15th/16th January 2020 Day 1 of the Cornish Road Trip, and an overnight stop minutes off the M5 in Tiverton. You could do Cambridge to Falmouth in a day, but then I’d not get to visit any Devon pubs, and mine and Simon’s attempt to get Devon taken out of the GBG is off to… Continue reading A TON OF FUN IN TIVERTON
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TWO NEW PURITONS
15th January 2020 Never mind the “o” in Puriton, what about the “z” in Enterprize ? An hour on from Berkeley, I asked Sis to guide me to stop No. 2, just off the M5. Junction 37, I guessed, having been to the No.37 Social Club a few years back, but clearly 37 is the… Continue reading TWO NEW PURITONS
WANSWELL – SALMON, SQUID RINGS & PHEASANT TAILS
15th January 2020 And so, it begins, five days in the South-West, whatever that is, on a road trip with my sister Julie. It’s not quite On The Road, but there is a high speed blow-out on the M5, fiddles and mind-altering quantities of Draught Bass. Just not at the same time. My niece Patricia… Continue reading WANSWELL – SALMON, SQUID RINGS & PHEASANT TAILS
GOODNIGHT, RAMSGATE – MIXING RHUBARB CIDER WITH SHIPYARD IPA
12th/13th January 2020 Today’s cover star is Crystal, seen enjoying Ramsgate hospitality the night before her trip back to the States with Nick. After Arthur Brown and rhubarb cider we took a head-clearing stroll along the bay back to our digs. (Harold House, £32). No, I hadn’t had tea yet. And I’d just spent three… Continue reading GOODNIGHT, RAMSGATE – MIXING RHUBARB CIDER WITH SHIPYARD IPA
TOP 100 PUBS – ARTILLERY ARMS, RAMSGATE
12th January 2020 I need to get a move on. 28 pubs from the West Country to come, two of them retiredmartin Top 10 entries. But first a second trip to Ramsgate in five days, leaving me to stare longingly at the sole gap on the Kent map at Charcott. Wherever that is. I’d popped… Continue reading TOP 100 PUBS – ARTILLERY ARMS, RAMSGATE
SUNSET OVER WHITSTABLE
12th January 2020 If Whitstable was in Suffolk I’d hate it and make rude pashmina jokes about the wrong sort of Joules. Last time here I did a couple of micropubs whose owners convinced of their sides chances in the last cup match. West Ham beat Man United but the Black Dog and Handsome Sam… Continue reading SUNSET OVER WHITSTABLE
SHEER JOY ON SHEPPEY
12th January 2020 That top image, the one that appears on Twitter, is what’s called click bait. Nothing to do with the post but it makes you go “Oooh, I remember Toby“. You’ve had Watneys, Ind Coope and Toby in quick succession; expect more blasts from the past like Cloudwater and Lost and Grounded soon.… Continue reading SHEER JOY ON SHEPPEY
RED KENT
12th January 2020 Back once again with a Kent micropub, which sounds like a line from Fat Boy Slim, one of the few English music legends NOT from Dartford. And I don’t JUST mean Pete Tong. I don’t think Marx was actually born in Dartford, but there’s plenty of evidence of Dartford’s history of peasant’s… Continue reading RED KENT
“PADDY HASN’T BEEN IN FOR TWO DAYS”
9th January 2020 None* of the Surrey GBG entries will appear in my long-delayed book, “101 places every American should embarrass themselves in“. But they’re certainly more picturesque than the “Tap & Turtle” or “Hop Cellar“, and often look like free house even when, as with the Barley Mow in West Horsley. they’re owned by… Continue reading “PADDY HASN’T BEEN IN FOR TWO DAYS”
GREAT BOOKHAM – WISH YOU WERE HERE
9th January 2020 Surrey. Underrated county, overrated beer, BRAPA-unfriendly pubs in waiting. Fourteen new entries in GBG 20, the usual mix of Michelin stars, micros and posh mummies and daddies. Great Bookham is a pleasant but safe bit of suburbia next to the mighty Leatherhead, but it does have Box Hill and a string of… Continue reading GREAT BOOKHAM – WISH YOU WERE HERE
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