Real Ale, Real Music

A few bits and pieces this time around. Lunch at an award-winning pub, some thoughts on the passing of Humphrey Smith, the owner of Samuel Smiths Brewery in Tadcaster, and a return to one of Halifax's most popular pubs a few months into new ownership to see how things are going.... I had visited the Highland Laddie earlier in the year and had decided that when I next visited I would l try some of the highly-acclaimed food at this award-winning pub tucked away to the west of Leeds city centre between the Kirkstall and Burley Roads. I had originally booked for the beginning of June with lunch here followed by 20/20 cricket at Headingly where Yorkshire and Lancashire. Howevèr waiting for a blocked drain to be cleared scuppered that plan, so I had re-scheduled another attempt for a few weeks later when Yorkshire were playing host to Durham.  And so I duly made it to the flat-iron shaped Highland Laddie for lunch. A brief recap : This former Peter Walker pub ( who became part of Allied...

The opening day of a new pub in Manchester provided an excellent excuse to have a wander around what is now another fashionable part of the city, but also one with a rich and fascinating history. And so come and join me and see what I found.... My plans to come to Manchester for a day out were being thwarted at every turn, or so it seemed. The train from Halifax would be half an hour or so longer, due to a replacement bus service from Rochdale. Same from Brighouse. No worries, I thought, I'll go from Huddersfield, and I'll get the 549 bus there from the end of the road. Plan formulated. But no!. I arrived at the main road, to see the bus sailing past. I was contemplating my next move when my luck changed when a neighbour kindly offered me a lift to Brighouse, from where I could get a different bus in to Huddersfield. And within half an hour or so, all was good, I was on a train to Piccadilly and passing through some lovely countryside. After arriving at Piccadilly, I wandered u...

Keeping on my run of Yorkshire-based blogs, I've just been back to the historic Yorkshire Dales market town of Settle recently where I had a walk around the compact town centre and checked out several of the local hostelries, finding some excellent beer in an unlikely setting.... I had been meaning to re-visit Settle for a while, basically because it's always had one or two pubs in the Good Beer Guide that I have never visited and simply because it's been that long since I last been there that I had basically forgotten what the town looked like. Whilst I have been close to the town over the years on countless trips to the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District, it has generally been whilst travelling on the Settle bypass which opened in 1988, resulting in the traffic jams which use to clog up this attractive Dales market town disappearing. Whilst it gets many of tourists and day trippers, such as the numerous bikers who had ridden here when I visited, assembling at the Old N...