PUBS YOU DON’T EXPECT TO SEE IN THE GBG. No. 27, HALFWAY HOUSE, BIRKENSHAW

October 2023. Birkenshaw.

I’d heard of Birkenshaw, just south of Bradford,

but I couldn’t tell you anything about it, except that Simon says the Halfway House is an extraordinarily Proper Pub.

And I still do can’t tell you anything about it, except that the Halfway House is an extraordinarily Proper Pub.

But that’s OK.

Mrs RM joined me on a Saturday night in Halifax and this was as far from the craft bars of ‘Fax as imaginable,

though they’re obviously thrilled to be in the Guide.

Almost as thrilled as Mrs RM was to get the WiFi code,

and a packet of those poppadoms with a plastic tub of mango chutney, the Sniff’n’Shake of the 2020s.

Mrs RM asked for a half, they gave her a pint. Either she looks like a pint woman or, as BRAPA deduced last month, they don’t do halves.

No-one was on halves. Actually, there was no-one else in the pub till the 4pm HiVis trade tipped up late on, when it suddenly felt a bit magical.

But that might have been the (censored) version of Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire” or the Tetley tat.

Probably the Tetley tat.

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.

15 thoughts on “PUBS YOU DON’T EXPECT TO SEE IN THE GBG. No. 27, HALFWAY HOUSE, BIRKENSHAW”

    2. (1) It’s out of date by more than fifty years and the beers are much more expensive now

      (2) Prices are roughly proportionate to strength

      (3) Small bottles are a half pint, except the Old Ram probably a third pint, Large bottles are a pint

      (4) Beers from larger brewers, the last four, are more expensive than their own

      (5) Guinness is spelt incorrectly.

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      1. Oh, and since then we’ve gone from proper money to decimal currency so a pint bottle of Guinness at two shillings and sixpence, half a crown, becomes 12½p.

        And a half pint bottle was actually “minimum contents 9â…” fluid ounces” while a pint bottle was actually “minimum contents 19â…“ fluid ounces”

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      4. Without knowing what wages were like back in the 1960’s, would you say beer was proportionally more affordable 60 years ago, or less?

        I know it’s all relative, but can you imagine traveling back in time and informing a drinker, in that pub, that in 60 years time, a pint of beer would cost him the best part of a fiver!

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      5. I’m sure Pub Curmudgeon has wrote about this, and it’s an interesting point. I guess some will say pubs are “better” these days (discuss), and I suspect many landlords living on-site survived with lower income 50 years ago. But are ingredient costs higher ? And would you expect brewing to be more efficient than in the 60s ?

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      6. I think I recently wrote that my 12p pint of Bitter in 1971 should be ÂŁ1.56 now but I’m paying nearer three times than twice that.

        “Pubs are “better” these days” is the opposite of my experience. “Brewing to be more efficient than in the 60s” isn’t so as, unless in Bathams pub, we’re drinking from nationally delivered firkins instead of from hogsheads of beer brewed not thirty miles away.

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  3. Return trays not mentioned in WhatPub, but I’ve had to submit updates on that point before now.

    On that alone though for W. Yorks, I’ll visit within a week or two

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