Real Ale, Real Music

This was all brand new to me, a visit to an area that I had never been to before as we headed down to the Sussex Riviera in search of some good beer and a win at football. Read on to find out how the trip unfolded.... I had maybe been to Sussex once before. I have vague memories of once catching a ferry back from Dieppe in Northern France to the small port of Newhaven but not much else, so I assume we didn't linger. And so therefore, in terms of exploring the county, this visit was definitely the first proper visit I had made here. And, no surprises, the rationale behind the trip was the first-ever visit by FC Halifax Town to the Sussex Community Transport Stadium, aka the home of Worthing FC, who had been promoted as champions from National League South at the end of last season. Three of us had travelled down from the north via the Grand Central on Friday morning, arriving in London after lunch. We caught the tube to Victoria, then another one for one stop to St James for a pint....

As a recent report revealed that sales of cask beer are down year-on-year, I spent an afternoon in York where it appeared to be as popular as ever, not least at the city's annual beer festival.... The spectacular and magnificent bulk of York Minster has been a constant presence in the city for hundreds of years, keeping a watch over its citizens and the many thousands of visitors that are drawn to the city every year. In its time so many of the significant events in the history of this country have come and gone; the War of the Roses, the English Civil War, the Great Fire of London, the Industrial Revolution, the first and second world wars. Guy Fawkes, who plotted to blow up the Houses of Parliament, was born in the city. There is so much history here, from the Romans who first established the settlement here as  Eboracum in AD71, to the Vikings, to the Normans, to the railways, to the chocolate barons of Rowntree and Terrys that seemingly every turn of a corner in its ancient str...

I went to Manchester last week on a team day out from the Grayston Unity/Meandering Bear in Halifax and rather than traipsing around the usual suspects we mixed it up with one or two places I don't get to visit that often.... We normally have a team day out in September after the summer gigs at the Piece Hall in Halifax, which being very close to both bars, bring in a lot of extra business. And whilst I don't generally do as much as I used to during that period, I always get tasked with sorting out the pubs and bars to visit on our trips. And so this time I felt that we should mix it up a bit and include some places that might appeal to those who are not particularly interested in cask ale. Manchester had been chosen as the venue this time, and whilst we had been before, with more recent visits having been to Liverpool and York, it was our first team visit here for a year or two.  We arrived at Victoria via the train from Halifax around 1pm. DJ Turnip was already there, having ...

Back on another trip down south, with a change to our plans leading us to a tour of some posh pubs in London along with a couple of old favourites, and a second visit in 6 months to the town and football ground of Aldershot.... It was an early start on a Friday morning as my brother and I set off from West Yorkshire via the Grand Central. We were due into London about a quarter to twelve. Our plan was to head off from Kings Cross to the other side of London and catch an hour or two of cricket at the Oval, where the final innings of Yorkshire's match with Surrey was interestingly poised. All was going well, the train was pretty quiet, but as we approached Doncaster that all changed. The announcement came over the tannoy that the train would be going no further as there had been an incident on the line at Welwyn that was causing cancellations and delays and for some vague reason this train could not carry on. So abandoned at Donny, we were left amongst chaotic scenes as people scramb...

New blogging territory for me this time around as I headed over to Merseyside and what a great day I had in a town with some excellent community pubs that were chock full of superb beer and lovely, welcoming people.... My visits to St Helens have been very few and far between over the years. Indeed, my previous visits had all been to the former home of the town's rugby league team, Knowsley Road, back in the days in the 1980's and early 90's when I watched Halifax RLFC regularly. My most recent visit to the ground though had been in early summer 2008 for my then-boss's 40th. He was St Helens rugby-mad and had booked the executive suite at the ground for the event, which I remember principally for the fact I'd virtually completely lost my voice, the sales manager who fancied himself as a nightclub crooner claiming the mic during the karaoke and destroying various songs for what seemed like an interminable period, and repeated plays of Valerie by the Zutons which has...