I recently revisited one of my favourite towns in the Midlands where there are 5 pubs listed in the 2026 Good Beer Guide within its attractive and fairly compact town centre, making it an ideal spot for a leisurely Saturday afternoon wander....
The journey started out mid-morning in Halifax, which was a bit of a miscalculation on my part as I was catching the Grand Central which was going through Brighouse, meaning I could have set off from home later and not have to rush out without any breakfast, never ideal on A BIG DAY OUT. Still I did have time for a Greggs bacon sandwich on my way down to the station once I got into Halifax. The train was a minute or two late and with my ticket being of the rather dismissive Sit-in-any-unreserved-seat type, never ideal on a Grand Central, I hung around at the end of the platform on the basis that there are sometimes unreserved seats in the end carriages. I got on and found a seat, reserved of course, the train was so far pretty quiet, so no issue. Then as the train started pull out the announcement came over the tannoy that the train configuration was different and therefore reservations for coach A were now in coach F, and there were no unreserved seats. I mentioned I was unreserved to the lady guard or whatever the title is these days as suitcases were wheeled past by the lost and displaced, and she said "You'll be reight, just keep moving about!" I had seen her before on Grand Central, she commands the carriage in a manner reminiscent of a traditional pub landlady. One of a gang of lads who hopped on at Brighouse was given short shrift for vaping and "I'll take your beer off you!" to another, all whilst she had a big smile on her face. Luckily, I managed to stay in my seat until Pontefract Monkhill, when slightly embarrassingly I discovered I'd been sat in one of the seats reserved for the pleasant and polite couple who had sat at the neighbouring table till a couple got on who'd booked where they were sat. Fortunately I managed to hop over to the other side of the table for the remainder of this leg of the journey.
I alighted at Doncaster a minute or two late, following a group of lads, one of whom was in splendid fancy dress, a blow-up bath complete with loofah and rubber duck, but with 15 minutes to go before my train to Newark Northgate, I reckoned I could squeeze in a half at the Draughtsman, the micropub on Platform 3. I walked in and it was quite busy, a couple of sashed hen do ladies amongst them in the queue. There were a couple of Neepsend beers on hand pump, so I ordered half of Aurora, a 3.9% New England session pale with Galaxy, Amarillo, and Strata hops. I said I would take it outside so it was presented in a squeezy plastic glass for which it loses a half point (NBSS 2.5). That said, the Draughtsman is well worth a visit and if you have time to linger even better, stay in and drink out of glass, I say. I finished my beer, and walked around to Platform 1 and shortly afterwards I was on board a comfortable and fairly quiet Azuma on the final leg of my journey to Newark.
It bad been less than two years since I'd last gone to Newark as part of a combined football away trip/stag do weekend and we'd stopped over at the town's Travelodge. My last visit before that when it had been invaded by steampunks which brought a slightly surreal atmosphere to this lovely town situated on the banks of the River Trent in the middle of Nottinghamshire. And before that I had stopped at the town many times over the years for a comfort and/or beer break when travelling around the country.
It is about 10 minutes' walk to the town centre from Northgate Station. This is on the main East Coast railway line, whilst the town's other station, Newark Castle, which is closer to the town centre, looks after more local and cross country services to the likes of Lincoln and Stoke-on-Trent. It was a generally pleasant walk through leafy suburbs, and arriving on Appleton Gate I walked past the Palace Theatre, the National Civil War Museum (there is a lot of history in these parts), and the spectacular Parish Church of St Mary Magdalene, parts of which date back to the 12th century, and whose tower at 236ft high makes it the tallest church in Nottinghamshire as well as the tallest building in Newark.
The first pub here was just past the pub on the other side of the road. It was a Castle Rock pub called the Fox & Crown and despite the CAMRA Good Beer Guide App saying I'd been here, I hadn't, must have ticked it in error! Incidentally, did I read somewhere CAMRA have stopped supporting this app? My subscription has run out so it only gives you a few pubs in the vicinity, but you can't renew subscriptions at the moment it says. Shame, I used to find it rather useful when I was out and about. Anyway back to t'pub. It was moderately busy when I walked in. The bar was in the room you first entered, with several other areas radiating off from it. Three Castle Rock beers on cask, with a few other beers on keg. I ordered a pint of their flagship 3.8% Harvest Pale, a beer that often flatters to deceive, from the rather taciturn guy behind the bar. I found a space in an area with a dartboard, beer mats adorning some of the walls, and a few boxes presumably in storage. My beer, packed with Centennial, Cascade, and Chinook hops, was actually very good indeed, in great condition, refreshing, and with plenty of flavour. In old CAMRA money definitely an NBSS 4! The pub got busier whilst I was there and by the time I finished my pint I had rather warmed to the place, although when I took my glass back to the bar and bade a cheery goodbye, the bar dude maintained his Newarkonian version of omerta.
It was about 10 minutes further walk to the next pub, more or less straight on, but with a bit of busy road crossing at the end and a slight wrong turn at one point, but that bit's not compulsory. I was returning to the Organ Grinder, one of a number of similarly-named pubs run by another Nottingham-based brewery, Blue Monkey. This is a no-frills boozer with around 6 beers on from the brewery, plus an occasional guest from elsewhere. Last time I'd been in was on my last trip which was busy with a Saturday night crowd. Today, still early in the afternoon, it was not quiet, but had a few guys chatting at the bar and an odd couple sat at a table to the side of the bar. I ordered a pint of BG Sips, the brewery's best-selling 4% session pale, which like all their beers features their signature branding of a monkey's face with a blue wash. I spotted an empty area to sit to the left of the entrance and plonked myself down at a table. My BG Sips was very good, a 3.5 on the former NBSS scale. A couple of guys came in to sit at a table just as I was grabbing a copy of the Nottingham Drinker from a pile beside their table. We struck up a conversation, they were from Stoke, like me on a beer trip to the town. We talked pubs and beers, one said Halifax was his favourite beer town when I said where I was from. We discussed where we were likely to go today and parted, saying we would probably see each other later in the afternoon. The Organ Grinder is a good pub that is well worth the short trek out to get to it.
I left and moments later walked past the Travelodge, toying with the idea that I could come again later in the year and stop over so I could spend a bit of time exploring Newark the town, as opposed to just the pubs. Meanwhile, it was about another 5 minutes' walk to the next stop, which was situated in Swan and Salmon Yard just off from Castle Gate. Just Beer, which was one of the first micropubs in the country when it opened in 2010, is quite simply a must-visit if in town, a place of pilgrimage for the beer lover. That said, this multiple award-winning bar is also a draw for lovers of real cider. I walked down the sloping yard and eyed up photo opportunities. As a steady, rollin', kind of man. I was wearing my DEYA teeshirt which prompted a guy having a smoke outside as I was faffing about with my camera to say they had a beer from DEYA on in the bar.
I have been here several times over the years but it was the first time that I had been in that owner and founder Phil Ayling hadn't been working behind the bar. Instead a pleasant girl was on serving duties and from the choice of 4 beers on hand pump which included beers from Trig and Black Iris, I did indeed go for a pint of the one from Deya, This was a 3.8% English Pale Ale which was called There's an App for That, which was well-balanced and refreshing and in great condition (NBSS 3.5). The bar consists of one long room with seating around the edges ranging from high and low seats to pew-like benches, with a smaller room off to the side, with assorted breweriana displayed on the walls where I found a seat included a number of trays from local breweries. I finished my pint and decided to get another half of something. After spotting a Pollys beer on keg, I was torn but in the end I went for a Ngaru Nui, a 6.2% single-hopped New Zealand IPA from Black Iris featuring Nelson Sauvin. This was big on flavour, and a big beer in general given its strength (NBSS 3.5). The guys from Stoke reappeared, having visited one of the pubs I still had to do on my list since they'd left the Organ Grinder. Once again I enjoyed my visit to Just Beer.
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| Just Beer |
Back up on Castle Gate again, the next pub was virtually straight across the road. This was the Flying Circus, which has become a firm part of the local pub scene since reopening a few years ago in its current guise, with something of a Monty Python theme with quotes from the programme featured on the walls. It attracts quite a mixed crowd drawn by its regular live music, and indeed a singer was due on soon. It features five beers on hand pump with the rather bland Reverend James from Brains as the regular beer and four others which today were from small local breweries. Two were from Liquid Light and as I have enjoyed several of their beers over the years, I went a pint of one of them, Day Tripper. This is a 4.3% hazy and juicy pale ale featuring Amarillo and Motueka hops, which give it plenty of orange and mandarin flavours (NBSS 3). Whilst it was in fine condition, it was not really to my taste and so I finished it off quite quickly and moved on just as a guy was heading on to the stage to entertain what was by now a pretty busy pub.
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| The Flying Circus |
I had one more pub to visit before I set off back, but first I decided to have a quick walk to look at the river and castle. It was a beautiful sunny day and there was a pleasant view in both directions from the main road bridge over the Trent, where there was a bit of activity on the river with a few canoes passing by. The castle, meanwhile, was was founded in the mid 12th century by Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln. Originally constructed from timber, it was rebuilt in stone a few years later. The castle was dismantled in the 17th century as a result of the English Civil War, and then restored in the 19th century, first by architect Anthony Salvin in the 1840s, and then by Newark Corporation who bought the site in 1889. Moored close to the bridge is the Castle Barge, which I have been to several times, but wasn't in my plans today. This is a former barge which was used to transport grain between Gainsborough and Hull. In 1980 it was converted into a pub, and it normally has three beers on hand pump on the bar below deck, generally from local breweries.
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| The River Trent at Newark, with the Castle Barge moored on the right |
I walked back down Castle Gate and then turned down Stodman Street towards the final pub of the afternoon. I walked past the Prince Rupert, a historic pub which has been in and out of the Good Beer Guide over the years. Not much further along and I came to the Loose Cannon which opened in 2023 in a former dry cleaners. It was pretty busy, with most of the seats occupied in what is essentially a single, open plan room, decorated in a rather quirky manner with all kinds of weird and wonderful artefacts. On the bar were four hand pumps, one of which was the beer ticker's favourite, Draught Bass, which is undergoing something of a comeback and has been popping up on a lot of bars of late with brand owner Anheuser Busch deciding to belatedly get behind it with advertising after years of neglect and decline. This had led to a campaign from Bass lovers who organised a Drink Bass Day every April which encouraged pubgoers to drink it and pubs to stock it. No doubt spurred on by seeing the success of premium cask ales like Landlord, Proper Job, and Jaipur, and of Boddingtons, which they also own and which has recently made a return. Now Anheuser Busch don't do cask, so just as Boddingtons is brewed by JW Lees, Bass is now brewed by Marstons which means it is brewed in its home town of Burton-on-Trent. I ordered a pint of it and it was on fine form (NBSS 3.5). With time moving on, I got a quick half of a 4% pale ale, Summer Glow, from Little Brewery from Derby which was pleasant enough albeit a little thin (NBSS 3), and then it was time for me to go.
I carried on walking down Stodman Street and came to the magnificent market square, where the traders were largely packing up for the day, and from there I walked on to meet Appleton Gate on my way back to Northgate Station. I was pretty hungry by now, and I thought about stopping for some fish and chips, on sale in a chippie on the way, but with time moving on and a slow-moving queue I thought I'd better not risk it. It had been a most enjoyable afternoon in one of my favourite towns in the Midlands, and I look forward to coming back again soon....
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