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No Humble Pie In Wigan....

A return to the famous Lancashire town of Wigan for the first time since I visited the town's beer festival in that strange period when Covid cases were increasing and rumours of an impending lockdown started to swirl around. And so with no festival on this time (or so I thought) my plan was to take in a number of pubs in the town centre that I'd not visited last time.... Last time I visited Wigan I had introduced the town as follows: "Home of the so-called Pie-Eaters. Home of Uncle Joe's Mint Balls. The location of the former Empress Ballroom, which in the 1970's morphed into Wigan Casino, the spiritual home of Northern Soul. A town whose famous people include George Formby, Stuart Maconie, Andy Gregory, Kay Burley, and Georgie Fame. A traditional rugby league town. A former mining and mill town. The inspiration for George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier, in which he highlighted the poor living conditions of Britain's working class. A historic town, with m
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Just Beer And Pilgrims....

A football-away-trip-cum-stag-do taking in two different towns. First up we headed east to the market town and port of Boston for the football, followed by an evening and a stopover in the historic market town of Newark-on-Trent in the middle of Nottinghamshire. Here's what happened.... I was picked up around 8.45 last Saturday morning, and after a hearty breakfast and catch up with the other lads at the Shay Cafe, which nestles in the shadow of the Shay Stadium home of FC Halifax Town, we set off in two cars on our journey to the far-flung south-eastern corner of Lincolnshire. We were on our way to Boston, where the local team were back in the National League after several seasons in the league below. I had been here for football once before, but it was not on the last occasion the teams had met one level below in the National League North when Town triumphed 4-1 in their promotion-winning season of 2016-17. I checked back and my last visit had been in 2011, when the sides had sha

The Streets Of Piccadilly....

Here's a tour around a number of Manchester pubs and bars in the network of streets between Piccadilly and Great Ancoats Street, including a couple that are settling into life under new ownership.... It had been over two months since I had last been to Manchester so with a spare day I off I decided to go over one of my favourite cities and check out a couple of new bars that had opened recently under new guises. One of them was the Rat & Pigeon, a re-working of a previous pub, Mother Mac's, the other a takeover of the former Pelican bar by new owners, Fell. They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and it can certainly be a source of frustration too. I thought I knew where the Rat & Pigeon would be, and to be fair I do know Manchester pretty well. But I should really have checked the address before I set off towards Piccadilly. I walked amongst and out beyond the seething masses of Piccadilly Gardens and then looked to where I thought the pub should be...but it w

A Few Loose Articles....

In which I bring you a heady mix including another festival or two, shouty girl bands, illuminating conversations, a radical exhibition, a few decent pints, and more big brewery shenanigans.... I stayed local last Friday. Well, by local I mean I stayed within a few miles of home. I travelled by bus as well, and all the timings went to plan, which is not something you can say every time. I had planned to go to the Elland Beer Festival, spend a couple of hours there, and then head to the Grayston Unity where I had a ticket to see rising Manchester band Loose Articles as part of this year's Town Festival of Music & Words. I left home just after 5 and caught the bus into Brighouse where, having earmarked a bus earlier in the day to go to Elland at about 6, my thoughts were on grabbing a pint from the current barrel of Two by Two that had been drinking well in the Crafty Fox the night before. However, when I spotted a bus waiting that was going to Elland from Brighouse imminently, o

Celebrating Great British Beer....

A new location has just been announced for the Great British Beer Festival for 2025 which takes it away from London for the first time for many year, and whilst we are now in the midst of the festival season here's a look back at the history of large scale beer events.... So the Great British Beer Festival is to leave its longstanding home at Olympia in London, and is moving to the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, making it the first change in its location since 2012, when it moved back after a five year period when it was based at the older and more characterful Earl's Court, having first taken place there in 1992. The planned 2024 festival was advertised to take place in August at Olympia once again, but was cancelled a few months earlier as due to the venue being refurbished they couldn't accommodate CAMRA on the requested dates. Whether this was what prompted the organisation to seek pastures new, I don't know, but it marks a welcome return to the regions f