Sails, Rails and Ales in Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire gets a three figure allocation of pubs in the Good Beer Guide. The 8 Sail Brewery Bar in Heckington isn’t (yet) one of them. This is a brewery at the world’s only working eight sail windmill. It was built in 1830 with five sails before a storm blew off the cap and sails. It……

Wibbling in Essex

Essex’s estuarine charms are much underrated, even if they do involve tortuously slow journeys in the absence of bridges. The World Cup may be over but in Southend there was still a special World Cup Motability Scooter offer. Commiserations to England, by the way, whose disappointing campaign saw them lose three games for the first……

Slim Pickings Left

It’s that time of the Good Beer Guide year when the equation between distance and reward is stretched beyond the remotely sensible. This is admittedly a relative concept. It’s the ‘Please be Open’ time of year as failure is costly. That glistening new Good Beer Guide, freshly emerged from its CAMRA cocoon, has lost its……

Manx for the Memories

The world holds its breath for https://retiredmartin.com/ to catch up with his blogs and report on his visit the Isle of Man. In the meantime this picture of the great man and his adoring Wallies will have to do. That was taken in beautiful Port Erin where we went to Rowany Golf Club in pursuit……

Manx Men

We can all agree it would be foolish to travel to the Isle of Man to do one required pub in the 2018 Good Beer Guide, can’t we? So greetings from the Isle of Man with pub ticking professionals https://retiredmartin.com/ and the Maltmeister. Our night out in Douglas was guided by https://mobile.twitter.com/irishseadave local CAMRA Chair,……

Gimme Shell-ter, Midland Brewery Taps and Troublesome Opening Hours

Pubs come in many different forms. Coaching inns, pubs, theme bars, roadhouses, micropubs etc. For a frisky canter through them read 20th Century Pub by https://boakandbailey.com/ Brewery taps, where they existed, usually meant the pub next to, and supplied by, the brewery. Now they are fast growing aspect of the microbrewery business. It’s easy to……

Worcester Wonders

You know you are in Worcester when you see the warning sign for Swans.  They gather in large numbers on the River Severn. One of life’s pleasures is watching cricket in the shadow of the cathedral at New Road then crossing the river into town for a lunchtime beer or two. The Plough is an……