retiredmartin

October 2023. Hunton. Richmondshire.

Mrs RM kindly agreed to taste the beer on our two North Yorkshire ticks on the way back from Newcastle.

Some of you will be horrified to learn I consider “a swig of the dregs is a tick” but as the latest GBG completist I get to set the rules, at least until BRAPA finishes the Guide and imposes a “pint of the strongest beer minimum” requirement.

There are only three certainties in life. The new Rolling Stones album will be declared “their best since Tattoo You“, your train from Sheffield to Manchester will be late and overcrowded, and the new Beer Guide will give you a new and entirely unpredictable entry in Richmondshire.

This year’s entry is the delightfully unfussy Countryman’s Inn at Hunton, irritatingly close to where I finished last year’s North Yorkshire chapter in Middleham in August.

So, how has Hunton (pop. 420, 1 steam rally annually) achieved Guide glory (and local Pub of the Year) ?

In a nutshell, it’s a community owned pub. Lancashire converts its suburban shops to micros, Yorkshire villages buy their pubs and install a decent landlord. It’s how it works.

The Countryman is a wonderful place, where everyone knows everyone but welcome us warmly. Families pop in for Sunday lunch with proper Yorkshire puds, Sid is on the Guinness. and Retired Martin is on the lime and soda.

A half of immaculate Theakston (NBSS 3.5), that soda, a packet of Pipers and some nuts costs a fiver, which sounds pretty good to me.

In Middlesbrough it’s always 1983, in Richmond they’ve progressed (?) to 1986, where Amazulu’s classic is too good to be forgotten,

but I bet you have.

Talking of mental prowess, bet you can’t identify all the items in the cabinet above the fire;

I’m sure that gold circle just right of centre is the Champions League trophy.