September 2026. Dewsbury.
A Top 100 pub, but also a Top 5 “hour spent in the pub”, except it was probably only 37 minutes.
Yes, it’s Dewbury, the land that time forgot, tucked away in that triangle formed by the M62 and the M1, outshone by the honeypots of Liversedge, Ossett and a mysterous place called The Fall where the motorways converge. I remember a meeting with NHS Logistics somewhere near The Fall so long ago that it wasn’t called Logistics then.
Last time here I dropped a COVID innoculated Simon at the station, assured that he was topping up his Pfizer with a pint in the West Riding Licensed Refreshment Rooms, for many years the only essential sight in Dewsbury.
A few weeks back on our regular trips back from the Cask Camino (don’t ask) I made a mental note to “Do, do, do, the Dewsbury”, but at 61 mental notes are worthless.
But I’m back after, ooh, two decades and more, and like all the best pubs the West Riding appears unchanged.
I’m always very clear that this blog is simply my diary, and I make no attempt to dissect at length the societal changes that have left Dewsbury such a pub (never mind cask) desert, or ruminate too much on the merits or otherwise of the Transpennine Rail Ale Trail.
Simon, who knows his pubs, said;”I’ve never found a pub as hard to leave ever, anywhere as the Refreshment Rooms, and I’ve been a fair few times.“
I’ll just note that from arrival at 11:02 to departure two (might have been three, to be honest) pints later, magic happened.
As always, IT’S NOT THE BEER, though the Summer Lightning was a 1,000 times better than the one in a plastic glass a week earlier, cool and chewy and northern heady (?).
It’s not the exemplary wall displays, either,
or the oh so tempting bar snacks,
or even the cosy bench seating, a match for Sheffield’s Blake.
Nope, it was the banter between bar staff and customers, most of it unfit even for my Tier 3 Patronised readers. It’s a West Yorkshire thing; the King’s Head at Huddersfield has exactly the same feel.
“Are you talking about my genitals ?” made sense at the time. But (luckily) not now.
“It’s a well known gay bar….not that I worry about that”.
I stayed for a second, a stunning Weekend Project pale, and had a lively debate with a visitor from Batley who had some unsavoury views on Dewsbury.
Having set him straight, I set out to bring you some Dewsbury Delight.
retiredmartin 