A rare night in a chain hotel followed, as we stumped up £40 for one of those Marston places on the A5 at Gailey between Stafford and Wolves. I can feel the jealousy of Paul Mudge as I write. The rooms are good value, better than Premier Inn, but how would the adjoining pub diner… Continue reading SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW (NEAR STAFFORD)
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.
TWO ANDYS, ONE GREAT WYRLEY
Last Tuesday we set off west, like in the Village People song*, to Do Some Wales. Mrs RM, still “tired of pubs”, deigned to allow me a rare Staffordshire tick in Great Wyrley 20 minutes from our stop for the night. So, what’s great about Great Wyrley, halfway between Walsall and Cannock. Let the OS… Continue reading TWO ANDYS, ONE GREAT WYRLEY
HEAVEN IN THE HALLAMSHIRE HOUSE
Seven months in Sheffield, and there are STILL famous pub I’ve yet to (re)visit. After a few days recovering from BRAPA (3 months is recommended but 3 days had to suffice), I wandered down to Commonside for a 4pm Monday pint. Mrs RM was still in her “I’m tired of pubs” phase (it didn’t last),… Continue reading HEAVEN IN THE HALLAMSHIRE HOUSE
THE ONLY WAY IS ESSEX (TAXI FOR BRAPA)
I assume you’d want to see a bit of my Grand Tour of Essex, in which I deposit your pubbing hero (above) at the door of a boozer while locals stare, take his photo, and return 27.5 minutes later to see his level of deterioration. No ? Tough. I took him round four pubs about… Continue reading THE ONLY WAY IS ESSEX (TAXI FOR BRAPA)
JUST CHAMPION
You left me at 21:30 outside the Champion of the Thames on Cambridge’s once-mighty King Street, hoping I might nab a table and ensure BRAPA could have a pint in the city’s most proper of Proper Pubs, Is there anything more gorgeous than the light from within a Proper Pub ? Someone came out, I… Continue reading JUST CHAMPION
CAMBRIDGE AWAITS BRAPA
The first weekend of July; I visited my parents to make sure they’d got enough garden tools, had the obligatory Crispy Beef from Chung Hwa, and sneaked out like a naughty schoolboy to meet BRAPA when they’d gone to bed. Talking of Crispy Beef, Cambridge has been celebrating its bovine heritage (visit Midsummer Common or… Continue reading CAMBRIDGE AWAITS BRAPA
THIS IS THE PERRY GREEN, THIS IS SOCIETY
When the going gets tough, squeeze a Jam reference into your blog post. Life After Football will get it. A trip to the Herts/Essex borders west of Bishops Stortford and Stansted Airport is a rare treat for me. The “Stort”, as BRAPA will no doubt call it, is a dull old place, but those tiny… Continue reading THIS IS THE PERRY GREEN, THIS IS SOCIETY
THE CASE AGAINST TABLE SERVICE Vol 73.
Mudgie asked me what beer I had in Matlock and I confess I’ve no idea, as I wasn’t allowed to see the hand pumps as I was shown to the table. I know it was their Moot Ales homebrew, and I’m sure the enthusiastic barperson gave me a lengthy answer describing “A crispy hoppy beer,… Continue reading THE CASE AGAINST TABLE SERVICE Vol 73.
IT’S HILLY IN MATLOCK, ISN’T IT ?
Short posts, I’m not in the mood. Grrrr. Moving to Sheffield puts the gems of the Peak District in easy reach. Let’s go to Matlock, with its annual new GBG pub and improbable hills. Underrated industrial buildings too, though scarred by the occasional micropub (can you spot it ?). The obligatory non-pub cat looked a… Continue reading IT’S HILLY IN MATLOCK, ISN’T IT ?
ODDIES
My second Halifax tick opened at 16:00, despite not being a micropub. So I had time to squeeze in a quick curry in Dean Clough, via one of the UK’s great urban walks. Babar Khan is a recommendation of Curry Heute (the Pubmeister of curry), and although Covid has put paid to the famous lunchtime… Continue reading ODDIES
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