retiredmartin

July 2025. Northallerton.

It’s 11:26. The door to the Mason’s Arms is about to open, bang on time, a few minutes early even.

I like an 11:30 opener. An early start, but not so early you think you might look like a drunk. That’s what Spoons are for.

Northallerton feels like a town of pottery, Virtual Reality and micropubs, so a second successive new “Proper Pub” after the Fleece is a surprise and a joy. Has the micro tide finally turned ?

And yes, I know what I mean by “Proper Pub“, same as I do “Classic Pub” and “Chewy“, which doesn’t mean I have to define it for your pleasure.

But I bet you look at that seating and carpet and instinctively think “That pub will be playing “Chain Reaction“, won’t ask if I’m dining, and have a suspiciously marked Sooty charity box“.

One beer, too, even more thrillingly one beer you’ve heard of and NOT made by an independent brewery. Don’t these folk read the CAMRA edicts ?

It’s a joy of a friendly, multi-roomed local, old Tetley pub I guess, with the Test Match (the 1989 Ashes I think, so out-of-date are these posts) on one screen,

and the epitome of Pub Grub in the other.

Not the crispest pint of Wainwright in truth (NBSS 3), the heatwave was playing havoc that week, but it slipped down well enough for the landlady to say “Someone was thirsty !” as I took the glass back at 11:33.