August 2023. Lancaster.
Mrs RM had been badgering me to accompany me to see Barbie for a fortnight; apparently it shows you’ve smashed the patriarchy if you can get your “Ken* ” to watch a film about smashing the patriarchy with you.
My concerns were two-fold. Would we get those £4.99 seats ?,
and would I have chance to tick (well, by proxy since I was DES) the two new Guide pubs ?
Perhaps more reliably than any other town, Lancaster reliably offers up two (2) newbies for the ticker on an annual basis. Bit surprised the station pub isn’t in but I guess GBG24 drops (ugh) in a month.
I’ve never warmed to the place. But on Sunday, I gave in a bit, as a kindly local gave me her unexpired parking ticket which (convoluted story) mean I only needed a £4 ticket for our stay, rather than the price of a flat in Barrow.
Then Mrs RM agreed we had enough time for a quick half in the Jailor’s Barrel before joining what we understood to be mile long queues for Barbie.
Lancaster always looks a bit workmanlike compared to Preston, and its pubs more fussy, though I understand that’s a heretical view in parts.
It looked pleasing in the sunshine that always accompanies me,
And outside the town museum a lass belted out a serviceable version of “Black Velvet” to an audience of toddlers.
As it now transpires, the Jailor’s Barrel was a wasted tick, as I’d already been when it was the Robert Gillow.
And I knew I had, as soon as I saw the Hyde’s fascia,
though the row of pumps is a pure run-through of your Lancashire family favourites.
The soundtrack was pure late ’70s, and Mrs RM accused Blondie of “screeching”;
I must have been here a decade ago, and it didn’t look much changed since then, but it’s still a classy place with WiFi, which ticks most of Mrs RM’s boxes.
I haven’t told her I didn’t need to visit, as she rather resented the requirement to drink another half of pale (Bowland) in a thin glass, though interestingly it was far better than the beer in Bowland’s own beer hall the day before.
For my part, another glass of fizz (top) was to prove a big mistake, huge, half an hour later.
*I am Ken’ough.
retiredmartin 
The Robert Gillow had the bar counter at the back of the shop, whereas the Jailor’s Barrel has it halfway back on the right hand side. I think that’s enough to count it as a new tick.
On a technical note, the pub shouldn’t be in the GBG at all as the beer is served far too cold, which is an automatic NBSS 2.5 in my book.
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Phew, that’s OK then.
You can warm beer up with a hair dryer but you can’t make it cooler, in my experience.
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First I would have to buy a hairdryer, for which I am really not qualified.
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What temperature was it?
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“you can’t make it cooler”
Just treat it with disdain, or ignore it altogether. Usually works for me.
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Preston’s best pubs are better, but Lancaster has far more of them, with more variety. Never really seen the big deal about the Jailors Barrel/Gillow.
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I don’t live there so can only go on the few dozen pubs I’ve been in in each city over the years, but Preston offers quite a variety across the Old Vic, Black Horse, Orchard, Plau, the New Continental, the Blue Bell I’d have thought ?
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I’d agree about the Old Vic, the Black Horse and the Blue Bell.
And would add the Market Vaults for the ‘NBSS 5’ John Smiths and the Sun for a £30 bed.
That’s unless it’s all changed during the last four years.
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“though the row of pumps is a pure run-through of your Lancashire family favourites”.
Is the “AWAITING PERFECTION” for when the Lancaster Bomber has settled ?
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I assumed it was Wainwright, then I remembered that was a Wolves classic !
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Lancaster Bomber’s a Wolverhampton classic now.
I thought Alfred Wainwright was born in Blackburn not Lancaster.
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It’s an affectation, being born in Blackburn.
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A Wainwright would have been deeply insulted to have been accused of the “affectation” of having been born in Blackburn. Yes, he moved to Kendal and became borough treasurer, and his heart was in the Lake District (as are his ashes), but he was a Blackburn Rovers fan all his life.
Sadly he didn’t live long enough to see them win the Premier League.
And the beer of a similar name was never brewed in Lancaster, as far as I know.
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Oh, come on Will, it’s like everyone wishes they were born in Luton rather than Harpenden, being born in Blackburn is an ambition many aspire to but few achieve.
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Not Lancaster but Wainwright was originally brewed in Blackburn by Thwaites to celebrate a miserable teetotaller leaving the town for somewhere with more hills than holes, or so I am told.
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“Two thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancaster” ?
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Yes. that’s what I was referring to.
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