retiredmartin

October 2024. Langley Mill.

Sunday afternoon means rail trips to godforsaken East Midlands towns to tick micros.

40 minutes to Langley Mill, the station built especially to meet the needs of micro pubs in industrial Derbyshire and Notts, then a 35 (RM – 22) minute slog over the Erewash Canal,

past the county border,

stopping only to admire Eastwood‘s many, many, tourist attractions.

For a point, identify that tree towering outside the Bell, which I really ought to have nipped in for a pint of Abbot but the first pub of the day should always be a new GBG entry (Rule 38 (vii) para b).

I’m going to bet that the DH Lawrence museum is the only tourist draw in Eastwood, but the TIC was shut anyway so I may never know.

Perhaps ghost signs are a niche interest ?

Just before COVID the town started acquiring a selection of micropubs to rival Ramsgate, and they all seem to have survived, though it’s taken the Pick & Davy some six years to get the GBG nod. If you find yourself at IKEA you’ve walked too far (and are probably at imminent risk of divorce, based on my experience of IKEA).

I needed to nick that pic from Google Street View as you’d never notice the entrance,

but inside there’s that reassuring North Notts warmth imbued by cartons of eggs, well-known beers,

and an informative display on mining history. One chap delightedly read out stories of horrific industrial accidents, which confirmed that running a micro is a safer profession.

Small, spotless, a mix of hi and lo seating, and a pint of Acorn White Oak that veered from silky to sharp to smooth, settling around the 3.5 mark. And honestly, these things matter.

Of course, no-one travels for 90 minutes and spends £16 on trains for a single pub, so I consulted Will’s contribution to Pubs Galore which hinted, only hinted, at Bass over the road.

But Bass was there none, just Harvest Pale, and I quicky withdrew my head from the door.

Is “No Bass, walk out” the same as the CAMRA trail “No cask, walk out” of old ?