24/09/21 - Three Stags Heads at Wardlow Mires

Distance - 5 Miles

Walk Inspiration - Half Day Walks in the The Peak District, South East - Walk 2

Good Beer Guide Pub - #711

The Three Stags Heads. Seen it eulogised many times on Social Media. I've walked past it mid week when completing the Inn Way to The Peak District. It only opens on weekends.  Four years later, I find myself close enough to warrant a re-visit.

A suitable walk is found to work up a thirst.

And what a fine walk it was.

A footpath runs next to the pub and I'm out in ancient field systems, separated by dry stone walls.  A navigational error (muscle memory took me on the same route as the Inn Way) takes me to the charming village of Foolow.  A chance for pub archaeology in Wardlow village - where the OS Map shows the big blue cup of joy, but I failed to spot the building that was the Bulls Head. Closed in 2003 and now a private house.

The real highlight are the upper reaches of Cressbrook Dale.  An isolated, dry valley that is the subject of a campaign to save it.  From the creation of a hippy colony (with Yurts), led by a former Dragon's Den Presenter, according to the pub patrons.

Looking back to the Three Stags

Foolow Duck Pond

Looking over Cressbrook Dale - before the hippies come

The exit from the dale leads directly to the front door of the pub.

I commented last time that it looks rather foreboding. Not sure if the loss of one of the Stags Head makes it even more sinister. I am assured that it was kept following a storm and will be replaced.

Two Stags Heads

The Sign on the Door

The frisson of tension you get from entering a new pub is enhanced by a sticking front door, where I try and navigate the lock mechanism to cries of "Push Down Harder".  How badly do I want this pint?

Same answer as usual, very.

Take stock of my surroundings. Small front bar, with low ceiling and massive fire range. Rustic, farmhouse furniture on flag-stone floors.  Rabbit with a shotgun.  Man (who turns out to be the landlord) sat down, sharpening a bayonet with a whetstone.

The rear "music" room.

2nd thoughts, it could be a hare

I'm soon made to feel welcome.  Bar lady explains the campaign to save Cressbrook Dale.  Two other patrons give me marriage advice.  You can be married or happy, but not both.  Bayonet man re-sheathes his weapon and delights me with cheese scones.

Not Chicken McNuggets

Abbeydale Brewery produce a beer just for this venue. A stout called "Black Lurcher". My two drinking chums were drinking it from pewter tankards.

I think I made the correct decision to go for a more sedate Deception from the same brewery.  

The Lurcher comes in at a powerful 7.5%.  

I strectched out my drink to get the maximum time to soak up the unique atmosphere. I understand that a follow up to American Gods by Neil Gaimen - Black Dogs - is set partly in this pub.

I have added it to my Goodreads ToBeRead pile. Will it have savoury snacks in the plot?

23/09/22 - The Good Beer Guide Pubs of Matlock

Pubs - 4 

Good Beer Guide Ticks - #707 - 710

Having walked 1775ft up High Tor, High Junction Peak and the Heights of Abraham, the uphill schlep to the Thorn Tree Inn is the last thing one needs. Matlock is that sort of town. If you are not going up, you are going down.

Initial disappointment that it is a Greene King pub quickly evaporated.  Two absolute classics on cask - Landlord and Proper Job, good community banter and views across the Derwent Valley, allowing me to assess what was previously conquered on foot.

Greene King on a Hill

All that choice, and the bar hangers go Carling

Fine views - both of Landlord and Riber Castle

Solo drinking eavesdropping.  Good to hear talk of "Dead Man's Shoes".  This Paddy Considine revenge thriller is the main reason I am here.  Inadvertently, like some kind of fan-boy, I am wearing a near identical military style jacket to his characters.  

Downhill, following the crowds to Farmacy. Its busy inside and out, with a very drunken man in a cap and sliders is taking it on himself to apologise to every patron and then offering them a drink.  I'd just got my own - not knowing about Aldwark Artisasn Ales for which they are a tap room and selecting an ABK Helles.  I never found out what he was apologising for, but he was refused service to fulfill his offer to others.

Slider-Man relaxing outside after offering strangers drinks

MicroPub Action

Next on the list is just over the road.  If Farmarcy is a micro converted from a chemists, you can guess what the Newsroom used to be.

Former news-agency at night

More appealing inside

Part Micro, part off-licence, as you can see from the shelves.

On the chalkboard, the New Bristol Brewery, Twice Upon a Time IPA took my fancy. Coming in at a whopping 8.5%, I decided to go conservative with a 2/3rds.  I am in a micro, after all.  Normal rules do not apply.  

The barman was having a froth related disaster. I knew he was in trouble when the big spoon came out and by the time I got to a quiet table, the liquid was just up to the half line mark on the glass.  But what a delicious half it was. I was straight back up and thinking I would be short changed again, went for a full pint.  I wasn't.

Which probably explains the reason for my lack of memory of the final micro of the night, Twenty Ten.

Answers on a post card as to what this shop used to be

Not much going on...  England were in the final stages of being beaten again without scoring a goal from open play.  There was Deya Steady Rolling Man.  There nearly always is Deya Steady Rolling Man.

Your Twenty Ten Choices

A decent night work and great to see everywhere so busy.

23/09/22 - Giddy Edge, High Tor, Riber Castle and the Heights of Abraham

Distance - 10 Miles

Geocaches - 5 Traditional and 6 Adventure Lab Caches

Walk Inspiration - Trail Magazine, November 2021, Walk 10

This may be the first time that a film has inspired one of my walks.  I recently re-watched Dead Man's Shoes.  The first time I watched it, I was blown away by the twist.  The last time I watched it, I thought I wonder which town it was filmed in?

The distinctive castle, which is a key location in the film, is Riber Castle.  It dominates the landscape and you can see it everywhere from Matlock, Derbyshire.  

Riber Castle

And there is something else to interest the rambler in Matlock.  Giddy Edge is a 3ft narrow path that runs along a 300ft cliff face.  There is a handrail one side and a sheer drop the other.  Rambling traffic allowed in only one direction.

Don't look down from Giddy Edge

It was over in a flash and recorded for posterity on a go pro camera that turns 70 seconds of video into a 1/2 GB video. Other people have uploaded it to Youtube, with audio and drone footage - so I'll point you at something created by experts with a better sense of drama.

With the excitement out the way early, the walk turns into the probable winner of "Walk of the Year, 2022".  Constant fine views as I make my way to Riber Castle and down to the former railway line of High Peak Junction.  The return is via Cromford and the Heights of Abraham.   

Simply splendid.

Down on the Valley Floor at High Peak Junction/Cromford Canal

Many Derbyshire Views

All it needed was a pub to round off the walk - but I am saving myself for the evening, where four Good Beer Guide Ticks await.

Blog report to follow.

17/09/22 - London Spiral Walk - Stage 7

Distance - 13 Miles

Start - Turnpike Lane 

Finish - Shepherd's Bush Market 

Areas Walked - Alexandra Park, Muswell Hill, Finchley, Golders Green, Cricklewood, Kensell Green, Shepherds Bush

Geocaches - 1

Pubs - 4 (Good Beer Guide #705-706)

Previous Walks - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6

If this leg doesn't win the prize for most boring section of the London Spiral Walk, I will be abandoning the route.

Progress is made through London areas previously unvisited - and mainly through identikit housing.  Muswell Hill (too early for the Mossy Well but not for a £4.95 artisan sausage roll) leads to the less interesting East Finchley, Golders Green, Cricklewood and Willesden.  After Alexander Palace, nothing of interest.

Venue for two gigs attended - Nick Cave and New Order.

Busy Golders Green Intersection.  Not a pub to be found

Nor in Cricklewood

Its Kensal Green where I first get the opportunity for refreshment. Nothing in the Good Beer Guide but my FancyaPint book from a decade ago details a couple that look of interest. On paper at least.

King William IV - Harrow Road - Ichiban Shibori

Handsome Enough

I have recently returned from a fortnight in Croatia/Montenegro - so was rather looking forward to a first pint of Cask in September. Two pumps available but both clip-less meaning I am remaining on the keg lager. At least this was a Japanese Ichiban, which gave me an untapped badge for five different countries in a row. There are no end of ways to entertain yourself on social media.

A nice beer garden, offering Cocktails (the shed is emblazoned with Cocktails, Cocktails, Cocktails, in case you were unaware). Inside, it was full on gastro.

Paradise by Way of Kensal Green - Kilburn Way - Beavertown Neck Oil

Needed to be visited, simply because of its rather wonderful name.

More Gastro-Pubbing

My guide book from a decade ago complained of the Laurence from Changing Rooms interior decor.  Nothing has changed. Except, perhaps, the interest from the public.

If you exclude the two bar staff, the DJ setting up at 1pm - I was the only sign of sentient life. The fella on the green leather bench seating, struggling through yet more keg.  At £6.50 a pint.

Mock Distressed.  Unlike the punter, who was fully distressed.

Shiny Bar

The walk interest picks up, as it gets more earthy.

The Grand Union Canal is a green covered bazaar for anyone that wants to consume or trade in Jazz cigarettes.  But don't the waterway based, dread-locked entrepreneurs make a mess. Overspilling bin bags everywhere.

Everything's gone green

And all this commerce completed in the shadows of Wormwood Scrubs. Both a park and a prison.

Jail Time

And then the crowds appear. But don't QPR fans cut it fine? 14:50 and the streets are thronged. I'm sure if I've seen such tardy, quiet fans.  Not a chant amongst them. Can only assume today's opponents, the clayheads of Stoke, had long ago taken their seats.

Hurry - the teams are coming out

This does mean that the rush is over for my two Good Beer Guide Ticks available at Shepherd's Bush.

Defectors Weld, Uxbridge Road, Proper Job

Named after BBC Cold War Spies?  Thanks WhatPub

A Young's Pub, with a guest ale that satisfied my cravings for cask.  Proper Job a wonderful pint.  I even managed to get it served in the presentation glass, now the plastic cups can be put away as the footie fans have gone.

Its cavernous, with a central bar, a noticeboard detailing many bottles and music that loud it makes your fillings rattle.

Instantly forgettable.  Once your ears have stopped ringing.

Central Bar, West 12 Shopping Centre, Leffe

Just when I am seriously beginning to warm to JDW, I get reset to zero.  Perched in a shopping centre, next to a cinema, this has to be the worst of Tim's Palace's outside of airports.

Look carefully for the Pub

The usual JDW complaints and praises are present.  The empty tables are filthy.  The app ordering is lightening quick.  The prices are keen.

Getting Leffe is a non- ceremonial glass is to be expected due to theft but a plastic one is unacceptable.  A scan around and everyone has plastic glasses.

How some places get in the Good Beer Guide, I will never know.  Maybe, in the future, I can trade the vouchers for glassware.