The Wonder of Warslow

My Good Beer Guide trips south have been limited in the last few months but Saturday saw a foray into the fringes of the Peak District. The highlight was a new entry, the Greyhound at Warslow, Staffordshire. If you put Warslow into Wiki, there are two photos. One is of the pub, the other the……

Blaming the Sun in Athens

A decade ago if I’d said go to Greece for the beer, you would have laughed cruelly in my face, bought me a pint of Listerine and told me to hand back my life membership and souvenir engraved CAMRA shin pads. Now it’s true. Ten years ago there were six micro-breweries – and none at……

Prestwich Papers

The 2023 Good Beer Guide unveiled three new entries in Prestwich, a district of Manchester that rarely enjoys such riches. Indeed it has had only had nine other unique entries in fifty years. Who better to guide us round them than Quosh, that legendary professional Mancunian. If you want to know where George Best built……

The Pub Tickers AGM

Held in a secret location to avoid being overrun by hordes of hysterical fans, I can now reveal that the first Good Beer Guide Pub Tickers AGM took place on 30 December in the lavish bridal suite of the Ibis Budget Hotel, Chesterfield. It was an inspired choice as the title pic illustrates. There were……

Festive Gdańsk

Well the Hanseatic League won’t tick itself will it? Stretching across seven modern day countries, this medieval trading alliance helped create many of northern Europe’s most spectacular cities. Gdańsk, in Poland’s Baltic north, certainly falls into that category. Plus it’s a great addition to this year’s other Hansa ticks (Wismar and Lubeck). The Old Town……

Cyprus: Part 2 The North

The 1969-1974 war in Cyprus saw an estimated 150,000 Greek Cypriots displaced to the south and around 60,000 Turkish Cypriots displaced to the north. A hard border was established in 1974 and remains to this day. In 1983 the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was recognised by Turkey alone. The capital’s airport lies abandoned and……

Cyprus: A Game of Two Halves, Part 1

In my ignorance I hadn’t fully appreciated just how close Cyprus is to Syria. So I turned to an authoritative source, The Children’s Atlas of the World. There are childhood memories of grainy black and white tv images of the coup that saw the distinctive figure of Archbishop Makarios flee the island, then the war……

Alexandra – Hull’s Palace

The A63 dual carriageway that heads west out of Hull is an unforgiving road that severed the southern side from the city, isolating two pubs in Grade II listed buildings as a result. But a new footbridge has now been built across Hessle Road, and that might help both enjoy a more sustainable future. One……

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……