Real Ale, Real Music

A historic and attractive village set in the Pennine hills high above the tourist hotspot of Hebden Bridge, Heptonstall has often been overlooked but has recently been attracting an increasing number of visitors in its own right. I took a trip over there last weekend to have a look around this fascinating place where fact and fiction and truth and legend are often intertwined. And of course, whilst I was there I checked out the local pubs too.... Heptonstall is not so much steeped in history as completely drenched in it. Take a walk around the steep, cobbled streets between the solid gritstone buildings with their mullioned windows and the ruined church of St Thomas Becket and its historic graveyard with its worn and weathered gravestones, and you feel surrounded by the ghosts of years gone by. And whilst vehicles are allowed in the village on an access-only basis, with the 596 bus able to pass through on its way to other hilltop settlements nearby, the lack of much traffic makes it a

Last weekend I caught the train to an attractive little town which lies on the edge of the beautiful Yorkshire Dales. Here amongst a host of attractions for the visitor I discovered a number of varied pubs and bars and managed to sample beers from each of the town's three breweries.... Wharfedale is right up there as one of my favourites of the Yorkshire Dales, but whilst I have walked the moors and valleys of the upper reaches countless times over the years,  my visits have been few and far between to the small town that acts as a gateway to this beautiful part of the country.  That town is Ilkley, well known to most because of the traditional song, Ilkley Moor Baht'At , but to many others as a traditional spa town and tourist destination. The moor referred to in the song broods quietly above the town, with miles of open countryside to attract walkers and the famous Cow and Calf rocks. The coming of the railways opened up the area and soon visitors were attracted by the open s

The Colne Valley runs westward from Huddersfield towards the Pennines and has historically been a significant route between the towns of West Yorkshire and of south-eastern Lancashire and north eastern Cheshire, with trans-Pennine routes originally via packhorse tracks being joined subsequently by canal, railway, and road. With several small but vibrant towns and villages, sweeping views of the rugged hills, and beautiful canal side walking, there is plenty of interest for local and visitor alike.... The last time I had visited the Colne Valley was August last year when I visited  Empire Brewery  who were having a very convivial open day at their canal side brewery in Slaithwaite. My plan this time was to catch the train to the village and then walk up the canal towpath to Marsden, with the odd stop for refreshment on the way. Like that particular day, it was bright and sunny, and probably the warmest day of the current spell of weather we'd been enjoying. And so I set off, phone c

I've recently paid a visit to the small but lovely North Yorkshire city of Ripon where, on a cracking sunny afternoon, I had a mini tour of some of the town's best watering holes. Here's what I found.... The trains were off this weekend, so for a change I decided to take a road trip to Ripon, a place I had not visited for at least 20 years, but being somewhere that had lost its railway station during the Beeching cuts in the 1960's, it is a place that needs to be visited by road anyway whether or not the trains are running. Situated about 12 miles to the north of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, Ripon can trace its roots back for centuries, to at least the 7th century when it was part of the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria. Ripon was granted city status in 1865 and is the third smallest city in England, with only the City of London and Wells in Somerset having a smaller population, but it packs a lot into its compact footprint. It is famous for its stunning cathedral whose