The new Beer Guide entries in Lancashire pretty much mirror those in Notts. Female friendly micropubs with gin. Rossendale in particular seems likely to keep us tickers busy for years working out micro opening hours. Fine with me, the B6232 between Haslingden and Blackburn is one of our great roads. The Dog in Belthorn is… Continue reading DAFFODILS, DOGS & (MORE) DIRE STRAITS
WHITWORTH – LACINGS NEVER LIE
1 March 2020 Into Lancashire, my next big target for GBG completion. Mind, Whitworth looks like it’s in Rochdale to me. “Rochdale IS in Lancashire” screams Old Mudgie. It was probably in Yorkshire once. Yes, this is the land of straggly villages along the A671 on the way to Rossendale. It’s a untidy picture in… Continue reading WHITWORTH – LACINGS NEVER LIE
NEWSTEAD AND THE PIT
27th February 2020 A glorious February came to an end in the coalfields of Nottinghamshire, inevitably at a community focused micro. Pleasingly, it filled an irritating gap in the GBG map. These things matter when you’re as old as me. A fifteen minute hop from Mansfield’s shiny station gave me a few minutes to explore… Continue reading NEWSTEAD AND THE PIT
MANSFIELD MAN WITH A GBG PLAN
27th February 2020 One night (in Penrith) without internet and my blogging goes to pot. This post is brought to you from the Dog Beck, where there appears to be no-one drinking John Smiths Smooth at 9.30am. The serious blog catch-up starts in Mansfield, base for one of my most popular early posts where I… Continue reading MANSFIELD MAN WITH A GBG PLAN
FROME IF YOU WANT TO, FROME AROUND THE WORLD
26th February 2020 Froooom. Throwm. ANiceTotnes. However you pronounce it, Frome is a gem, and I was delighted to get a return trip out of the new GBG. Spring had arrived just before I did. Frome was voted the sixth coolest town in Britain by The Times, just behind Coalville and Carluke, and continues to… Continue reading FROME IF YOU WANT TO, FROME AROUND THE WORLD
FEBRUARY 2020 STOCKTAKE + MARCH PREVIEW
THE FACTS Forty-three (43) new GBG pubs in February, which sounds a bit dull but much of the month was what we call tactical ticking that allowed me to clear TEN counties (don’t start, Mudgie) Surrey Kent Greater Manchester Staffordshire Merseyside (for a second time) Cheshire Warwickshire Oxfordshire Wiltshire Nottinghamshire Leaving my GBG map looking… Continue reading FEBRUARY 2020 STOCKTAKE + MARCH PREVIEW
“But they SAID they’d be open !”
26th February 2020 You wait nearly eight hours (hours !) for a blogpost from retiredmartin, then you get three before tea-time. I’ve trying to up with the blog before I give you the February highlights (Spoiler : only 43 pubs in a leap year), and here I am writing about a pub I didn’t even… Continue reading “But they SAID they’d be open !”
MORE MELKSHAM MERRIMENT
25th February 2020 I would have worked Holt into the title, but you’d have thought I meant I was in Norfolk, and I can’t have you fearing for my welfare like that. If anything, Wiltshire’s Holt is even posher than the one the Pashmina Paulines and Peters use for their 3rd stop on the way… Continue reading MORE MELKSHAM MERRIMENT
“I’VE DROPPED A SPIKE IN MY TOPLOADER”
25th February 2020 The actual last Wiltshire GBG pub was a couple of miles from the honeypots of Melksham and Chippenham, in the suburbs of Corsham. You’ll remember the joy the Flemish Weaver gave me last year with its “winter hours” definition. I arrived in tiny Neston after one of the rare sunny days this… Continue reading “I’VE DROPPED A SPIKE IN MY TOPLOADER”
NO WILT-ING ON THE PATH TO GBG GLORY
25th February 2020 Getting a sprint on now, with a night on the western edge of Wiltshire to complete my second of three GBG counties this week. Even Duncan is panicking at my progress, which will no doubt be impeded by a Coronavirus lockdown that confines me to the Days Inn at Membury Services for… Continue reading NO WILT-ING ON THE PATH TO GBG GLORY
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