Down and Not Out in Blackpool

As well as producing a good new local magazine, Fylde Camra have a habit of including solitary new pubs in Blackpool in every Good Beer Guide.   More of that one shortly, but first there was work to be done in the form of Knott End Working Men’s Club. Knott End is situated across the water from……

Real Ale Farming

After a rejuvenating overnight stay in Llandrindod Wells we headed south west to Tenby. On the way I picked up the Dolaucothi Arms in Pumsaint thanks to a hugely obliging owner, who let me in an hour early just as his b&b customers were leaving. This smart pub is owned by the National Trust and……

Going back to your Rootes

Mid Wales presents some familiar logistical challenges to pub tickers, mainly concerning distance and opening times. Beer choice though is much improved, as our final destination in Llandrindod Wells would later demonstrate. En route, we enjoyed a couple of swift halves in Welshpool at the Pheasant and the Talbot. The consistently excellent Salopian brewery once again……

Going for a Thong

With a couple of exceptions (a bar on a caravan park on the Mull of Galloway and a pub that was closed in County Durham) Liverpool is just about the nearest place left to hunt new Good Beer guide pubs – 230 miles south. The intention on this occasion was to tick off two on……

Further North Northumberland

North Northumberland is wild and sparsely populated so pub turnover in the Good Beer Guide is limited. In the 2017 edition, though, there is a group of three new entries that invite inspection. The most southerly is the Crown at Humshaugh, a solid, detached village pub that has been unfortunately decorated with wallpaper pretending to be bookcases……

Pubs on Presciption

I went to see my doctor recently and he asked what my symptoms were. I said I feeling listless. “We all need a list” he remarked cryptically. After running a liver test he asked me when I last ticked off a new pub. “Nearly two weeks ago Dr Protz” I replied glumly. “You have a……

Filling the Cumberland Gap

  Following the successful raid on Ulverston it was off into Cumberland proper to finish off the 2017 Guide Cumbria requirements. When skiffle supremo Lonnie Donegan recorded Cumberland Gap he probably wasn’t thinking of that. But, uncannily, he did predict a key item on the Wetherspoons menu with his ‘Ham ‘N’ Eggs’ b-side to ‘Jack O’Diamonds’. That……

Old Friends in Ulverston

  Some people might struggle to place Ulverston on a map of Cumbria let alone the UK, but it is an underrated market town on the Furness peninsula and not the name of a popular Glen Campbell hit from 1969 (weak joke for those aged 55+). Once part of Lancashire, it was incorporated into the……

Tees for Two

  Good Beer Guide pub hunters have rarely been detained for very long in that part of Teesside that straddles County Durham and North Yorkshire, the largely post-industrial sprawl around Billingham and Middlesbrough.   The 2017 edition, though, offers two micropubs, one in each town. En route there was a chance to visit the Half Moon,……

The 300 Mile Pint

Pursuing the Good Beer Guide involves some unhinged and expensive trips. Day flights to the Isle of Man and Guernsey to tick off a couple of pubs spring to mind. The Manx trip was especially memorable as at the time I only needed 3 pubs in the 2015 Guide, 2 of which were on the……