A reflection on rural pubs, how things have changed over the years, and how some of them have adapted in order to survive in these difficult times.... I revisited a pub at the weekend where I used to go sometimes when I was a lad, and whilst I have called in intermittently over the years, it was quite a while since I'd last visited, and so it was interesting to see how it had changed. The pub in question was the Fleece at Barkisland, which is situated high above the West Yorkshire village of Ripponden on the edge of the Pennine moors, where I was attending the evening part of the wedding of one of the football lads, whose stag do I referred to in the blog I wrote following our recent visit to Boston and Newark. The Fleece is a traditional pub which, according to an inscription in the stone over the door, dates back to 1737. It was situated on an old pack horse route which in these parts tended to go over the hills and avoid the valleys below, which were often dangerous with pote
A rare new pub has joined the select group in Bradford city centre that are in the Good Beer Guide for the 2025 edition, so I have been along to give it a try whilst checking in on some old favourites.... I caught the train early Friday evening from Halifax to take me on the short journey to Bradford Interchange. I alighted from the train and walked down the steps from the platforms to the concourse and out to the front of the station where the normally taxi-dominated car park was closed off behind fencing. But it wasn't just there. As I left the station I had to follow a walkway between fenced-off areas. Every now and again there would be another walkway heading off in a different direction, whilst behind the fencing were stacks of stones, bulldozers, and other equipment as a vast swathe of the city centre is being pedestrianised and a new urban park created as Bradford prepares to take on the mantle of UK City of Culture for 2025. The walkway finished at the other side of the