July 2023. Slingsby. North Yorkshire. After our bull scare, a rare new GBG tick in the lovely Howardian Hills. Slingsby’s Grapes is almost the local for the Howard family themselves. It’s hard to see where the Sunday night custom for the Grapes comes from. 665 souls, says Wiki, and the most deserted High Street of… Continue reading THE WISDOM OF GEORGE W., THE WONDERS OF THE GRAPES, SLINGSBY.
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 NIGHT IN CASTLE HOWARD
July 2023. Castle Howard, near York. A Sunday of thunderstorms never arrived, and Mrs RM wanted a walk as she targets “10k a day”. She should take up pub ticking on foot; plenty of steps there. By a stroke of luck, my next nearest unticked GBG23 pub (90 minutes away !) is on the doorstep… Continue reading A NIGHT IN CASTLE HOWARD
ALL THE BREWERY TAPS IN SHEFFIELD ON TRAM – ST. MARS OF THE DESERT
July 2023. Attercliffe. Sheffield. I have a little section called “Notes” on my phone and for 2 years there’s been a note saying “St Mars of the Desert”. If Pastore is the trendy centre of Greater Waterbeach’s brewery centre, St Mars is the heart of hip Sheffield. Or something. During lockdown I had a fair… Continue reading ALL THE BREWERY TAPS IN SHEFFIELD ON TRAM – ST. MARS OF THE DESERT
LET THE TRAIN TAKE THE STRAIN
July 2023. Caverswall. Stoke-on-Trent. Last Friday I took six trains in my highly staggered Sheffield-Crewe return, and five (5) of them were virtually full. OK, one in three trains seemed to have been cancelled, and “We are sorry to announce…” becomes a bit wearing after a while, but the demand is certainly there. I’ll have… Continue reading LET THE TRAIN TAKE THE STRAIN
JOHNY, REMEMBERS ME
July 2023. Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. Where were we ? Oh yes, Burslem market place. Johny of Johny’s micropub fame, remembering my earlier enquiry, had just messaged me saying he’d open up an hour earlier than planned. What a great chap. But what’s his pub like ? Well, a small pub, really. Cricket on the TV (“England… Continue reading JOHNY, REMEMBERS ME
TOP 100 PUBS – THE BULLS HEAD, BURSLEM
July 2023. Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. Nice aerial shot of central Burslem for you, with our two GBG pubs in the bottom left. Used to be Guide pubs all over town. During lockdown I noted “Burslem is awash with small pubs now, called Ale House, Otter’s Tears, Hog Noggins, Johny’s Micro and Chilz“. Now, I’m not sure some… Continue reading TOP 100 PUBS – THE BULLS HEAD, BURSLEM
THE BEAUTY OF BURSLEM
July 2023. Burslem, the Potteries. One of the conditions of my exciting sponsorship deal (come on Pipers, sort it out) is that I promote towns that normal folk never visit. Oddly, if I mention Stoke-on-Trent to Mum and Dad they’d go “Oooh, we used to love Stoke“, but of course they mean the genteel bit… Continue reading THE BEAUTY OF BURSLEM
BORN IN CREWE. LIVE IN CREWE. DRINK CRAFT BEER IN CREWE.
July 2023. Crewe. During the first lockdown of 2020, that one you’ll remember so fondly, I entertained you with some cut-and-paste editions focusing on some of the UK’s tourist honeypots. And Crewe. For many pub tickers, it’s the planning the pub trip that’s the highlight rather than the actual pub and the beer. With a… Continue reading BORN IN CREWE. LIVE IN CREWE. DRINK CRAFT BEER IN CREWE.
A VINTAGE DOOM BAR IN LOXLEY
July 2023. Loxley, Sheffield. Having established that the Robin Hood (RIP) in Little Matlock was, indeed, the furthest point of my 2007 mega Sheffield crawl, I reckoned I ought to find a new pub to write about to justify splitting the trip into two posts. I guess the market for pictures on flowers (I think… Continue reading A VINTAGE DOOM BAR IN LOXLEY
ROBIN HOOD, ROBIN HOOD…
July 2023. Little Matlock, Sheffield. I had a real scare the other day, I can tell you. On the walk up the hill into Sheffield, just past the Crow, a young bloke overtook me. Granted, I was dawdling a bit, and I’d overtook him a few minutes earlier so he may have had a point… Continue reading ROBIN HOOD, ROBIN HOOD…
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