This blogging lark is easy, titles apart. Whinge about opening hours, eulogise the food-free boozer, judge micro pubs on the presence of a mobility scooter, avoid Sunday lunch pubs. We failed with the last one in Hardingstone, perhaps the ultimate dormitory village for Northampton. You could walk into the county town in half an hour,… Continue reading HARDINGSTONE – SMELLS LIKE NENE CABBAGE
THE THREE HORSESHOES, ECTON – SURVIVING ON BEER, BANTER AND BAPS
On to Ecton. No, we’d never heard of it either. Excitingly placed between Wellingborough and Northampton, it’s a tiny village somehow managing two pubs, one of them a “contemporary restaurant“. There’s villages three times the size locally that can’t manage one. Ecton is very quiet on Sunday lunchtime, I presume everyone is at Billing Aquadrome, doing… Continue reading THE THREE HORSESHOES, ECTON – SURVIVING ON BEER, BANTER AND BAPS
A RAINBOW FOR ROCHDALE
Back to The North, and real hills. And proper place names like Trub and Slattocks and Tandle Hill. What an exciting slice of the Ordnance Survey map this chunk of Rochdale is. Home to famous pubs up potholed lanes, esteemed beer bloggers, golf clubs, canals, the tiny A627(M), and a garden centre with a contender… Continue reading A RAINBOW FOR ROCHDALE
BLACK MARKET WARSOP
Whinge over, no sympathy forthcoming, so forward to the past and a great pub in a place you don’t expect one. On my days off from the hard grind of blogging I drive gentlefolk around town for our voluntary car scheme. Most people seem to have moved to Waterbeach from more interesting places, and occasionally I get… Continue reading BLACK MARKET WARSOP
DON’T BOTHER TURNING UP WITHOUT RESERVATIONS
After a recent audit, I find my most popular posts are (in no particular order) Those featuring pubs from places cruelly ignored by the rest of the blogging world (come in, Trafford) Posts featuring Pub Cats Descriptions of extreme hardship or disappointment encountered by myself. Here’s another from the third category, though Mentmore is also… Continue reading DON’T BOTHER TURNING UP WITHOUT RESERVATIONS
OCTOBER ’17 STOCKTAKE & NOVEMBER PREVIEW
I start, of course, with The Outlaw, star of my (and our American friends) trip to the wonderful Waggon & Horses in Bewdley. This pub explains why people go to pubs on October nights, rather than watching Bake Off with a bottle of Cloudwater. It had been a very good month ’till Milton Keynes, the sort of pub tick… Continue reading OCTOBER ’17 STOCKTAKE & NOVEMBER PREVIEW
BINGHAM – BUDDHA & THE BUTTER CROSS
A small dormitory town 10 miles east of Nottingham wouldn’t be enough to excite Mr or Mrs Average, so it’s a good job there’s people like Duncan and myself who regard Bingham as worthy of a visit. With decent train services and Spoons opening hours, it lacks the challenge of The Well up the road… Continue reading BINGHAM – BUDDHA & THE BUTTER CROSS
HALLOWEEN – A NIGHTMARE IN MILTON KEYNES
Oh dear. It was all going so well. October has brought me a string of trips to interesting places (Levenshulme), quirky pubs (Levenshulme) and great beer (etc). So why did I have to go to the outer reaches of Milton Keynes on a wet Thursday and spoil it ? Because the Beer Guide demandeth… Continue reading HALLOWEEN – A NIGHTMARE IN MILTON KEYNES
TOP 100 PUBS – THE ALE WAGON, LEICESTER
I see top pub photographer Richard Coldwell (he really is) has been publishing photos of me in his latest series of blogs from Leicester. Nice of him to airbrush my bald patch out of that shot from behind, but you’ll know how I feel about folk taking photos of old blokes in pubs. I see… Continue reading TOP 100 PUBS – THE ALE WAGON, LEICESTER
RUTLAND WEEKEND TOPING
I know I’ve used “Toping” recently, but it’s a great word. And nothing else rhymes with “Television“. We completed the Rutland chapter of the Beer Guide last Sunday. It’s no big deal, just the two new entries in a total cohort of seven. They should lump the entries back in with Leicestershire, like I have… Continue reading RUTLAND WEEKEND TOPING
