10 YEARS AND 7,387 POSTS OF RETIRED MARTIN

I was going to do a bumper issue to commemorate a decade of Retired Martin today, but frankly I was down the pub (Borough Beer House in Farnham, since you ask) and couldn’t be bothered.

And as you’ll know I’m not one to fuss about dates or anniversaries or commemorations, but 26 July 2015 did mark a tentative first step into blogging, mostly encouraged by Pub Curmudgeon, whose own expertly curated site I’d been commenting on for a while.

It took a few months to learn to do basics like write words and add pictures, never mind publicise the blog, and I was delighted to get a first comment from old work colleague and nice guy Neil.

The first full month got twenty-six (26) views, that’s less than one a day. Things improved a bit after that.

Note the impact of COVID through 2020, but apart from the stats are surprisingly stable.

I do need to get more views from central Africa, mind.

Yesterday in Farnham I met a lovely chap called Barry who admitted, under promise of anonymity, that he reads the blog. Writing this diary has helped me meet loads of cheery, interesting folk, which is what you must do, rather than getting into a fury on Twitter.

Some of my most-read posts among the first 7,387 are about the most unvisited places.

Mansfield, Workington, Solihull, Coalville..

Heralding the unheralded, banking the Bass,

soiling the sheets of a budget Alton hotel (with crispy beef) I press on to a second decade.

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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.

18 thoughts on “10 YEARS AND 7,387 POSTS OF RETIRED MARTIN”

  2. Congratulations on a magnificent blog my good man
    Like the fact Solihull and Coalville are in your most read posts 😀 that’s probably me re reading them!
    You got me started on mine and long May your blog continue.
    The master of irreverence and pub pictures!
    Cheers
    Life After Football

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  3. Congratulations Martin. Pub activism like this, particularly when bravely blogging on subjects like ‘John Smiths Smooth’, ‘Flat Roof Estate Pubs’ and supporting the recently proscribed organisation ‘Pub Men Against Shorts’, has undoubtedly kept a few pubs going in the face of the ‘Evil Coffee’© that government seems powerless to stop.
    (The Real) Mark

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  6. Congratulations on your staying power Martin, and also on you prolific output. 7,387 post over 10 years, certainly knocks my current total of 1,866 in 17 years, into the proverbial cocked hat! Always a”must go to” post on my blog list, retiredmartin has kept me informed and entertained over the years, and has brightened up many a dull day.

    Was great catching up with you in person yesterday, both at Farnham and Alton, and not just at the Borough Beer House. The preceding seven pubs were all good choices in their own right, and my own post(s) will follow, in due course.

    It was good too meeting up again with Citra and Prop up the Bar, as well as the folks from CAMRA Discourse!!

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  8. Tremendous achievement.

    It’s always entertaining to read your blogs for your shrewd observations on pubs and the people who use them, and to see your top class photos of all those things that the rest of us have missed.

    Keep them coming.

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  10. I’ve been wondering if that 7,387 can be right, as it must equate to a similar number of pubs. But it is, with an average of 738 pubs a year over that decade. It was over a thousand in 2022.

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