28 April 2025. Hardwick. Derbyshire. A brief cultural interlude to break up the pubs, and a first visit to one of the big (well, £23.10 for non-members) National Trust houses on the way home from Smeeton Westerby. Quite how we’ve avoided it, a few yards off the M1 between the bucolic towns of Chesterfield and… Continue reading A HALT IN HARDWICK HALL
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.
GLASSWARE DRAMA IN SMEETON WESTERBY
April 2025. Smeeton Westerby Leicestershire. We’re getting good use out of the campervan now, and that 4 pint container of Triple fff Moondance that serves as my en-suite. It comes into its own visiting remote pubs like the King’s Head in Smeeton Westerby, tucked away in the posh villages betwixt Leicester and Harborough. This is… Continue reading GLASSWARE DRAMA IN SMEETON WESTERBY
LAST ORDERS IN THE ELY LAMB
April 2025. Ely. “Have you been there ?” asks Mrs RM as we pass Ely’s top hotel on the walk down hill back to the campervan. And I have to confess that I haven’t, but I really want to. I’d popped my head in the Lamb a fortnight earlier on the search for the Abbot… Continue reading LAST ORDERS IN THE ELY LAMB
…AND A FRENETIC NIGHT IN ELY
April 2025. Ely. Blimey, out after 9pm, not been so close to last orders in ages. “Where now ?” asks Mrs RM. The two lovely young folk behind the bar at the Fountain had given their own unique perspective on the pubs of Ely, but despite warning us off the Kings Arms (Craft Union, scuzzy)… Continue reading …AND A FRENETIC NIGHT IN ELY
A QUIET SATURDAY NIGHT IN ELY…
April 2025. Ely. It’s two nights a week in Cambridge to chat to Dad about grandsons and VE Day (today’s topics) in his care home, so I might yet get enough blog material to do one of those “Town Pub Guides” that I sort of promised at the start of the year (but have been… Continue reading A QUIET SATURDAY NIGHT IN ELY…
WHERE HAS LEICESTER’s CHERRY TREE BEEN ALL MY LIFE ?
April 2025. Leicester. The last knockings of my Big Day Out in Hinckley, as I decide that 24 minutes is, in fact, enough time to see a bit more of Leicester, and somehow squeeze in a pint at the Cherry Tree, which a quick look at my giant spreadsheet confirms I’ve never been to before… Continue reading WHERE HAS LEICESTER’s CHERRY TREE BEEN ALL MY LIFE ?
BACK TO THE (REAL ALE) CLASSROOM
April 2025. Leicester. 45 minutes between connecting trains presents a challenge. Just too little time for goulash in Tatra, and tea only 2 hours after the faggots that would have been almost greedy. All logic says “Oh, go in the Ale Wagon, Retired Martin, you know you want to“, but that’s best reserved for a… Continue reading BACK TO THE (REAL ALE) CLASSROOM
KEG PEDI, PROPER PUB
April 2025. Hinckley. Back, again, through Hinckley’s pedestrianised centre to my final pub before the train home, stopping only to note the dramatic relocation of Mr Tax. Every trip to a UK town gives you a new perspective on the architecture, but to really understand a place you have to visit a tax advisor there,… Continue reading KEG PEDI, PROPER PUB
WILL PAUL BE TEMPTED BY THE DIPAs IN HINCKLEY’S ELBOW ROOM* ?
April 2025. Hinckley. All that Bass taking its toll now, but by law there has to be one GBG craft bar selling LocAles to counteract the evil of the national brown slop, and Elbow Room has established itself over nearly a decade as Hinckley’s purveyor of CAMRA-endorsed indie beer. Paul gamely surveyed the mass of… Continue reading WILL PAUL BE TEMPTED BY THE DIPAs IN HINCKLEY’S ELBOW ROOM* ?
THE WILLIAM BASS TRAIL REACHES THE PESTLE & MORTAR
You try coming up with blog titles for four successive Bass pubs. April 2025. Hinckley. Well, this hastily convened exploration of a rarely visited (for pubs, I’m sure folk visit for the household wares shop) Leicestershire market town was going well, and a fourth pint of Bass in three hours came two minutes from our… Continue reading THE WILLIAM BASS TRAIL REACHES THE PESTLE & MORTAR
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