retiredmartin

A real gem next, and a big thumbs up for Barry of Gavin and Stacey fame.

A short hop on the train from Cardiff Central, Barry should be benefitting from the Staycation (ugh) boost, but most folks are too snobby to enjoy a simple UK seaside resort these days (see also : Blackpool, Cleethorpes).

Perhaps the arrival of the Butterfly Collector, a craft bar of the first order will help.

Look ! They’ve already got butterfly cakes in the shops.

I bought Welsh cakes and sourdough from a market stall called “Num Nums” and thought I was in Hebden Bridge.

The High Street is a gem of Victoriana, brightly coloured and illuminated by mobility scooters.

With its cutting edge street art, is it the Newcastle-under-Lyme of the West ?

Well, perhaps not YET. It’ll need another 307 micropubs first.

I couldn’t even find the first one, standing outside the Butterfly Collector then walking past it three times before it clicked. All pubs should by law have either a sign protruding into the street OR a mobility scooter to indicate their presence.

It was definitely open, from 11am apparently, but I walked into an empty shop, like Mr Benn walking into the umbrella shop before the shopkeeper arrives.

The shopkeeper tipped up a minute later, by which time I’d worked out the theme for the micros.

Yes, entomology.

Oh, and this lot;

It reminded me of a micro near Gillingham which I attempted to describe to a chap who clearly thought Gillingham was a foreign land, and I guess it is.

So, what do you say to a publican who runs a micro entirely devoted to The Jam when there’s no-one else in the pub (again) ?

Well, I guess “So, you like The Jam, then ? I’m more of a Kajagoogoo man myself. Have you heard White Feathers” would be a bad move.

More Grey Trees, again a cool, clean pint (3.5) and a sense that this would be a great pub to come in a group. But in January 2022, in a strange town, solo ticking will have to do.