IT’S NOT YOU, IT’S US, HOWDEN

March 2025. Howden.

I probably wouldn’t have dragged Mrs RM for a night out in Greater Goole if not for the new GBG entry in Howden, but it always felt like it would get a Guide pub. Eventually.

Cobbled streets packed with bistros, Italian restaurants and craft bars,

providing an unexpected bounty of Untappd potential (in every sense).

But you’ll never forget you’re in farming country.

We’d been warned the micro Tailor’s Chalk would be packed within minutes of 5pm opening, and so it was.

And within minutes Mrs RM had been silently chided for not closing the door behind her, and I stupidly questioned whether I’d been given change having been distracted by a conversation while paying.

As Duncan, who I beat to the tick by a week, will know, those sort of misunderstandings happen in pubs. In fact, they make them.

The Wold Top was chewy, and if we hadn’t felt like we were occupying a table far too big for us I’d have stayed for a second. But in truth, that 10% Wylam had finished us.

In the morning, I nipped out to Badger & Bean for a bacon roll with artisan brown sauce.

If you don’t do that, you haven’t really done Howden.

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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.

13 thoughts on “IT’S NOT YOU, IT’S US, HOWDEN”

  3. Somewhat surprisingly Martin, I have been to Howden, and it would have been some time during the early 80’s. I visited the town in the company of the previous Mrs PBT’s, in pursuit of Selby (Middlesbrough) Brewery beer. Selby was one of the first micro-breweries and was set up by a chap called Martin Sykes. The original Selby Brewery Company ceased brewing in 1954 but continued to bottle other brewers beer.

    In May 1972, Mr Sykes re-started the brewing side of the business, but by all accounts, production was rather hit and miss, as was the beer! The 1975 GBG described Selby Brewery as “A one-pub concern producing an unusual real ale.” The one pub was the Board Inn at Howden.

    From memory, the pair of us were enroute from Leeds to Lincoln and had been visiting friends in both cities. Howden was sort of on the way and seeing as I was an avid beer ticker at the time, a diversion via the town, seemed worth it. Unfortunately, the Board Inn was well and truly closed – reasons unknown, so I never got to sample Selby beer.

    I wonder whether Paul Mudge managed to track it down, on his epic, round Britain, beer tasting trip, back in the 1970’s?

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    2. You’ve not been paying attention Paul !!
      On the Howdy Howden page I commented “I’ve been to Howden twice, in July 1974 to the Board Inn for beer from the Selby Brewery which had started in December 1972 as England’s first new small brewery that century, and about twelve years ago for a very nice Sunday lunch at the now closed Barnes Wallis near the railway station”.
      In July 1974 I cycled, though not from Stafford. I was working at the Hull Brewery that summer.
      I think Martin Sykes might have Britain’s second brewer to do an intentionally hazy beer.

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      1. Apologies, Paul, for missing the report of your Howden visits. I haven’t totaled them up, but the sheer number of posts from Martin, on the town, is my excuse for missing the most relevant one! They make a good advertisement for the local tourist board, and might tempt me to revisit, should I ever find myself in that part of the country again.

        I had to dig deep into the memory hole, to put together that report of the circumstances behind my visit to Howden. I’m still not sure why the Board Inn was closed that day, and it’s strange that it was the only pub stocking Selby beer, especially as there were none in Selby itself.

        I’m pleased I was correct in surmising that you wouldn’t have missed the opportunity of sampling Selby Brewery beer, on your 1974 round Britain beer tour. I don’t suppose you can remember what this “intentionally hazy beer” tasted like?

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      3. Yes Paul, we can’t take everything in on here.
        Though Selby beer was taken by several free houses, I think the Board Inn might have been the brewery’s only tied house.
        I don’t remember how the beer tasted like and think it was just a Bitter, though a slightly hazy one.

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      6. Yes Martin, I should give a bit more thought to each comment I make on here – as if it were a letter to an Editor rather than a conversation in a pub.

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