October 2025. Barnby Moor. North Notts. “Barnby Moor ? Wherezat ?”. Well, if you’d read Roger Protz’s marvellous book on the Great North Road (£7 + postage) you’d know all about (Ye) Olde Bell in the posh bit of Bassetlaw (the bit that’s not Worksop, Retford or central Donny). One of the grandest staging points… Continue reading A RARE STOP ON THE GREAT NORTH ROAD. YE OLDE BELL IN BARNBY MOOR
Tag: Nottinghamshire
22 MINUTES WAIT AT WORKSOP STATION ? IT CAN ONLY BE THE MALLARD, THEN
February 2025. Worksop. The last thing you want on the morning of your mum’s funeral is an e-mail deleting your social media account. “A Bluesky account you control has been assessed as a spammy, fake, or inauthentic account.“ Me, “inauthentic” !!! ChatGPT reckoned I’d broke their community guidelines by promoting Doom Bar or something, so… Continue reading 22 MINUTES WAIT AT WORKSOP STATION ? IT CAN ONLY BE THE MALLARD, THEN
“One Day Like This”. The Pavilion, Mansfield.
February 2025. Mansfield. I asked ChatGPT if anyone else before had felt emotional upon visiting Mansfield, and discovered that on her 1967 tour (shortly before her death) Jayne Mansfield had been overcome to find a northern town named after her. I was enraptured just by being able to be outside again after 6 months cooped… Continue reading “One Day Like This”. The Pavilion, Mansfield.
MANSFIELD DARK AT DUSK
February 2025. Mansfield. 3 pints into my Mega Mansfield March I suddenly felt alive, released from the burdens of recent months, and one of our most maligned market towns looked gorgeous looking down from the parks on the ridge to the south. My last Nottinghamshire GBG tick would be the Pavilion, a club house on… Continue reading MANSFIELD DARK AT DUSK
NO STELLA AT MANSFIELD’S STELLA TAPS
February 2025. Mansfield. What a great day walking round Mansfield’s suburbs in bitter cold. No, honestly, it’s exactly what I needed after months cooped up in Waterbeach. Gets the mind thinking, thinking, as much as the legs exercised. Mansfield can’t compete with (say) Halifax. more like a Grimsby, row after row of solid suburbia punctuated… Continue reading NO STELLA AT MANSFIELD’S STELLA TAPS
(PROJECT) WILLIAM, IT WAS REALLY NOTHING
February 2025. Mansfield. Right, culture ticked, time for a pint coffee. I was going to have one in the GBG Spoons, but the impressive looking Stag & Pheasant wanted £1.71 and Spoons coffee isn’t that good, so I paid a bargain £2.80 for a proper American in the gorgeous “Toffee Hut”, where a lady sticks… Continue reading (PROJECT) WILLIAM, IT WAS REALLY NOTHING
CLUTCHING AT (MR) STRAWS. 22 MINUTES TO ADMIRE WORKSOP
February 2025. Worksop. From the funeral in Waterbeach down to Kent and then over two borders to take Father-in-Law to a hospital appointment in East Grinstead (not even a pub stop), and then straight back up the A1 to Sheffield for more death-based paperwork. I needed a break. On Thursday, the sun shone and I… Continue reading CLUTCHING AT (MR) STRAWS. 22 MINUTES TO ADMIRE WORKSOP
A MISSION TO MISSON
February 2025. Misson. Notts. Brace yourself for an actual new Beer Guide pub. I bet you’d forgotten what those were. The White Horse in Misson is a real sod for the BRAPAs of the ticking world. Open from 6, tucked away in that weird bit of North Notts below Posh Doncaster and just west of… Continue reading A MISSION TO MISSON
IN PRAISE OF NOTTINGHAM BUSES
October 2024. Sherwood. Nottingham. I mentioned last time how the new GBG entries seem chosen to cause maximum irritation to the noble band of Guide tickers without the luxury of a chauffeur like BRAPA has. I guess the suburbs are more likely to have cheap units that can easily be converted to a Spoons or… Continue reading IN PRAISE OF NOTTINGHAM BUSES
HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY. No. 34 – NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
Like Northants and Essex, a solid pub county, with perhaps higher expectations on the county town than it can actually deliver these days, I’ll be honest, I’ve picked five from places that you wouldn’t necessarily visit on your tour of the UK; mining villages, suburbs nicknamed Stab by locals, and remote villages impossible to access… Continue reading HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY. No. 34 – NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
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