Absolutely Darvellous

To Darvel, a small Ayrshire town in the Irvine Valley, halfway between Strathaven and Kilmarnock for a very rare local Good Beer Guide tick. It’s best known as the birthplace of Alexander Fleming, whose discovery of penicillin in 1928 immortalised him. He has a statue in Madrid, funded by grateful matadors and a more modest……

Last Trolleybus to Conisbrough

If the Monkees had grown up in Rotherham then Last Trolleybus to Conisbrough would have surely been their renamed first single. And the winsome quartet would have spent two tv series working underground at Manvers Main Colliery. Trolleybuses – electric buses powered by overhead lines – are still a common sight in many cities, especially……

The 50th Good Beer Guide

The 50th CAMRA Good Beer Guide was published last week with a special hardback edition promised for avid collectors. When the first edition was published in 1974 few would have foreseen its success and longevity. The Traveller’s Rest in Meltham, West Yorkshire, which took its place among the debutants, may also have been surprised not……

New Ash Green, a Kentish Dream

Hands up those who have been to New Ash Green. It is essentially a village new ‘town’ in Kent that was developed by Span in 1967, one of a number of modernist projects designed by architect Eric Lyons in the south-east. The concept sought to create a style of community living that saw various related……

Skøl from Kalundborg

It was time to accompany Madame Luna back home to Kalundborg, a workaday Danish town on the north west coast of Sjælland. It’s an industrial port with an active harbour (nice not to have to prefix the word ‘industrial’ with ‘former’ as in so many of my blogs). The largest employer, Novo, employs 3,200 people……

Good Beer Guide Histories No 3: Liverpool

By (a single) popular request I bring you another in this occasional series. If of further interest, the rest of Merseyside will get its own post. The 50 year lifespan of the Good Beer Guide means it reflects the societal changes that have taken place over half a century. Few more clearly so than Liverpool,……

Wombling Free

September 2022 looks like being the first month without getting a new tick in the Good Beer Guide for forty years, covid lockdowns excepted. Meanwhile Retired Martin rampages through the Highlands and Islands, relentlessly closing in on a well deserved completion. My own efforts have been frozen since 13th August , with 17 to do,……

The Devil’s Work in West Wales

When pub ticker Martin Taylor sent me a telegram asking me to be his pacemaker in his quest to visit every pub in the 2022 Good Beer Guide, I was honoured. I hadn’t been as flattered since a neighbour’s son asked me to look after his pet goldfish. Admittedly it was only for half an……

Mercurial Margate

Good though a fortnight in France was, I’m sure you will agree I had earned the right to a night in Kent, and a Good Beer Guide tick. In Margate to be precise, which is now an exciting mix of delightful and distressed. The GBG target was the Laughing Barrel, a walk along the cliff……

Skye’s the Limit

I left you in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, about to board an early morning ferry back to Ullapool, where we had left the car overnight. On a glorious morning, our first stop was the Shieldaig Bar, one of seven omissions in the covid-interrupted 2020 Guide Beer Guide. The setting is sublime. On the……