STILL on Friday night, but only one of the recommended Hexham pubs in the Trailblazer Guide to Hadrian’s Wall left to do. Of course, it’s the Spoons. I know that love for the “People’s Pub Chain” isn’t universal, even amongst my esteemed readers. But you get a far better mix of folk in the Forum… Continue reading EVERY GOOD EVENING ENDS WITH A SPOONS COOKIE DOUGH SANDWICH
NICE
Let’s be nice about a gastropub, for a change. The Heart of Northumberland is SO nice it would sit nicely in Islington. It had been recommended to us by the nice barman in Wark, which was nice. I pretended to go to the loo so I could see the hand pumps. Ooh, local beers, that’s… Continue reading NICE
(OVER)DUE A DEUCHARS
I was pleased to find the Grapes full, after reading that there hasn’t always been the rush back to pubs they might have hoped since the Heaventeenth (Simon’s Surrey pubs looked a bit quiet, too). I would have popped in the Tap & Spile for old time’s sake; there’s not many survivors from the mid-90s… Continue reading (OVER)DUE A DEUCHARS
NO ROOM TO SQUEEZE (IN) THE GRAPES
Back from Wark (I think it’s still Friday), via the wonderful looking pubs of Acomb and Humshaugh, where Mrs RM had kindly acted as my DES 3 years ago when she did a stint working up the A68 in Scottish Borders Council. Being a kindly person, I let her have an hour recovering in the… Continue reading NO ROOM TO SQUEEZE (IN) THE GRAPES
ALL WARK, NO BULL
Day 4 of the Hadrian’s Wall Hop, and despite racking up 50 miles and visiting EVERY open pub between Carlisle and Twice Brewed*, I’d yet to achieve a GBG tick. Meanwhile, in the South of England, BRAPA was amassing nearly as many likes as Guide pubs; Having just arrived in Hexham, head straight back to… Continue reading ALL WARK, NO BULL
TAKE THE FIRST TRAIN TO HEXHAM
Still to come in this endless series of posts on our Hadrian’s Wall walk are a micro, a Spoons, a gastro and a Proper Pub, IN THE SAME TOWN, and two (2) posts from the Covid hotbed that is North Tyneside. At Bardon Mill’s spartan station I got chatting to a lovely young man off… Continue reading TAKE THE FIRST TRAIN TO HEXHAM
Woken up by Dido with those Twice Brewed Blues Again
The great Bob Dylan is 80, which is how I felt in the morning after the quadruple burger the night before. I’d finally left the dinner table, possibly without the requisite written permission, when No Socks Fitness Woman (a BRAPA character if ever I saw one) started singing along to “Yes” by McAlmont & Butler.… Continue reading Woken up by Dido with those Twice Brewed Blues Again
The pinnacle of polite society
I really didn’t want to have to write this post, but BRAPA would have, and sort of DID when he visited the Twice Brewed in September 2019. “A dining led tourist family spot” where Si receives scandalised looks, it was without doubt the scariest pub experience of Volume VII of my pub memoirs (2016-21). Now,… Continue reading The pinnacle of polite society
YOU’RE ONCE (BREWED), TWICE (BREWED), THREE PINTS OF HOMEBREW
First things first. I forgot to put a photo nicked off BRAPA on that last post on the Milecastle Inn. Here it is; Now, that is a beautiful shot out to Hadrian’s Wall (aka the Scottish Border) from pretty much the same spot I sat in 18 months later. His photos have become really good,… Continue reading YOU’RE ONCE (BREWED), TWICE (BREWED), THREE PINTS OF HOMEBREW
MORE MOANING ABOUT TAPS
You left your heroes at the spot marked “W” on the right hand edge of the map; “W” signifies wet, or potentially wet as the deluge was apparently expected, ooh, an hour ago. But with miles to the Twice Brewed, our signature stop for the night, we still felt obliged to peep in the isolated… Continue reading MORE MOANING ABOUT TAPS
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