August 2025. South Milford/Sherburn-in-Elmet. It’s 4:20pm, an hour and a quarter till my train home, plenty of time for a fifth and last pint on the Sherburn/South Milford curated pub survey. “Make sure you get the right side of the barrier” says a surprisingly sober Leon as we head past his home village’s UNESCO World… Continue reading STUCK THE WRONG SIDE OF THE GATE AT SHERBURN STATION SWINGING A BAG OF CRISPY BEEF

August 2025. South Milford. We leave Oddfellows playing Rick Wakeman and adverts for cremation, which is Sherburn in a nutshell, and walk the mile to Leon’s home village of South Milford, where his lovely wife and child would be standing on the doorstep to cheer him on. A Monday afternoon in two rural Yorkshire farming… Continue reading SWANNING INTO SOUTH MILFORD

August 2025. Sherburn-in-Elmet. So*, should you be cancelling your vacations in Shanghai and Sheerness and booking a holiday in Sherburn ? Well, that will depend on the quality of the Chinese takeaway obviously. You could so the Elmet “Where’s Wally ?” trail, try to identify the street art, and find someone who’ll let you see… Continue reading P**SHEAD CORNER, ODDFELLOWS, SHERBURN IN ELMET

August 2025. Sherburn-in-Elmet. Leon was giving me the Deluxe Curated Tour of Sherburn, even though he doesn’t actually live there or use the pubs regularly. Sherburn is a town of 6,657 souls, who all seemed cheerful enough despite the absence of regular trains to Sheffield. Or a Wetherspoons. It has a Sam Smiths pub, though,… Continue reading TURNING THE PHONE OFF AT THE DOOR OF THE RED BEAR IN SHERBURN IN ELMET

August 2025. Sherburn-in-Elmet. A prime example of the distractions I face having completed the GBG; this Monday Meander round Milford was the sort of pubbing for fun you don’t get when on a ticking mission. South Milford (is there a North ?) Leon, Wetherspoons completist and Park Run ticker, had invited me to join him… Continue reading MARCHING ON TOGETHER. RM AND LEON DO SHERBURN IN ELMET

August was a travel-packed month, to be sure, with fifty-three (53) different pubs visited around the country, and only one duffer (and that closed for good the week after my visit). and now in the first week of September we pay the price with both vehicles in for repairs. Probably just need switching on and… Continue reading AUGUST ’25 STOCKTAKE + SEPTEMBER PREVIEW

August 2025. Birmingham. Our Gang of Four left the NEC at 5pm, just as the crowds were arriving at the Great British Beer Festival‘s Friday night session. Except they weren’t. It was eerily quiet, in contrast to central Brum, packed with Hen parties, cricket fans, and Blues heading to St. Andrews for the start of… Continue reading IN SEARCH OF SOUR SMOOTHIES AT THE COLMORE

August 2025. Birmingham. Just back from four days of nu-folk and falafel wraps and Korean cinema at End of the Road Festival, I bet you can’t wait for my reviews of Glasshouse Red Spider Mite and Tropical F**k Storm, coming up in, ooh, 8th November. The defining image of EOTR 25 is not a pretty… Continue reading CRAZY TRAIN

August 2025. Birmingham. This was the view from our £45 B & B hotel. Chinatown (via a grotty, Newport-esque, underpass), the Gay Quarter (1 pub I think) and HS2. The next week we returned and had a south facing view of a derelict building site. Birmingham is, like Manchester and Sheffield, a city of architectural… Continue reading CHERRY REDS