This was all brand new to me, a visit to an area that I had never been to before as we headed down to the Sussex Riviera in search of some good beer and a win at football. Read on to find out how the trip unfolded.... I had maybe been to Sussex once before. I have vague memories of once catching a ferry back from Dieppe in Northern France to the small port of Newhaven but not much else, so I assume we didn't linger. And so therefore, in terms of exploring the county, this visit was definitely the first proper visit I had made here. And, no surprises, the rationale behind the trip was the first-ever visit by FC Halifax Town to the Sussex Community Transport Stadium, aka the home of Worthing FC, who had been promoted as champions from National League South at the end of last season. Three of us had travelled down from the north via the Grand Central on Friday morning, arriving in London after lunch. We caught the tube to Victoria, then another one for one stop to St James for a pint....
As a recent report revealed that sales of cask beer are down year-on-year, I spent an afternoon in York where it appeared to be as popular as ever, not least at the city's annual beer festival.... The spectacular and magnificent bulk of York Minster has been a constant presence in the city for hundreds of years, keeping a watch over its citizens and the many thousands of visitors that are drawn to the city every year. In its time so many of the significant events in the history of this country have come and gone; the War of the Roses, the English Civil War, the Great Fire of London, the Industrial Revolution, the first and second world wars. Guy Fawkes, who plotted to blow up the Houses of Parliament, was born in the city. There is so much history here, from the Romans who first established the settlement here as Eboracum in AD71, to the Vikings, to the Normans, to the railways, to the chocolate barons of Rowntree and Terrys that seemingly every turn of a corner in its ancient str...