April 2025. Otley. Otley felt a lot smaller than I remembered, a modest market town of 13,668 souls dominated by a bus station and courtyard cobbled shopping centre. But it’s certainly well-pubbed, five in the GBG. I thought Savage Crangle was a great name for a pub, recalling that Rorty Crankle up the road in… Continue reading IN PRAISE OF BREW YORK
Tag: Brew York
JUICE FORSYTH
February 2025. York. Back from Poppleton, I wondered how much of her ChatGPT generated Insta-friendly York blog Mrs RM had managed to tick while I was ticking the Lord Nelson. Not a lot. “Research” her excuse. She’d found York astonishingly busy on a damp Sunday night the week before half-term, and sure enough the pubs… Continue reading JUICE FORSYTH
DARWEN DAWDLING, DARWEN DELIGHTS
January 2024. Darwen. Two east Lancashire ticks to complete the county meant a first opportunity in 2024 to take the campervan out for the night. Parked in the posh bit just outside Burnley, it felt a real night out. Darwen isn’t really posh Burnley, or Blackburn, but I have enjoyed its renaissance over the last… Continue reading DARWEN DAWDLING, DARWEN DELIGHTS
STILL NO SPACE TO SWING A CAT IN THE BEER SHED
November 2023. New Mills. An hour between trains at New Mills Central was enough to walk to Chalkers and back for the tick, admire the singular joys of the play area (I didn’t get on the horse), and resist the body piercing I’m saving for a special birthday. I walked over the Goyt, the rushing… Continue reading STILL NO SPACE TO SWING A CAT IN THE BEER SHED
“I mean, if you’re there, you can’t NOT go in the Harrogate Tap, can you ?”
November 2023. Harrogate. Thursday night, back in Sheff from my parents, and straight out after doing the laundry to Leeds for the Julie Byrne gig, Except, having got to Leeds I thought I’d head straight on up to Harrogate and get the Oatlands Club ticked. A couple of cheap advance tickets would see me in… Continue reading “I mean, if you’re there, you can’t NOT go in the Harrogate Tap, can you ?”
THE (PARLIAMENTARY) TRAIN BEER
September 2023. Brigg. 150 minutes in Brigg. Six (6) pubs. No food. Eight post. £1 return fare. Not sure I’ll be heading back there annually, unless Will insists, and I don’t think I missed a lot, apart from the chippy, and a few keg pubs. Talking of which, the Woolpack, and the Dying Gladiator both… Continue reading THE (PARLIAMENTARY) TRAIN BEER
A MIRACLE ON PERCY STREET
31st May 2023. Newcastle. Three GBG ticks down, one left till I could colour in the Tyne & Wear chapter for another year. The problem with having done the whole book is you lose discipline and are much more tempted to wobble off from the Wobbly Duck and get distracted by old favourites on Percy… Continue reading A MIRACLE ON PERCY STREET
Retired Martin’s Honest Norwich Reappraisal Part III – A little piece of Norwich Over The Water that is forever York
17th March 2023. Two down in Norwich, one to go. I must have done this walk from station up Magdalene Street a couple of dozen times, even stayed in the Maid’s Head for £35 once; perhaps I should have slowed down to appreciate the merits of the market, and the “baroque” (per Pevsner) splendour of… Continue reading Retired Martin’s Honest Norwich Reappraisal Part III – A little piece of Norwich Over The Water that is forever York
VINYL TAP
Matthew had promised me a “scary tour” of his ‘hood. Plungington is lively, but can I politely suggest that Matt has never worn that paisley shirt within sight of Maidenhead Cons Club. Not the most complex half-hour walk in history to GBG newbie No.3, the attractively named Plunginton, but on the way I got the… Continue reading VINYL TAP
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