Real Ale, Real Music

This famous city by the River Mersey has much of interest and is always worth a visit, as I was reminded once again when I was there recently with some friends and colleagues.... The other Monday I and a group of colleagues from the Grayston Unity and Meandering Bear bars in Halifax went on a team day out to Liverpool, following in the grand tradition of previous visits to York and Manchester. The trip was a thank you from owners Michael and Jess for the efforts following the end of another busy gig season at the neighbouring Piece Hall, which brings in significant extra trade for the pubs, bars, and other businesses in the town. It was also an opportunity to bid farewell to some of the younger members of the team who are about to start or return to university, or are moving on to pastures new. Most of us were on the 1017 train from Halifax, although a few more joined us when we changed trains at Manchester, with one of the group even travelling through from Newcastle. We all arrived t

A first ever visit to a town that is Lancashire to its core, where I discover that there are a number of small bars alongside the more traditional pubs that have become an established part of the local social scene.... It was not a simple brief I had given myself. Where to go that was relatively close, somewhere I'd never visited before, and a place that had enough Good Beer Guide pubs to make the journey worthwhile. Not easy, as the list of places that fit that criteria, has gradually got much shorter. And that is why that in the end I settled on Darwen, situated in heart of the West Pennine hills between Blackburn and Bolton, around an hour and 25 minutes away from Halifax by train, and home to three Good Beer Guide listings. I booked a ticket for the 11.30 to Blackpool North, which involved getting off at Blackburn and from there catching a connecting train to Darwen. I had thought that the worst of the seaside-bound crowds would have passed by then, but as the train pulled into