GREENE KING GLASS ATROCITIES IN TODWICK

More autumn pub exploration, this time to the odd area in what we professionals call the Sheffield-Rotherham-Worksop triangle.

There’s been a few GBG entries in this mining area graced with a butterfly park and 1957 Ryder Cup course, but the only one left is a Greene King diner in North Anston.

I took the train to Kiveton Park (NOT Kiveton Bridge, note) with the vague idea of doing the keg Sam Smiths pub there, but that (and the keg Station) can wait for less exciting times.

It’s always a joy to arrive in a new place under blue skies (righteous etc etc) and not have a clue what to do, apart from admire the industrial beauty of Forticrete Anstone (future micropub).

I decided to walk across the fields towards Anston. Jolly Trooper or the Little Mester ? Dunno. Which has better fish and chips ?

It’s hard reading Google reviews while walking, and I took a wrong turn at that tree and ended up in Todwick, whose schoolchildren were turned to stone when they turned to admire a John Smiths delivery van in 1977 (see also Newstead pit).

This is middle-class Rotherham, a surprisingly common species that feels a bit like the parts of Huntingdonshire where John Major doesn’t live.

Excitingly, not only had I never been to Todwick, like in the Charlene song, but it meant I tipped up at the door of a genuine Greene King family dining pub on the A57 I’ve driven past at least a thousand times and thought “One day….“.

Well, today was that day. If you see what I mean.

The Red Lion is quite pleasant, all wood panels,

and robust hand pumps,

and flagstone floors.

It’s OK, attracting office workers drinking iced water (what !) and nervous gentlefolk and mums and toddlers.

A husband was scolded by his wife as he returned from the bar with a pint of Estrella and a minor ordering error. Are women scared of going to the bar ? That’s a genuine question. Mrs RM NEVER gets the drinks, though in fairness she does get the last table so I should stop there.

The soundtrack is, astonishingly, the Smiths (the one the Dream Academy covered. The banter is political; how can Hunt be resurrected when he ruined the NHS ?

The fish and chiops are good enough, the IPA comes in a terrible glass,

but is a cool, rich NBSS 3.5. That surprised you.

Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

13 thoughts on “GREENE KING GLASS ATROCITIES IN TODWICK”

  1. Not at all Martin, I had a first class pint of GKIPA at the Rising Sun on Tottenham Court Road.

    What puzzles is why that might be unusual?

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      1. Pub man v Beer man. But yes… would have been appalled if got my break time squash at Primary School in that glass (was beer precocious 😄).

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    2. I very seldom drink Abbot these days, and I only ever drink OSH if it’s the only beer in a pub I’m committed to drinking in, but the ordinary bitter (aka GK IPA) can be good if well looked after. I had one in Chesterfield’s Donkey Derby recently which was NBSS 3.5. Rather like the one Martin had in Todwick, coincidentally.

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      1. I’ll be pleased to be wrong about IPA. Back in the late 80s in Cambridge it was often great, but I’ll always give it a go and often disappointed.

        Come to Chesterfield on 30 December and join the pub tickers!. It’s a new tradition.

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      2. Yes, I’m often disappointed with GK IPA, but the only one I’ve had since I started doing beer scores was 3.5. So I’m stuck with it until the next one.

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    3. I think that if I ever tried to give beer scores, then what in fact I’d end up giving would be How Generous I Felt Towards The Universe On That Day scores.

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