PECULIER

May 2026. Masham. North Yorkshire.

Half a dozen pubs (well, two of them brewery taps) and a golf club bar for 1,205 residents of Masham;

time to see if the GBG has picked the right two (the red Ps).

It appears Dave and Joan joined me in not making it back to the Bay Horse and the Bruce in the town square,

hopefully not due to my lukewarm write-up in 2019.

Frankly, I was taken aback that the Guide newbie this year is our Sunday night Chef & Brewer hotel,

a bit like finding the new Sheffield tick is a Marston’s carvery.

But it’s got the range,

and more importantly, it’s got the ~~obscure Bee Gees track~~,

best beer quality. A 3.5 for the Theakston, Black Sheep Best a crisp, chewy NBSS 4.5.

I don’t know how they do it, but I’d sure like to find out. Probably something fancy like cleaning the lines.

The second, long-standing Guide entry is Theakston’s only pub (it’s mainly free trade supply), though frankly it felt more of an upmarket “dining with rooms” affair, with greeter seeming to bar us from searching for the Southworths during the Bear’s Sunday afternoon break from serving plates of Sunday roast.