retiredmartin

24th October 2022.

Apart from being my diary and method of proving to Mrs RM that I’m not up to any mischief (wandering into that Maidenhead red light district while looking for the Conservative Club was a gruesome misunderstanding), the blog aims to get you to visit the unsung towns of the UK.

Not much doubt Barnsley would be high on a list of “Unsungness” (?), but there’s ornate architecture,

cat art,

and pubs. Lots of pubs.

The one down this alley is pretty good.

When I last visited Jolly’s at the Arcade in 2017 I arrived 10 minuted after Isabel Oakeshott left the Question Time studios, narrowly failing to get her autograph for Mrs RM.

I had 20 minutes before the train to Sheffield, let’s see what it’s like 5 years on.

Well, ticking over, and with a rather less cerebral crowd than when Question Time was in town.

It’s the Jolly Boys Tap now; purists might even argue it needs to be re-ticked.

Again, no one upstairs and no-one wants to sit on their own,

so I sat continental style watching Barnsley’s cosmopolitan crowd file past while I enjoyed a mini-Ploughmans.

I didn’t think much of the Jolly beers in Wakefield recently, but their 4.8% YPA was and NBSS 4.

The pint AND the Ploughmans cost (unbelievably) £3.50. Which left me a quid to buy M & Ms at the station.

“Preparing your order” means dropping a bag of chocolate into a container at the bottom of a vending machine. I don’t think they actually pick the peanuts and coat them in crispy chocolate while you wait.