August 2024. Canterbury. CAMRA’s national beer scoring system, the one that determines which pubs make the Beer Guide (admit it, you thought it was about discounts and stocking beers whose pump clips you can’t read), has a very useful prompt to marking your pint (0 is Doom Bar, I believe. Mrs RM and I were… Continue reading TOP 100 PUBS – THE UNICORN, CANTERBURY
Author: 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.
A CANTERBURY TALE
August 2024. Canterbury. If short of a witty blog title, fall back on a cliché. We arranged to meet our local resident in the Monument at 6, which gave us 45 minutes to explore a few other local monuments, including the Norman castle still awaiting conversion to a Brunning & Price. I’m sure falling masonry… Continue reading A CANTERBURY TALE
THE CANTERBURY SCENE
August 2024. Canterbury. The Grand Tour of Kent continued on Friday as we veered inland to Canterbury, where we will later meet up with a mystery friend of this blog. Quite an arty friend, as it turns out. The Bat & Ball, our bijou B & B (too many Bs) a mile south of the… Continue reading THE CANTERBURY SCENE
TOP 100 PUBS – THE NEW INN, SANDWICH
August 2024. Sandwich. Quite a lot of inductees into the Top 100 recently, so any fair I should kick one out occasionally, so let’s say “bye for now” to the Town Wall Tavern* in Coventry, Bass and all. That releases a space (No. 566) for a gem that has somehow escaped the attention of the… Continue reading TOP 100 PUBS – THE NEW INN, SANDWICH
A SANDWICH IN SANDWICH
August 2024. Kent. Last Friday was typical of our current manic schedule, continuing a trip down from Waterbeach with an apparent attempt to visit all of Kent in a day. Simon and Quinno will know how this feels. Dartford isn’t quite Kent these days, despite 65% of the pubs being called “Man of Kent“, but… Continue reading A SANDWICH IN SANDWICH
A DASH ROUND DARTFORD
August 2024. Dartford. We’d left Waterbeach at 3:45 and parked up just over the Dartford Bridge in our first Holiday Inn Express for a decade, a hulking monolith overlooking the M25 A282 in possibly the UK’s noisiest location outside of Maidenhead’s Honeypot. While Mrs RM fiddled with Wi-Fi I’d headed along a grim suburb of… Continue reading A DASH ROUND DARTFORD
PANIC IN PLUMSTEAD
August 2024. Plumstead. A rare bit of leisurely ticking on a Thursday night in South-east London. Just a couple of newbies; Duncan managed thirteen (13) but I think he counts touching the door as a tick these days. Maltmeister still ticks closed pubs from old Guides. I think this one was in the 1738 edition,… Continue reading PANIC IN PLUMSTEAD
SHOOTERS HILL
August 2024. Charlton. A very rare excursion into the northern bit of South-east London, which might be Greenwich, Woolwich,Charlton or Blackheath for all I know, and that’s half the fun of London pubbing. I catch the train from Dartford to Charlton, a place with a 3rd division football club but Isthmian League GBG game. According… Continue reading SHOOTERS HILL
A NIGHT IN NEWMARKET
August 2024. Newmarket. We’ve been down in Waterbeach most of August attending to my parents, but staying at Mum’s has stopped being an option due to a) the risk of Chung Hwa 5 nights a week, b) the risk 3 pints in The Sun 5 nights a week, c) lack of internet meaning Mrs RM… Continue reading A NIGHT IN NEWMARKET
A RIVELIN RUMBLE
August 2024. Sheffield. Mondays mean closed pubs, even in Sheffield, so we took little Dave out for a trip in the Rivelin valley. Dave started in my back pocket, but ended up in Mrs RM’s bag, which will be relevant later*. From the Blind Monkey you can be up Bole Hill on the edge of… Continue reading A RIVELIN RUMBLE
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