I’d been eagerly anticipating my own Amy Winehouse style “Back to Black”burn trip since the Guide came out (late), signalling a first new Guide entry since well before this blog started. The closure of the main Thwaites (pronounced “Twits”) brewery this decade and a failure to grasp the craft nettle as robustly as Blackpool, Blackley… Continue reading A BLACKBURN STAR
Tag: Lancashire pubs
BREAKFAST IN SEAFORTH
A few more holiday snaps from my trip to Bootle. Not that you need any more convincing, I’m sure. Oh, here’s one from my walk back from Waterloo on Sunday night. “Lennon was rubbish. Imagine is the worst song EVER.” said Matt last night. Wait till he hears “The Frog Chorus“. My car was still… Continue reading BREAKFAST IN SEAFORTH
A BOOTLE TOOTLE
That Cambridge diversion was particularly inadvisable, as I was off to “Bootiful Bootle” the next day (yours for a quid, that one). There’d been a particularly unsavoury joke about Bootle accommodation doing the rounds over the weekend, but let me be the living proof that you can survive, and indeed enjoy, this great Lancashire (never… Continue reading A BOOTLE TOOTLE
AND IT ALL ENDS IN BOLTON…
The completion of the Greater Manchester GBG entries is always a high point in the pubbing year. I know Duncan and Simon have been desperate to see what it looks like; Of course, if you had to choose your last Manc pub you’d opt for a Brunning & Price on the Cheshire border to give… Continue reading AND IT ALL ENDS IN BOLTON…
A WOBBLE IN WIGAN
After the high of Roger Protz introducing Bad Kitty at Manchester Beer Festival, there’s nowhere else to go. Except Wigan. 30 minutes from Manchester Deansgate, and a few years ago it would have been 30 years back in time. But not these days. “Wigan is Really Great” as they probably say. Now Duncan had set… Continue reading A WOBBLE IN WIGAN
ST. HELENS – ONE FOR THE GBG CONNOISSEUR
Tricky one, this. The Connoisseur Ales Tap in St Helens prompted my post about opening times in the Good Beer Guide back in September. Back then I said “Now the Connoisseur can open whenever it likes, but having a place in the GBG open 11 out of 365 days is just daft. ” And I… Continue reading ST. HELENS – ONE FOR THE GBG CONNOISSEUR
99 RED BALLOONS
Last pub of the night, before a deeply unsatisfactory Chinese takeaway and restless nights sleep on Blackpool Road. Ah, the Plungington. Never heard of it. Just past the Princess Alice, but a million miles away in every other respect, you could almost be in Fulwood. The menu was the giveaway we’d found Preston’s only… Continue reading 99 RED BALLOONS
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
FONT APPRECIATION AT THE LANCASTER GOLDEN LION
Preston makes a great base for pub tickers, with fast trains* to pub hubs like Westhoughton, Lancaster and Blackpool, and providing an opportunity to meet the Pub King of West Lancashire himself; More from Matthew shortly. I started Friday afternoon in Lancaster, always a curate’s egg with its attractive architecture but strangely unalluring pubs (and… Continue reading FONT APPRECIATION AT THE LANCASTER GOLDEN LION
BLACKPOOL. STILL VERY MUCH BLACKPOOL
Just back from the End of the Road, where Mrs RM has kept Beavertown in profit for the year, and youngest son Matt found a band he liked in the last hour of the festival. You’ll want to see my route back, dropping Mrs RM in Chippenham, a publess town, and only exceeding 60mph as… Continue reading BLACKPOOL. STILL VERY MUCH BLACKPOOL
retiredmartin 