June 2023. Snargate. In late May 2000 I walked from Appledore station to Snargate to visit Doris’s, one of the Good Beer Guide’s legendary pubs and one of the Classic, Basic and Unspoilt legends on RW Coe’s list. The walk through the marsh (adjacent to Speringbrook Sewer, I now note) was as magical as the… Continue reading TOP 100 PUBS – THE RED LION, SNARGATE. DORIS WOULD BE PROUD.
THREE SHEETS TO THE WIND
June 2023. Rochester. Finally, finally, a last Kent GBG tick for the year. What a shame I’d been so distracted on the way from Strood to Three Sheets to the Wind, to such an extent I can remember almost nothing about it. Almost. I’m not sure what I was expecting with talk of an Austrian… Continue reading THREE SHEETS TO THE WIND
“Oh grief this Doom Bar is brilliant”
June 2023. Rochester. And it was all going so well. A nice riverside walk from Strood, a late morning glass of murk in a pub that might get in the GBG when the CAMRAs drop the “Real” from the name, a triumphant pint of BBB in a backstreet survivor, and some culture in the cathedral.… Continue reading “Oh grief this Doom Bar is brilliant”
ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL (NCSS 4)
June 2023. Rochester. Still half an hour till my Rochester Guide tick opens; who opens a pub at 1pm ? The cathedral is open from 10am; it could teach those micros a lesson. Has a cathedral ever made the Guide ? I’m sure some of them sell St Peters under the counter, and Halifax Minster… Continue reading ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL (NCSS 4)
David 6.15 ish or 6.30 pm
June 2023. Rochester. Still an hour till my new Beer Guide target opens, an hour to rest and contemplate in the Cathedral, or a leisurely lunch at a Dickensian tavern ? Obviously not, when there’s the Coopers Arms to pop in for the first time in 20 years. Four entries in the GBG, but three… Continue reading David 6.15 ish or 6.30 pm
“My question is – what kind of a man goes in a pub and only has one beer ?”.
June 2023. Rochester. In Rochester at 11, my final Kentish Guide pub opens at 1. What to do ? Well, the funfair rides outside the castle weren’t open (flippin’ micros) and the castles themselves bore me rigid, I guess I could just take photos of the High Street, or do the Dickens Trail, visiting all… Continue reading “My question is – what kind of a man goes in a pub and only has one beer ?”.
TAKE THE FIRST (OFF-PEAK) TRAIN TO EBBSFLEET INTERNATIONAL
June 2023. Rochester, via Ebbsfleet. The preamble post. I’d left myself one pub to complete Kent, a very expensive (even off-peak) lone tick in Rochester. With trains using the fast link to St Pancras via Ashford and Ebbsfleet costing more than a villa in Gillingham I was going to make the most of it, too.… Continue reading TAKE THE FIRST (OFF-PEAK) TRAIN TO EBBSFLEET INTERNATIONAL
CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER…
June 2023. Ashford, Kent (there’s one in Middlesex, allegedly). Our rail trips from Rye always involve a change at Ashford International. If you were compiling a “Bucket list” for someone aged 58 (still young) I doubt “get to the heart of the eternal mystery that is Ashford would be on it. But Mrs RM and… Continue reading CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER…
DEAL SHIP OR NO DEAL SHIP ?
June 2023. Deal. Middle Street in Deal is one of the greatest streets in the world, along with one of those flowered covered lanes up the hill in Bergen and the one with Uerige on it in Dusseldorf. You’ll have your own favourite, I guess. Having bagged the tick, Mrs RM and I strolled the… Continue reading DEAL SHIP OR NO DEAL SHIP ?
TOP 100 PUBS – SMUGGLERS RECORDS, DEAL
June 2023. Deal. Right in the heart of Deal, opposite the Just Reproach, where King St meets Middle St. Regular reader and all-round legend writes “I must say I chuckled but also grimaced a bit at “a micro-cum-record-shop”; I mean, I’m sure it can be done well, but the odds are not stacked in its… Continue reading TOP 100 PUBS – SMUGGLERS RECORDS, DEAL
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