Seventy (70) posts published in an month that was my second best for blog views ever, and I still end April a week and sixteen pubs adrift. It didn’t seem an especially exciting month, the usual ploughing up and down that strip from Manchester to Tunbridge Wells via Waterbeach, but there were fifty-six different pubs… Continue reading APRIL ’25 STOCKTAKE + MAY PREVIEW
Tag: pub
GILLINGHAM, PAST AND PRESENT
April 2025. Gillingham. The in-laws took a post-Dockyard nap at the Travelodge; I reckoned two hours, plus half an hour to make themselves a cup of tea, which gave me 150 minutes to restore my sanity. Absolutely no new GBG ticks possible in that time, so let’s revisit much maligned Gillingham. You’ll see from the… Continue reading GILLINGHAM, PAST AND PRESENT
THE 2024 RETIRED MARTIN PUB AWARDS
OK, let’s start the annual review posts with pubs, it’s all you’re here for. I’ll cover “LIFE” next. THE STATS Five hundred and sixty (560) different pubs, though barely two hundred pubs new GBG entries. I will do a GBG spreadsheet post soon so the professional tickers can laugh at it. With responsibilities to frail… Continue reading THE 2024 RETIRED MARTIN PUB AWARDS
(OVER)DUE A DEUCHARS. THE SIX BELLS, COVENT GARDEN, CAMBRIDGE
December 2024. Cambridge. Yes, another Covent Garden, this one tucked away between Fenners and the GBG pubs off Mill Road. Keep walking past the Six Bells and you’ll end up at that pub CAMRA used to run and the Live & Let Live, so why would a plain looking backstreet Greene King pub detain you… Continue reading (OVER)DUE A DEUCHARS. THE SIX BELLS, COVENT GARDEN, CAMBRIDGE
OCTOBER ’24 STOCKTAKE + NOVEMBER PREVIEW
Any month that starts (in Lincoln) with Paul Mudge, Sheffield Hatter and the Southworths, and ends with Lizzy McAlpine singing “Soccer Practice” can’t all be bad, but in-between came three weeks of elderly parent traumas which saw Mrs RM and I confined to Waterbeach (again). Not all bad, but a house about 10 degrees too… Continue reading OCTOBER ’24 STOCKTAKE + NOVEMBER PREVIEW
Now THAT’S how to do a cheese and onion cob !
October 2024. Leicester. And this is the problem/joy of having completed the Guide. Before completion, you break a journey in Leicester, have a rushed weakest half in the new GBG tick, run back to the next train, plan how you’re going to do all four (4) West Midlands newbies before your gig when none (0)… Continue reading Now THAT’S how to do a cheese and onion cob !
HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY NO. 66 – HIGHLANDS AND WESTERN ISLES
Definitely not a “county”, more a random collection of tourist-friendly hills and lakes, overseen by a benevolent creature who occasionally emerges to pick inaccessible GBG entries out of a hat on the riverbank near Inverness. My first five picks will delight the tourist as much as the beer connoisseur. John O’Groats Brewery Tap Well, this… Continue reading HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY NO. 66 – HIGHLANDS AND WESTERN ISLES
THEY ALSO SERVED, WHO ONLY DROVE PUB LEGENDS AROUND SOUTH YORKSHIRE
October 2024. South Yorkshire. For a second week in a row I get to be DES to one of the pub ticking legends around Greater Rotherham’s rich collection of new Guide entries. While “pints only” BRAPA‘s initial target was a conservative half dozen, “strictly halves unless it’s Doom Bar” Ian aka Alfie had loftier ambitions;… Continue reading THEY ALSO SERVED, WHO ONLY DROVE PUB LEGENDS AROUND SOUTH YORKSHIRE