JANUARY ’26 STOCKTAKE + FEBRUARY PREVIEW

January 2026 wasn’t as dramatic as January 2025, thank goodness, but parental concerns still limited our travels. Not that you’d necessarily know that looking at the travel map;

Rare trips into Lancashire,

Norfolk,

and Nottinghamshire’s Radcliffe, the only January trip I still need to tell you about as I caught up with the blog.

A month of forty-three different pubs, one of the best ever (ever) for beer quality with an average NBSS of 3.63 and a rarely spotted perfect “5” for Bathams at Cleveley’s Wobblinn, itself one of the weakest pubs.

The best “old” pub was the Roscoe Head in Liverpool, great pint of Jarl in this GBG ever-present,

and my top “new” pub the classic small town local that is the Kings Arms in Watton, one of the best places in the world to experience the joy of sitting drinking while Norfolk folk talk absolute guff.

We laid Old Mudgie to rest in Widnes mid-month, his family did him proud, and local CAMRA members honoured him in some unexpectedly good nearby pubs, of which the Crown was probably the star.

I reflected on the role of pubs in family bonds myself, and meeting folk in new pubs is almost as good for the soul as the comments I continue to get on this blog, as long as those comments are legal, decent and true, which nearly 40% are.

Hero of the Month is the guy at Mr Clutch in Sheffield who fixed the Citroen, and Heroine is Courtney Marie Andrews (Not NOTHER American songstress, RM !),

winging her way to London this month with her song about a scary world full of Cons and Clowns. Whoever could she be singing about ?

I’m starting February by the sea,

but which sea, Dave ?

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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.

21 thoughts on “JANUARY ’26 STOCKTAKE + FEBRUARY PREVIEW”

  3. I’ve just had a look at the Kings Arms in Watton to see if it is anywhere near where I’m going next week in north Norfolk so that I can call in and validate your beer scores. (It’s not.) Just kidding about your beer scores – I can’t find a strike through facility so I’ll have to leave it.

    Looking at streetview, it appears to have closed down at one point, with a photo from 2016 showing it with door boarded up and all signage removed. The CAMRA website is cagey about this, merely saying that it was “refurbished in 2017”.

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      1. Martin, I never hear the local accent on trains and so don’t believe anyone from Norwich actually visits anywhere outside of Norwich.
        Maybe it’s because it’s so good, rather like Uttoxeter.

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  5. “Not that you’d necessarily know that looking at the travel map;”

    (looks down)
    That looks like someone coming home from the pub; after a (Si) amount of pints!

    “and a rarely spotted perfect “5” for Bathams at Cleveley’s Wobblinn, itself one of the weakest pubs.”

    (looks down)
    A 5 for a bitter? I’d fairly swoon.

    “one of the best places in the world to experience the joy of sitting drinking while Norfolk folk talk absolute guff.”

    Isn’t that the definition of a great pub?

    “We laid Old Mudgie to rest in Widnes mid-month,”

    (raises a beer, again)

    “as long as those comments are legal, decent and true, which nearly 40% are.”

    Did the percentage go up when I disappeared for a bit? 😋

    “Hero of the Month is the guy at Mr Clutch in Sheffield who fixed the Citroen,”

    He certainly lived up to his name. 👍😊

    “Whoever could she be singing about ?”

    (slow golf clap)

    “but which sea, Dave ?”

    Ooh, ooh! Gonna beat Dave here, his time zone works against him?

    Anyway, definitely Italy (who is can be that chaotic with small and large vessels in the harbour?).

    So, Med is my first guess, followed by the Adriatic.

    Cheers

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