THE DEATH RATTLE AT THE FOX AND GOOSE

May 2025. Hebden Bridge.

36 minutes to clamber the 2 miles from Hebden station to pub tick, 27 minutes to sprint back down to the market place, where literally everyone is heading for the pub.

I was astonished to discover the population is barely 4,500, which equates to 1.08 pubs or cafes per resident.

It’s a singular town,

that I desperately want to dislike but can’t.

With an hour till my train I had an agonising decision on Pub 2.

A bit like Altrincham, there’s lots of modern places called Hidden and Nightjar and Vocation and Drink. Drink seems to have lost its ?, which is a terrible thing to lose.

But I decide on the “scruffy but loveable” Fox and Goose, the pub for which the word “fusty” might have been coined before Birmingham’s Wellington claimed that title.

But that was 15 years ago, and after a yo-yo relationship with the Guide it’s now sparkling and community owned and rather wonderful.

The Sunbeam Dark Mild had just been poured, so I had to have that, but someone on Untappd had just raved about the Death Rattle, so I had to have that as well.

HOW strong ?!!!

Just a third then. It’s what Blackpool Jane would do. Mrs RM would have insisted on a pint and complained about casual sexism if she didn’t get it.

I could rave about the multi-roomed layout and bench seating, and the beer quality (both a chewy NBSS 3.5), but appropriately for a community pub it’s the people I want to applaud.

A lovely local called David moved up so I could have the prime seat near the window, and we chatted Sam Smiths and Newcastle pubs with an undertaker, and the stress of getting your children to pick a University you’d like to go to.

It was a joy chatting to you, David.

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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.

19 thoughts on “THE DEATH RATTLE AT THE FOX AND GOOSE”

  1. Great places, both pub and town.

    Micropubs (2010s) and craft beer bars (2020s) opening are usually indicators of a town on the up. See also Clitheroe, Monton, Halifax. It seems to help being somewhat tricky to get to (keeps The New Urban away).

    …as opposed to sprawling Deano estates like Ingleby Barwick of 20,000 people, with barely a decent pub to be had. An obvious slum of the future.

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    1. Comment of the Day (new feature).

      Yes, big parallels with central Halifax and Clitheroe (a similar sort of town).

      How do we explain Stockton’s attempts to defy gentrification, despite having some of the best micros and a steam punk attraction ;-0

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      1. Deano is your local very well tanned drinker of £7/pint continental ale who complains about the price of ale.

        Has a great tan and garden AstroTurf and a white Audi with the newest reg.

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      1. Yes Dave, in Yorkshire I much preferred Skipton where I drank three days last month.
        There’s a lot to be said for a town that still has a Building Society – including Bath, Cambridge, Dudley, Leek, Loughborough, Mansfield, Nottingham, Penrith, Skipton, Stafford, Tipton and Coseley and West Bromwich.

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      2. I am curious. I’ve been to three of these locations and love all three. What is the importance of a building society?

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      3. Dave, Building Societies have enabled millions of us, of modest means, to borrow money over about 25 years to buy a home, and they can look after any savings we might have.

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      4. Dave,
        You could do much worse than follow the Spine of Albion for Winchester, Birmingham, Manchester, Carlisle, Inverness and dozens of smaller settlements, a lovely trek marred only by William Shakespeare having made Stratford upon Avon famous.

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      6. You made me curious enough to read up on them. Wiki has a great page. The US equivalent is a credit union I think. I was surprised how many Building Societies are no longer in existence. Seems to be more need now than ever.

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  3. Why on earth would you desperately want to dislike Hebden Bridge? Unless you get some strange kick out of being perverse.

    The town is on my list of places to revisit, in the UK. Perhaps I ought to look for a different guide?🤔

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