Real Ale, Real Music

A first-time blogging trip to a lovely spa town set high in the Peak District hills. And whether you visit the town to take the mineral waters, attend the Opera House, or use it as a base to explore the beautiful countryside nearby, there are plenty of pubs and bars with some excellent beers to enjoy while you are there. Welcome to Buxton.... Buxton had been on my to do list for several months, but it hadn't really cropped up in my thoughts for a while. However, I had picked up a copy of Opening Times , the excellent magazine produced by Stockport and South Manchester CAMRA branch on a recent trip to Manchester, and in it there was an interesting tour around a number of places in the town which looked pretty good and it set me off looking at the train timetable. With a football-free Saturday coming up, I decided I would make the trip over there sooner rather than later. And the visit seemed even more apposite when I realised that this particular weekend marked the 90th anniversary ...

I went out on Good Friday with a group of friends, reviving an event that has been a regular happening over the past couple of decades or more whereby we travel to a northern city and visit some of its finest drinking establishments. After a covid-induced hiatus, our first trip since 2019 took us to Manchester.... There had been a growing sense of anticipation. Ever since the trappings of Covid started to fade away, conversation started to turn to where to go on Good Friday, and pretty soon Manchester became the location of choice. It had also been where we had been last time around, and has certainly been a regular port of call on the trips I have made, but Leeds and Wakefield have also featured in recent years. The original trips took place before I moved to Brighouse, with the participants featuring a cohort of regulars from the Red Rooster in nearby Brookfoot, but there have always been a number who came from other parts of West Yorkshire with the intention of sampling some of the ...

I only made the short trip to Huddersfield the other week when I went to the newly-reopened County, but I have been back to visit a couple of old favourites and to call in at a beer festival at a much-loved local brewery.... I had not been to Huddersfield very often recently, what with lockdowns and all that, but a couple of weeks after calling at the new Beerhouses pub, The County, I was back, visiting a couple of previously frequent stopping off places. One of them was The Grove, situated about 10 minutes walk away from the train station, where I had arrived in the town after watching Halifax Town gain a fortuitous win against Woking in the National League. To add to a poor performance by Town, it was a game that was peppered with dodgy tactics by the away team and a shocking performance by the referee. So to avoid becoming embroiled in any potential collective meltdown in the post-match discussions I decided to get away after a quick pint at the Three Pigeons. The Grove, Huddersfiel...

I spent a few hours in Durham last week, visiting a number of the city's pubs on my first visit for several years. And I found that there were still some absolute crackers.... I have driven past the sign for the Durham turn off the A1(M) many times over the years, as recently as a couple of weekends ago, but until last week it had been at least 10 years since I had last visited the city itself. So when I was looking for somewhere to go out and do a little research of a local pub scene, on the basis that I had never written about it, it was quite an easy decision to make, particularly when a couple of other places I had considered were ruled out for one reason or another. So Durham it was on a cold, late March, Wednesday. There is much of interest in the city, the heart of which sits atop a peninsula in a loop of the River Wear. There is a huge cathedral which keeps watch over the city, its historic powers greater than most, with the bishop taking the title 'Prince Bishop' f...