Real Ale, Real Music

Malton describes itself as Yorkshire's Food Capital, and with a wealth of independent food shops and restaurants in this attractive and historic North Yorkshire market town who am I to disagree? But what about its pubs? I went along to check some out.... Malton sits midway between York in Scarborough in North Yorkshire, off the A64 which these days by-passes the town. It was first occupied in the first century AD when the Romans established a fort and garrison on the north side of the River Derwent. It was called Derventio , and was occupied throughout the Roman occupation. After the Romans left, it was the Medieval period before settlements grew up in New Malton and later in Old Malton. In the 11th century a wooden castle was erected, whilst the first reference to a market being held was in 1283. The town's market became established over the subsequent centuries, and the development of navigation on the Derwent and the growth of the railways in the 19th century enabled the tow...

I was due to visit the West Yorkshire border town of Todmorden one evening last week for a gig but never made it. I did, however, get there on a visit a couple of days later to check out a couple of bars, whilst I caught local heroes Working Men's Club the day before when they performed at the Piece Hall in Halifax.... It was a hot, cloudless blue sky sunny Saturday as I caught the train from Halifax to Todmorden. It was late afternoon but the sun was beating down as fiercely as ever when I alighted after the short journey through the Calder Valley. I had been due there on the previous Thursday when I'd had a ticket to see His Lordship at the Golden Lion, but a combination of a late return from work, a need to catch up with a mate, and general lethargy brought on no doubt by the rising thermometer led me to abandon my plans. His Lordship is the latest project of James Walbourne, formerly of The Pretenders, who I had seen a couple of times with The Rails, the excellent folk band...

It has been an oft-quoted statement in recent years that the number of pubs in the country is in decline, and a new report has just come out confirming this is continuing. Changing habits, economic pressures, cheaper alcohol available in supermarkets, pubcos offloading properties, etc. - all these and more have been cited as reasons for this decline. Here's some thoughts.... Over the past few months I have visited a couple of places where I have been struck by the number of pubs which seems to fly in the face of the talk of declining numbers of pubs. One was Clitheroe, where Whatpub? lists 22 pubs, bars, and clubs for a population of about 16,000, whilst at the back end of April I paid a visit to Buxton where similarly there seemed to be a relative abundance of pubs compared to so many towns these days. Other visits I have made to areas of cities such as Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield, where plenty of bars and pubs in that particular locality seem to be thriving, but that is the ...