Getting exciting now, isn’t it ? Where will Norfolk feature ? Or Fife ? Or Cambs ? You probably guessed West Midlands would be there, on account of Wolves alone. It’s the best place to live in the UK, after all. Besides being the best place to drink Banks’s, and the home of cheap, delicious… Continue reading TOP 10 COUNTIES – No.7 – WEST MIDLANDS
TABLE SERVICE TRAUMAS IN SPOONS
ANOTHER trip to Hitchin with the eldest son, before a couple of days walking in the Mendips. James left the town for the delights of Waterbeach and the A10 when he was one, and had no memory of our house, which has just sold for six times what we paid for it in 1993. And… Continue reading TABLE SERVICE TRAUMAS IN SPOONS
HITCHIN CRAFT UNION CONSPIRACY SPECIAL
My first post from Hitchin met with some kickback by other people who couldn’t get away from it quick enough. So I’m back, bringing you more reports from the cutting-edge of craft beer. In some towns (Stockport, probably) there’d be a hipster with a microbrewery under every one of those canvases in the market square.… Continue reading HITCHIN CRAFT UNION CONSPIRACY SPECIAL
“You went all the way to Whitby and all you brought me back was an empty chip box !”
Oh, and some pictures of micropubs. One of them is in the railway station; it took me AGES to find it. Whitby was heaving on Sunday. “The busiest place I’ve seen since St Ives at Easter or York’s Shambles” I wrote in 2016, and it still holds. Perhaps Andover will acquire such heights of popularity now BRAPA… Continue reading “You went all the way to Whitby and all you brought me back was an empty chip box !”
SCARBOROUGH FAIR
On to Scarborough, with my Malton tick closed (half of Malton looks closed on WhatPub). The sun had made a brave effort to join me on the east coast, but with ever-present clouds I was glad that Wilson’s, renamed for the star of Tom Hanks’ Castaway, was so close to the station. On my annual… Continue reading SCARBOROUGH FAIR
“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. MASK FAILURES IN YORK
York, Scarborough, Whitby, A trio of really obscure places for you to finish North Yorkshire. On the route into York I thought I spotted BRAPA being escorted back home after his triumphant tickathon in Hampshire, but it was just a delivery of fancy goods. Here’s a nice Sam Smiths pubs for you, they really are… Continue reading “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. MASK FAILURES IN YORK
TOP 10 COUNTIES – No. 8 – DURHAM
Oooh, clickbait Bass. Is a pint of banked Bass REALLY the best visual representation for County Durham (not to be confused with Durham the City or Adrian of Talksport infamy) ? Stockton-on-Tees, home to the Sun’s famed bankers, doesn’t even appear on the Bing Map for the county. But it does appear in the Good… Continue reading TOP 10 COUNTIES – No. 8 – DURHAM
“THE BASS IS DRINKING WELL”
Here’s how to get my attention; Well done, Hare & Hounds. Only back from the dead two months as a village-owned pubs and you’ve already got THREE posts out of me. Last month you tempted me back with a promise of Bass but it had sold out in two days to a pub full of… Continue reading “THE BASS IS DRINKING WELL”
TOP 10 COUNTIES – No. 9 – NORTH-WEST WALES
Only number 9 ? Wait and see what’s Number 1. My completely unscientific chart goes foreign. Technically, I think I can drive the 200 miles into Conwy, Gwynedd and Anglesey for a half, but if I stop near Wrexham for a comfort break I’m arrested and put to work in the Bass mirror factory at… Continue reading TOP 10 COUNTIES – No. 9 – NORTH-WEST WALES
HITCHIN, HURTS
More local pubbing. Well, Hitchin is only an area away, next door to where I drop James off for his driving lessons. Covid-19 has just cancelled his driving test, AGAIN; perhaps they’ll give him a licence anyway if it happens a 3rd time and he can drive me to a pub. We lived here for… Continue reading HITCHIN, HURTS
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