July 2019 Good Beer Guide Stocktake

The authorities have insisted that I publish long overdue performance information on completion of the 2019 Good Beer Guide. You don’t mess with these people as they are responsible for a number of atrocities (Love Island, Heinz Curried Baked Beans, Hedge Funds, football shirts sponsored by offshore gambling companies, the decline of bees and that……

Patrick’s and Tapps

I had arranged to meet well known coffee house ticker Martin in Patrick’s, a reliably good watering hole in Bangor, North Wales. He had been exploring the coastline while I had been watching Island Games football on Anglesey, including St Helena’s competitive international debut. St Helena’s first ever goal They lost 1-6 to Shetland but……

Bessie’s

The Dyffryn Arms in Pontfaen, known as Bessie’s, is a simply marvellous pub. By the side of a minor road in the hills of rural Pembrokeshire, the Davies family have served beer in a jug through this hatch – there is no bar counter -since 1845. Going in feels like entering a small country church.……

Highland Games

Not many pubs have a view like this, or this. Or can take you to Handa Island to see Orcas and Great Northern Divers. But then https://highland.camra.org.uk/ like some fun and games with what we call the ticking community. Faced with a huge area- imagine a mountainous Belgium without public transport- they seek out the……

Old Bullards in Norwich, City of Ale

One more day’s cycling, to Norwich, over the Norfolk Alps from King’s Lynn. It was a quiet route. Almshouses for Sale After the abandoned Bullards pub in King’s Lynn, there was more old Bullards in Norwich. This was the brewery that opened in 1867, was bought by Watney Mann in 1963 (with 530 pubs) and……

Kings of Lynn

Fleeing Lincolnshire with indecent haste, the last section of the day’s cycling took us into Norfolk through Walpole Cross Keys and Terrington St Clement (which autocorrect called Terrifying St Clement). Terrifying for the pilot of this plane perhaps. The unoccupied Bullards pub nearby (below) has been an empty house since the Jolly Farmers closed in……

Lincolnshire Slowly by Bike

This year our annual North Sea Cycle Route took us from Hull to Norwich, each year inching ever closer to the final destination of Harwich. After a near seven hour train journey to Hull we rode to Hessle and wobbled up onto the Humber Bridge. Cycling buddy Keith leads the way Though not before admiring……