THE GBG CLOCK STARTS TICKING IN SHIREOAKS

September 2026. Shireoaks. Notts.

The new Good Beer Guide has dropped (ugh); it would have been poetic to blame my injury on the descent of this massive brick of a book (forgot to mention that last post),

but it arrived while I was in Dewsbury and flattened Mrs RM instead.

Having made every effort to limit the walk to and from the football (even took the metro to Piccadilly) the only sensible option was to get home and rest.

But “sensible” isn’t a criticism often directed at me, and when the internet returned somewhere near Dore I started planning a “cheeky” (ugh) pint at a closest GBG new entry,

That’s Shireoaks (pop 1,774), another mining village, this one just inside the Notts border next to Worksop.

There’s a lot going on in that OS extract apart from the colliery turned into a gorgeous country park.

Moses’ Seat, Rhodesia, a Ryder Cup venue, and an industrial estate with a Beer Guide debutant.

I’m ambivalent about industrial estate brewery taps. They fill an essential role in underpubbed towns and keep the mobile food truck trade alive, but are never going to trouble the heritage pubs register.

I really don’t know what to say. What is there to say about Ticking Clock ?

OK, it’s great to see a community getting together to support independent businesses. The beer was very tasty, though in retrospect I should have tried the cask, as “Can’t Hardly Wait” was a teeny bit too carbonated.

But it does give me an excuse to play The Replacements,

as if any excuse is necessary.

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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.

7 thoughts on “THE GBG CLOCK STARTS TICKING IN SHIREOAKS”

  1. I think the principal attraction of freshly minted Taprooms in previously unpubbed locations is the opportunity for inexperienced pubbers, and chronic wallflowers like myself to create our own ‘local’ space away from the baggage of decades (often centuries) established pubs, where it can be a bit harder to fit in amongst the locals.

    That and the beer obvs’…

    (The Real) Mark

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  2. Is the extraordinary size of this year’s GBG down to changing the paper? Surely this deserves a WhatsApp group to discuss?🤦
    As for the anonymous half built “taps” on industrial estates, I’m increasingly ambivalent as their numbers increase (at least in terms of entries in the Good Book). They operate under a different business rates system which gives a cost advantage over “proper” pubs, plus the fine line between industrial chic and complete tip is frequently crossed.
    Plus it’s a bit tricky to get to many of these places without driving.

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  3. Hoping Mrs RM is recovering (from the new silly book dropping on her) and you will be restarting God’s own Camino very soon.

    I shall be visiting an industrial estate (as fans of The Fall, we always then say YEAH YEAH INDUSTRIAL ESTATE) in Wetherby on Saturday. Sadly Bosuns brewery one started up and closed before I had a chance to visit, but in general, i’m not a fan, but it seems only right and proper I should visit when the walk passes nearby.

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  4. There seem to be two industrial estate brewery taprooms near to me. One of them opens Thursday to Saturday and the other Thursday to Sunday. I have yet to visit either of them and rather oddly one of them doesn’t appear to be listed by CAMRA.

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