Good Beer Guide geography is a source of amazement to the Royal Society of GBG Tickers. Exhibit A. Magic Rock Tap, Huddersfield. Half a mile from Huddersfield Station But listed in the GBG under Birkby, to the amazement of the residents of Birkby, if there are any. Exhibit B. The Culver Haven Inn, Culver Down,… Continue reading THE VIEW FROM CULVER DOWN
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.
SORCERY AND SICKNESS IN SANDOWN
I could have taken the train to Sandown, but the combined travel tickets condemned me to the dreaded Vectis buses. At least the hovercraft stomach churning was over in ten minutes. The bus was 30 minutes of hell. Good job they had those little USB sockets to recharge my phone, eh ? I jumped off… Continue reading SORCERY AND SICKNESS IN SANDOWN
A (HOVERCRAFT) TICKET TO RYDE
Mark Crilley must be in Britpop heaven, with me following the Spandau Ballet reference with a pun on our favourite Northwestern chiming guitar moptops (Oasis, I think). With two nights in Pompey, I made Tuesday “Isle of Wight Day“, just edging out “Southampton Micro Day”. Southampton will always be there, but Wight is probably drifting… Continue reading A (HOVERCRAFT) TICKET TO RYDE
KING STREET BLUES
More short posts. With more great Portsmouth backstreet pub tiling, but unfortunately more slow-selling beer. A rare Wadworths house in the Beer Guide, it looked irresistible at dusk. And with the blues playing and a menu starring “lobster or lobster & pulled brisket loaded fries served up truffle alioli”, I thought it might be the… Continue reading KING STREET BLUES
TONY HADLEY IPA – “YOU ARE BRONZE, BRONZE…”
Yes, I really aim to draw you in a post with a Spandau Ballet pun. It’s that bad. Next up was Swanwick’s Elm Tree. in the Neverlands between Southampton and Portsmouth. Loads going on here just off the M27, with Air Traffic Control, Beacon Bottom and the mysterious “Balancing Pond“. That Ember Inn (top)… Continue reading TONY HADLEY IPA – “YOU ARE BRONZE, BRONZE…”
THE TRAIN FROM FRATTON
A few short bitty posts now as I rush back and forwards between the laptop and the annual charity sale, where I attempt to sell tat to folk at deflated prices. So bit of a rush through the pubs. Which will please some of you who think I should always be in a pub. This… Continue reading THE TRAIN FROM FRATTON
PROPER POMPEY LANDLORD
You left me in Southsea at the Auckland, having just visited a non-GBG pub in error. As Costello sang, “It was a brilliant mistake“. So I walked the ten yards round the corner to the Apsley, a different but equally cosy looking local. I suspect some of you are ahead of me here. Yes, it… Continue reading PROPER POMPEY LANDLORD
NO BURSTING THE SOUTHSEA BUBBLE
Back to Pompey, or more properly Southsea, one of the great pubbing areas in the world, along with Stockport, Bewdley and the Amber Valley. Oddly, Portsmouth itself is looking like a GBG desert, as this extract from the GBG App shows. Yes, Southsea must have one of the highest concentrations of GBG pubs per head… Continue reading NO BURSTING THE SOUTHSEA BUBBLE
THE DREGS OF WORTHING
Odd one this. I’d arranged to meet John, the Wonder of Wittering, in Littlehampton for a seaside crawl. But our pub was unexpectedly shut (and wasn’t a micro). Even worse, I hadn’t had time to park up in my usual secret spot in Pompey and make the train across, so I was going to… Continue reading THE DREGS OF WORTHING
ARTFUL TEASING IN CHIDDINGFOLD
The odds of me headlining my last Surrey post with posh hand lotion were high, perhaps 88%. The alternative was this one. But you don’t want to lead with a toilet sign too often. So, back to Chiddingfold, a year after this atrocity; Both that horror in the Winterton Arms, and a previous pint… Continue reading ARTFUL TEASING IN CHIDDINGFOLD
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