1976 GBG PUB DESCRIPTIONS

A little bonus post before I go from Moldova to middle England.

A look back at that golden summer of ’76 when a dodgy Retired Martin was forced to play outdoor sports at Milton Primary School in 33 degrees, and the new Good Beer Guide was at its peak.

I had a read through this over a couple three pints in the “new” Harlequin* on the edge of Kelham Island last week,

to reassure myself I wasn’t imagining a mythical time of pithy and non-woke GBG descriptions.

Here’s Sheffield.

Palm Tree – “Small pub”

Red Deer – “a friendly pub“

Bird in Hand – “excellent pub“

What else do you need, apart from the name of the brewery that owned it, before the Beer Orders came along and destroyed that relationship between brewery and pub in the name of “choice”.

It’s not just Yorkshiremen who were to the point in ’76.

Cambridge CAMRA clearly had the same instructions on brevity.

Elm Tree – “small and pleasant“

Green Dragon – “a locals pub“.

The only entry worthy of elaboration is Arbury’s post war Snow Cat (RIP) with its unusual dispense.

Stockport, then as now, makes best use of its words, focusing on interiors and views, and the three (3) grandfather clocks in the Arden Arms,

with a footnote assuring us that Robbie’s and Boddies beers were “safe”.

What bliss it was in that time to be alive. Possibly.

*full report shortly

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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.

17 thoughts on “1976 GBG PUB DESCRIPTIONS”

  1. I reckon about 40% of those Sheffield pubs have closed. What about Cambridge?

    I see that your favourite, on Walkley Road, just up from Retired Martin Towers, is listed, but I’m not sure it’s a “working class pub” any more.

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    2. I’m not sure that I believe that the first image is really from 1976.

      Did we actually have the word “awesome” back then?

      Shouldn’t it have been “amazing”?

      As for 33C, yes I remember that, and happily wasn’t forced to play sport in it by then.

      Mind you…

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      1. No Etu. It’s genuine 1976 but was clumsily edited down to three lines from “Spotless museum piece within or some view of railway viaduct from outside gents lavatory”.

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      2. In 1976, “awesome” still retained a sliver of its original meaning. If you’ve ever stood outside the Crown in Stockport and looked up at the viaduct you’ll know that it’s true.

        Nowadays it just means “pretty good, but I had better in the Sheffield Tap yesterday”.

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      3. That’s fair.

        I did go in the Crown last year and the pub itself was splendid, like a basic Ossett pub, better than the White Rat. 15 years ago it was the most famous pub in Stockport.

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      4. I remember the Crown fifty years ago, a Proper Pub as was commonplace in Stockport but a rare Boddingtons house thereabouts and a memorable view of Europe’s largest brick structure from the outside bogs. Forty years ago I knew Ken Birch who kept the pub for a few years.

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      5. Yes, I’ve stood outside The Crown and looked up at the viaduct.

        There was a similar impression at St. Mary Cray, from what used to be the Mary Rose as I recall.

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  2. The 1976 GBG described both the best Stafford pub, the Railway, and the best Stone pub, the Red Lion, as “A basic pub” and thankfully neither has changed beyond recognition since then. The previous year twice the words aptly had the Railway as “Lively customers and a roaring fire”.

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    1. Yesterday, the Stile and Wheatsheaf were “basic pubs”, the Posada an “ornate locals pub”, the Lych Gate “an ale exhibition, a comfortable pub” and the Great Western “popular with a range of custom, extensive food menu”.

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      1. Yes at times, and I remember one very wet lunchtime landlord Lee roaring “you can get off that ****ing fire” to a drenched stranger who immediately after ordering a pint of Ansells Bitter stood close enough to the fireplace to take more than his fair share of the heat. Pubs don’t tend to have such characters as licensees nowadays.

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      3. Will’, That mention of a “Peak District pub crawl by public transport” made me wonder what I might manage in that direction with my bus pass and I’ve found out that I could have eleven hours over two Saturdays in Ashbourne which, with no Wetherspoons, still has about a dozen Proper Pubs worth using, so that’s what I’ve just decided for later this spring – or I could consider spending a night in one of the Market Place pubs.

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  3. I see you managed to capture the immortal “awesome view of viaduct from outside gents” 😀

    I have no memory at all of the Station at the foot of Lancashire Hill, although there was a pub next to the Tiviot which in its last days was called something like “Inn With a Chance”.

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