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 
I know you’ve got more than 100 pubs in your Top 100 Pubs, but “Top 5 “hour spent in the pub” pub” sounds serious, even if it was 37 minutes, as you now claim.
I’ve only been to the West Riding twice. The first time was when I did a midweek version of the Transpennine Rail Ale Trail with some friends. We did 10 pubs and I’ve just dug out my notebook for 2011 and all I’ve got is the pubs we went to and what I drank and how much I spent. And how badly my handwriting deteriorated through the day…
My next visit was in 2024 when I tagged it on at the end of a day out in Liversedge, and again I wrote no notes about the pub. As a consequence I have little in the way of memories of this iconic pub, just a few badly taken photos, so I think I need to go back there – inspired by your effusive praise – and make it the focus of my day out.
Thanks for providing the inspiration.
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Let me know, I’ll join you if you’d like.
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You’ve only just been! Is this going to become your new local?
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Is the “Dewsbury Delight” the well known gay bar?
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Or you could do like A Certain Ratio did and “Do The Du”.
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To my eternal shame, despite being brought up about 5 miles away from here (but, I suspect it didnt exist yet when I moved away in 1983), I’ve never been.
Looks great though, think i’m just put off by all those beer tourists passing through, scowling at the Dirty Leeds poster of my beloved team, esp after last night’s 4-1 win
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West Riding Refreshment Rooms is an absolute classic. One of my beery favourites. I had a classic (not classics) university reunion starting there and which ended in the Staly Vegas buffet bar.
It’s grand to be a Yorkshireman and sup t’northern ale. As someone one said.
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Geoffrey ?
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Not Sir Geoffrey on this occasion.
My friend’s dad ran a pub in Eccleshill, Bradford in the 80’s. He had a regular who just stood at the bar and repeated this mantra. Still true after 50 years.
BTW how could anyone fall in love with real ale if it’s not got a northern head?
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“How could anyone fall in love with real ale if it’s not got a northern head?”
Quite easily Prof, if you live in Kent, like I do!
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as Paul Bailey says quite easily, if you are from Suffolk as I am 😀 and Ive tried t’northern head on Suffolk beer in Hull, and it did not work.
and Id also say having done West Riding Refreshment rooms as part of the Rail Ale trail some years ago, and I keep meaning to arrange a trip back to do it again as my grandparents and great grandparents all lived around the Wakefield/Kirklees area back in the day, despite sampling many different Northern ales in the many different bars we went to on the trail, they all tasted very similar with a northern head…but then Boddingtons was quite popular at the time, still brewed in Manchester then, and most of them all seemed to going for that golden slightly hoppy bitter with creamy style.
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