retiredmartin

April 2025. Burbage.

I do have a number of rules I apply to my blogging. No more than ten pictures, a two minute read so you can read it in the time it takes to sink a pint of Bass, all facts checked independently by ChatGPT, and NO MORE than 100 pubs in the Top 100.

It’s also important to have a map or two; too many pub bloggers report on their ticking in towns called “Worcester” which I know Americans won’t have a clue where to find, let alone pronounce.

So you get a map (above) putting Hinckley/Burbage south-west of Leicester (“Wherezat ?“), and a little What Pub extract showing our second pub barely a minute’s walk from the Red Lion.

What you don’t get today is many photos showing what The Sycamores actually looks like, or indeed what hilarity ensued, since my only notes say “Looks superb“.

So here’s one from What Pub, which by itself is justification for your CAMRA subs.

And here’s a recent description of the pub from the estimable Blue Scrumpy, who competes with Quinno and Will for most posts on Pubs Galore.

I’d added the Sycamores to our crawl because a) you don’t want to walk half an hour out from Hinckley from one pub, b) it’s inevitable you’ll need the loo again five minutes after leaving the Red Lion, c) Bass, innit ? and d) it might have been a passable lunch stop.

But there were no takers for hot honey and fid or EVOO (?), just “Four pints of Bass please“.

And you’re right, you don’t see Hancocks HB much these days. That must have prompted some memories of the Cherry Tree in Tintern, and this never-ending series of posts will feature a Cherry Tree, where the Draught Bass was actually better than it was here (a solid NBSS 3),

where, as I say, it “looks superb”.

As did Wynnes Garage, drawing comparison with that Art Deco masterpiece in Woodville as we stood waiting for a bus that actually did turn up, eventually.