Real Ale, Real Music

This small town beside the River Wharfe sits on the doorstep of the Yorkshire Dales and I recently went back there for the first time in about 40 years to check out how the local pub scene is faring these days. Here's what I found... Back in the early 1980's I spent three years living in a bedsit in the Leeds suburb of Headingley. Despite the cramped living space, one of the benefits of living there was that it was easy to get to other places beyond the city; from the local station it was possible to catch the train to Harrogate, Knaresborough, or even York, whilst a 10 minute walk in the other direction to the Otley Road gave the opportunity of catching a bus to the eponymous Wharfedale market town. In those days before pubs anywhere could open all day, Otley's pubs could benefit from the town's market town status and open for longer when it was market day, which made taking a 30 minute journey there a worthwhile proposition. And away from the student suburbs of the ci...

The beer scene around Tyneside continues to flourish, as I found when I had a wander around Tynemouth and North Shields at the weekend.... The sun was shining and it was quite spring-like as I drove up the A19 towards Tyneside for my first visit there for almost a year. I had arranged to meet the family in Tynemouth for the afternoon, and had booked to stay over at the Premier Inn in North Shields, the cost of a stopover in central Newcastle on a Saturday night having climbed to ridiculous levels. But the fact that there were three entries for North Shields in the latest Good Beer Guide and I hadn't been in any of them before actually made staying there a decent choice. And North Shields seemed to be an interesting town. 8 miles to the east of Newcastle, it is a place which has its own distinct character. It was originally a fishing village, growing up around where the Pow Burn flowed into the Tyne and fishing still informs its character today. The town's location and geograph...

As the long month of January fades into the distance, and February takes the reins, I take a trip over to Lancashire in which I enjoy some fine beer and an unexpected football result, whilst closer to home I get to a couple of excellent gigs. Read on for more details.... Another Saturday away day, this time a short trip over the Pennines into Lancashire. I got the train from Halifax (my original plan to go for breakfast at The Station Cafe and get the train over to Rochdale from Brighouse scuppered by the lack of any direct services on the day). It's not that I mind going from Halifax; the service is quicker, but a hearty breakfast in the town where I live is always a treat and whilst it seems that due to engineering works direct services between Leeds and Manchester via Brighouse have only been put on temporary hold, any reduction in the quality of train services for the second biggest town in Calderdale is frustrating. Anyway, enough of me moaning. I got to Rochdale where I was m...

A return visit to Nottingham after a few years for football-related reasons, along with a tour of some of the city's pubs made for an enjoyable weekend in this fine city. Well, apart from the football, that is.... When the 2022-23 fixtures came out, one fixture that stood out as a potential stopover was Town's visit to Notts County on the last Saturday in January. Fast forward a few months and our group of 10 assembled in Huddersfield in dribs and drabs, some of us finding our original plan to visit the station buffet thwarted as it was closed. So necessity meant it was a trip to the nearby The Cherry Tree for the dreaded Spoons breakfast, which heralded the customary moans and mumbles about rubber eggs and cold beans but we all survived. Then it was the leisurely saunter down to Sheffield via the Holme Valley, Penistone, and Barnsley. Once in the Steel City we boarded an East Midlands train and landed in Nottingham around 12.30 and followed the same pre-match routine as last...