if you want to see “Typical English Pub Menu 2021”, come to the Canal Tavern.
Perhaps don’t come to experience cask at its “Oooh, taste this !” best, but the Boltmaker was OK.
And the Steak and Stilton pie with chips and mushy peas was the largest plate of stodge this side of Accrington.
But the service won; informal, cheery, prompt. I’d come here again, just for the service. And have Doom Bar next time.
We didn’t need tea.
retiredmartin 
Why would anyone want to be normal?
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You didn’t get the Doom Bar? Did you lose their sponsorship?
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Apparently CAMRA says that Doom Bar is multinational slop and you wouldn’t want me drinking multinational slop, would you ?
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It’ll depend on dispense, won’t it? If it’s in Yorks and on autovac, go for the TT every time.
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Exactly, Scott. Every pub doing beer properly should have a sign saying “proud to pour the slops back into the beer”. I’d go for that.
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I stopped off in Thorne once, purely to sample some Darleyās beers. Darleyās were the local brewery, at the time, before being bought up by a larger firm, possibly Vaux ā although whatever happened to them?
This would have been sometime in the early 80ās, and I was travelling with the previous Mrs PBTās at the time. We were on our to visit a friend of hers in a town close to Leeds ā Woodlesford springs to mind. We also tried tracking down, unsuccessfully as it turned out, some Selby Ales.
This trip would have been back in my brewery-ticking days, and from memory weād travelled up through Suffolk, visiting my sister along the way.
I canāt remember the name of the pub in Thorne, that we visited, but it was close to the, now demolished brewery. Come to think of it, I canāt remember what Thorne Ales were like either ā must be an age thing!!
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That pie looks superb ! I go mad if I don’t leave the house every day & walk 3 miles if possible -I need to keep moving to maintain mobility
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Exactly, I can’t imagine not leaving the house, which was why last March to June was so distressing.
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I get out most days because I still work full time. The silly buggers extended my contract so I don’t get to be #RetiredBill until March. However there have been some weekend days when the weather’s been so brutal, stepping outside the front door would have been perilous to say the least.
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There’s no such thing as “bad weather”, said some idiot once.
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Said idiot had never been to Shetland, obviously.
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I think pub ticking is completely normal! Nice bog standard pub š
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