retiredmartin

July 2025. Worksop.

A stop on the weekly 2hr 26 slog down the A57/A1/A14 from home to see Dad, and breakfast in Worksop, where the walls opposite the Spoons show how North Notts folk make their own entertainment.

Hey ! Isn’t that a bottle of Jamaican tonic wine on the right ?

Spoons should do that on draught,

rather than all these silly real ales that no-one drinks and CAMRA members give them no credit for.

The Liquorice Gardens is back in the GBG with one of the best cask ranges I’ve seen, if you like that sort of stuff, but at 8:45 it’s flat white and Eggs Benedict, which Worksop folk don’t call “Benny”.

This is a lively JDW, the Old Boys greeting the ceremonial ringing of the 9am bell to greet the rush for the first Carling of the day with an exultant grin, if a grin can be exultant. Yes, it can.

I doubt middle class grocer William Straw Sr or his two sons would have approved of the Wetherspoons, even with its community focus, William Jr and Walter having kept their fathers semi-detached house in mid-20s aspic for nearly six decades.

It’s one of the National Trust’s smaller sites, but at least the Straws had the foresight to buy the orchard across the road so visitors could park there.

With entry severely restricted to timed tours, this was our first visit, and looked exactly how I imagine BRAPA’s period house in central York,

albeit Simon will have kept every copy of Pub Ticker Weekly, rather than Worksop Trader.

It’s not a grand house, and it’s the smaller details like the Straw’s calendar art that stand out.

The only slight annoyance is the completely unnecessary exhibits showing what objects the Straws didn’t have in their house.

“Look, here’s a Kindle. The Straws didn’t have Kindles“.

“Look, here’s a model of an air fryer. The Straws didn’t have an air fryer. Imagine that !“.

But they had hats.

And that row of Mr Straw’s hats at the entrance is the most evocative image of all.