Real Ale, Real Music

After a year's absence because of you-know-what, the third Halifax Festival of Words took place this weekend. And it has been some weekend! Here's my reflections on what has once again been a great showcase for the town.... I have to declare an interest here. If I come over a little biased, I apologise in advance. But I have to say, having been involved in all three Festivals of Words, this was the best yet. And these are my own personal reflections, not a comprehensive report.  The Festival of Words officially opened at 1pm last Friday at The Albany Arcade in Halifax Borough Market by the Town Crier, and was followed by a short set by Todmorden-based opera singer, Nicola Mills. I had only ever seen Nicola perform on a live stream before, but her voice rang around the market and led to many passers-by stopping and joining the assembled crowd for a few minutes before resuming their shopping. People emerged from Adam's Cafe, they came clutching pies from Grosveners, and carry

Last week, I had booked a gig in Leeds for the first time in ages, and so I decided that I would take the opportunity to stop over in the city and have a wander around some of the city's pubs and bars before the gig. This is where I went.... This week I spent an enjoyable evening in Leeds, visiting an interesting mix of traditional pubs and modern bars before heading up to the Brudenell Social Club for my first gig in the city for a couple of years. Evenings like this have been very few and far between over this period, and I had been looking forward to it all week. I was staying over, and as I had booked in to the Travelodge near to the Trinity Centre I was handily placed for the North Bar on Swinegate, my first stop of the evening. This is a modern bar in a new building, the space it is built on once home to the legendary Queens Hall, which following its closure as a bus depot played host to many gigs and the odd CAMRA Beer Festival amongst plenty of other events. The bar has a

It had been a couple of years since I had last visited Mytholmroyd in the Upper Calder Valley, so on a beautiful autumn early evening I caught the train and had a wander around the village's pubs.... I realised as I sat in the Shoulder of Mutton , the pub nearest to Mytholmroyd's railway station, that I had written about the same three places I was planning to call in last time I had visited. But so much has happened over the past couple of years that it felt like a new exploration, a chance to see how things are faring post-lockdown. Sadly for the Shoulder of Mutton, vandalism had recently stuck and so as I took the usual pub photo I noticed that a couple of the windows were boarded up. The pub was fairly quiet when I walked in, a few people were dotted around the tables, but it is quite a rambling place, and I noticed that several people were sat outside in the beer garden above the lively Elphin Brook. The pub is a solid-looking building set on a corner of the road through t

Saltaire, near Bradford, is a World Heritage Site dominated by the huge Salts Mill, named after the man who created it, Sir Titus Salt. In the nearby streets there are also some excellent pubs, and I headed over there the other evening to check how they were doing since I had last visited the village.... I have always enjoyed visiting Saltaire, the village built around the huge former Salts Mill. The looms of the former textile mill may be gone and silent now, but is now  home to an art gallery featuring works by Bradford-born David Hockney amongst others, a number of retail spaces including a huge bookshop, cafes, workshops, plus lots of independent small businesses. It sits beside the Leeds-Liverpool canal with the River Aire beyond, with the attractive Roberts Park over on the opposite bank. The train drops you off very close to the mill, and close to the model village that was built by Sir Titus to house his workers and their families. He built schools, a hospital, and the magnific