August 2025. Sheffield. My annual walk to one of the Kelham GBG perennials takes me past the old Stones brewery, which sadly doesn’t look like it’s getting the makeover its Yorkshire neighbour Tetley is. Across the road the Gardeners Rest continues as a fine example of a community pub, largely unsung though with the best… Continue reading CONTENTIOUS UNTAPPD CHECK-INS AT THE GARDENERS REST
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.
THE TETLEY
August 2025. Leeds. Rail journeys via Leeds always involve a wait of between 32 and 54 minutes, just long enough to be irritating.Unless you nip out the southern entrance (the one with the water taxi) for a pint. Always best to stride confidently towards a target pub you decide on at the very last moment,… Continue reading THE TETLEY
A SYMPHONY IN BROWN. LANE ENDS HOTEL, BURNLEY
August 2025. Burnley. Two Burnley ticks on a Sunday in opposite end of town meant another bus, from Briercliffe to what I guess is Rose Grove to the east. I pay my quid (“Wow !“), the bus pulls into Platform 7 at central station, I realise I need to stay on this bus, even though… Continue reading A SYMPHONY IN BROWN. LANE ENDS HOTEL, BURNLEY
LACINGS DON’T LIE. THE COMMERCIAL, BURNLEY
August 2025. Burnley. My feeble attempts to visit GBG pubs since Guide completion seem limited by a) having to spend the weekends ploughing up and down the A1 between Sheffield and Cambridge, b) only drinking pints and c) using public transport. Just as well none of the other tickers would do b) and c)…. Shockingly,… Continue reading LACINGS DON’T LIE. THE COMMERCIAL, BURNLEY
OH RICKY YOU’RE SO FINE…
August 2025. Rickmansworth. Yes, actually in August! Straight home from our lodge in Richmond (by the by congrats to the Stable Yard for a dozen coffee sachets and NO decaf đź‘Ť), then 2 nights in Waterbeach, where the Brakspear Gravity is superb, and then a day at Pembury Hospital A & E with the father-in-law,… Continue reading OH RICKY YOU’RE SO FINE…
TASTES LIKE SHERBERT. SEMER WATER AT THE BAY HORSE, RAVENSWORTH
July 2025. Ravensworth. North Yorkshire. “Do you have a booking ?”. Ah, the North-Yorkshire-not-quite-touristy gastropub run by enthusiastic young couple in a village with castle ruins. “Um, just a drink please”. “Super, great idea, we have a loverly garden out back”. Yes, they definitely want the indoors for the diners at the Bay Horse, with… Continue reading TASTES LIKE SHERBERT. SEMER WATER AT THE BAY HORSE, RAVENSWORTH
A SENSE OF COMMUNITY IN SKEEBY
July 2025. Skeeby. North Yorkshire. It doesn’t look like I’ll complete the North Yorkshire chapter of the GBG this year but such is life. The newbies tend to be rural pubs or brewery taps only open Fri-Sat (Guisborough), and I’ve still not found a way to get to the Crown in Middlemoor and back in… Continue reading A SENSE OF COMMUNITY IN SKEEBY
A REETH GOOD TIME
July 2025. Reeth. Back from Edinburgh at that night Mrs RM somehow got an Uber to take us back to the Darlington car park that had been our room for four (4) nights in July, That’s longer than I spent at “home” in Sheffield; perhaps I’ll get a Durham Council Tax demand. Two nights in… Continue reading A REETH GOOD TIME
COCTEAU TWINS DEEP CUTS IN EDINBURGH’S BLACK CAT
July 2025. Edinburgh. Last Edinburgh post, promise. I left the Argyle Bar just after 4pm, almost five hours till the train back to Darlington, but was already approaching 30,000 steps, and worried I’d just get distracted by Bow Bar, Halfway House, Oxford and the rest and undo all those calories walked off. So I slowed… Continue reading COCTEAU TWINS DEEP CUTS IN EDINBURGH’S BLACK CAT
THE MARCH OF THE TALL FOUNTS. ARGYLE BAR, EDINBURGH
July 2025. Edinburgh. It’s approaching 4pm on our Big Edinburgh Day Out and time to head Southside. This year’s collection of GBG ticks take you to New Town, Leith and the east, and down through the Meadows to the “Miss Jean Brodie” residential suburb of Marchmont, with its artisanal hardware and giant fish. We’ve got… Continue reading THE MARCH OF THE TALL FOUNTS. ARGYLE BAR, EDINBURGH
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