27/11/22 - Two new, in Jericho - Oxford.

Good Beer Guide Ticks - #766 and #767

One thing I like about this pub ticking game, it never ends. Oxford City Centre was completed. A new edition of the bible is released. New discoveries are to be made.

There are two new ticks in Student Central - Jericho. Keep your eyes away from Google opening times and in the back of your head, or suffer death by sit-up-and-beg bike.

Not that Google Maps helps.

My arrival timed for 15:10am

Of course it's locked. I tried the doors. I tried phoning and heard the loneliest sound known to man. A ringing telephone from inside a pub that no-one is answering.

Will a photo count as a Tick?

Oh well, the Old Bookbinders is around the corner. And firmly open. For now. We understand it closes at 5pm on a Sunday.

10/10 for "pubiness". Just the correct level of customers.  A mild skirmish to get to the bar, rather than a full on fight. Dogs, young and old, to get into easy conversation with their owners.  

Free monkey nuts.  

Free Nuts - an offer, not a challenge

I loved the ambiance and it was a great place to catch up with our bikeless Student Son, Alex and his girlfriend, Dani. A first meeting.  

However.  And they often is an however.  The beer wasn't great. Black Sheep got progressively worse.  Deuchers IPA in condition that would struggle to score above average.

Black Sheep

We leave at 16:50 - and good news.  There is sign of life at the Harcourt Arms.

Alex and Dani are mightily impressed by my ability to use sign language through the window to determine it is opening in 10 minutes.

Any longer and hanging around a pub for the scrape of a bolt might have presented a poor image of Alex's lineage.  Dani would worry what she was getting herself into.

It was well worth the wait. Even if it was the first pour of the day, the London Pride was in glorious HD condition.  

The staff get a wood burner going and the folk musicians, previously seen rehearsing from outside the Bookbinders, move to pole position in front of it. Our new friends from the Bookbinder bar turn up.

Everything you want from a Sunday afternoon session.

Apart from free nuts.

26/11/22 - Centenary Way - Stage 14 - Leek Wooton

Distance - 4 Miles

Geocaches - 2

Pubs - The Anchor Inn

Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8, Stage 9, Stage 10, Stage 11, Stage 12, Stage 13

If you are going to get lost, the ground of Warwickshire Police Headquarters is not the place to do it. With many signs about police surveillance, and the constant small firearm bangs from the nearby shooting range, we fully expected to be on a future episode of Police, Camera, Action. The Ramblers edition. 

Many signs about video surveillance 

Unfortunately, the Centenary Way reverts to type. A poor walk, where the November rains are taking the toll on the footpaths. Terrible signage for a Long Distance Path. We fail to make it to Middle Woodloes, with the path marked on the map simply disappearing.

Permissive paths - marked "The Trail" - seem to have replaced the Centenary Way

A good 1.5 mile knocked off the route, I thought the ultimate disaster would be being too early for the pub. With rare good fortune, Leek Wootton's Anchor Inn is an 11:30am opener.

This place holds a special place in my heart.  It was here that I celebrated "Super Saturday" at the height of the crisis.  A first cask ale in 3 months.   

Two pumps on - A doom bar, which failed to get the juices flowing or a chance for a first Bass in 2022.

Alas, the Bass is off.  Thank god the ciabatta's were bang on

But I'm not going to go the day without a beer. Its this time of year that I keep a keen eye on my socials. Bathams release their Christmas Winter Warmer XXX at this time of year. It always sells out in a couple of days.

A tweet from the King Arthur, Hagley, shows it was on from 24/11/22. Claire Batham confirmed its is in all their tied houses.

A diversion in order - to Shentone's Plough and don't spare the horses.

Xmas declared open.  Mrs M can put the tree up.

19/11/22 - The Good Beer (Micro) Pubs of Marple

Good Beer Guide Ticks - #762 to #764

Stage 5 of the Greater Manchester Ringway leaves me at a bus stop in Strines - a mere 2 miles from the three tick town of Marple. With a twice hourly bus service.

I have to admit, I thought The Samuel Oldknow would be a spoons. Or maybe a Sam Smiths.  I was not expecting a micro but this is the theme of the day.  

And it might just be the greatest Micro that I been to.

Certainly the best stocked.

Scores on the board

A decent collection of Belgian.  And Somerset Ciders.

Add to this, a very fine whisky collection - including some very tempting Japanese options and it could have been a messy, 1 tick afternoon.  

The place was heaving, inside and out - where a mulled wine counter was seducing the street market punters. I was forced to bar hang, as it was the only available space. But bar hanging is the best place to get into conversations.

Strange Times - Perfect Pint

Bevi - a real ale and prosecco bar that may just be a unique combination - offered less choice.

Bustling Marple

Modus Operandi

What was on offer included two Titanic Porters. The common plum and lesser spotted cherry. The barkeep telling me it was his idea for this brew and he contacted the brewery, who agreed to produce it.

Whilst I had him in conversation, I should have asked how they got a full sized pool table up those stairs and with hindsight, was the reuse of kegs as urinals a good idea.

Onwards to Traders. You are never sure what the USP of a micro will be but you are not going to go far wrong by adding "Pie" into the advertising.

Or chips, as it transpired

Drink selections are made from an electronic screen that swaps pages every 15 seconds. Cue the opportunity for a lonely pub ticking rambler to do the whole Peter Kay booking holidays on teletext routine.

To be fair to the staff, they did laugh along.  Even if they were dying on the inside.

Don't make it bigger

The screen also held a live feed to Untappd checkins.  

I tried not to let this influence my rating for 9% imperial stout. Not that there were any concerns, it was delicious.  

As was the pie.

19/11/22 - Greater Manchester Ringway - Stage 5

Start - Middlewood Railway Station

Finish -  Strines

Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4

Distance - 7 Miles

Geocaches - 1  

Walk Inspiration

2022 saw decent progress made on the Greater Manchester Ringway, a 186 mile route around the Greater Manchester Boundary.

This is Stage 5 and from a walker's perspective, the best yet.

I can prove this from the proper "Peak District" signage that highlights the paths. And all of this walk is proper "boots on" countryside.

Peak Signage

Middlewood station provides the start. The only station I can think of that is more remote is a key scene in Trainspotting. There is nothing there, but it doesn't stop a couple alighting and pulling their wheeled suitcase along the Middlewood Way. Who knows where they are going on holiday along a disused railway line.

I know where I am going - a short section of the Cheshire Ring. Inspiration for a future walk. Not that I haven't got enough inspiration to last a lifetime.

Cheshire Ring, along the Macclesfield Canal

The highlight - and majority - of this walk is Lyme Park. A National Trust property, the largest in Cheshire and location for the 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Other facts available at the drop of a Google Search.

For the tourist, it's a £6 entry fee but the public footpaths are available to the bargain hunting rambler.  Up to the gates and then to the hunting lodge - the Cage - enveloped in Autumn gloom.

Lyme Park House

The Cage

Strines - the end of this stage - is somewhere below.  The fog lifts. A golf course requires traversing but the misery is alleviated by a shack selling both beer, hot drinks, soup and bacon rolls. Card accepted.

Strines and the Golf Course somewhere in the gloom

I could blame the cup of tea for me getting lost, but the golf club need to take some responsibility.  As usual, they are keen to point out where you can't walk but not so good at the signage for the public footpaths.  

And you need confidence to cross a fairway if you are not 100% sure. Eventually I find the Peak Forest Canal and need to work out how best to get to the Micro Pubs of Marple.

The bus appears more frequent than the hourly trains.

18/11/22 - The Good Beer Guide Pubs of Eccles, Patricroft and Monton

Good Beer Guide Ticks - #758-761

Three areas of Greater Manchester that can be easily combined into a 4 Good Beer Guide Pub Crawl.  After a successful mission, I return to my house-sitting duties and 2 things happen.

1. My Untappd notifications suggest that I was brave to wander this area at night.
2. With no conventional TV, I browse Youtube.  A laugh with Manchester's finest, Paul Calf, seems in order.  My favourite scene - the Shitty Shoe'd Bastard routine - is a must watch.

It's only filmed in pub one of the night, the Lamb Hotel, Eccles.

To get there involves a busy number 22 bus to the Trafford Centre.  The regulars spot an amateur using Google Maps to work out where to get off and its moments before an old dear wheedles my destination from me.  She shares the news with the rest of the bus, to which the general consensus is "you don't want to go there on a Friday night, it will be dead".

I alight with the advice - "Go to spoons instead"

My night time photo a blurry mess.  A daytime one found on Flickr.

Of course the locals are correct. A multi-roomed heritage pub of national importance, the only other patrons are blocking access to the serving hatch. Once that is navigated, I try the TV room. It's always too soon for Wings Xmas songs on a music channel.  

I move onto a function room to ponder on where they are going wrong with their business model.

All by myself to think.... 

...... dogs cannot read

I'm off to spoons for company.  And Tea.

Lots of similarities with my next tick.  Its a Heritage Pub.  Its Holts.  It has an interior of national importance.  

External photos rendered impossible due to a smoking relay race, where a lighter is handed between contestants for the next puffer to stand in the doorway.

Resort to a sneaky side shot

This is a man's pub.  For men.  The only men not playing crib are complaining about the beer quality. The bitter is not in peak form tonight.

Looked OK to me.  Maybe they have exacting standards

Periods of silence are punctuated by killer one-liners.   "Has Mike been in tonight?" is met with "No, he says the beer is shit".

If I had been invited to make up a crib team, I would have stayed all night.

The Queens Arms can be easily seen from the other side of the railway tracks. Getting there proves to be more problematic. Down a ramp, up another and back on yourself and I am met by a gasper who tells me "I wouldn't bother mate, there's only two other people in".

A shame. Friday night and the quiet tones of Radio Nice, with the gentle ticking of a clock, only reminded me of childhood visits to the "boring Nan". Places like this cannot even be covering the heating costs and you wonder how much longer they will be available.

But why is it called the Queens Arms?

Queen Vic visited Salford in 1851.  They put up a photo.

After three Heritage pubs of national importance, only a micro can make the night's ticking complete.

Into Monton, where all the action is. Gangs of youth seem to be heading to a Turkish restaurant that does cocktails. I am heading for a converted shop. You do not need an external photo, for you know what a shop looks like.

This Micro concentrates on local keg, with a couple of cask but no Belgian. The bar is busy with punters that have misjudged the strength of the offerings.  At one point, a man moves stools outside on the pavement. The bar owner doesn't complain. He just waits for it to finish and then goes outside to collect them back in. The perils of being a +6% purveyor of hooch.

Seven Brothers Juicy IPA and reading material

A micro before stool re-arrangement

Sign seemed apt.  The house I am sitting has a roof leak.  And it hasn't stopped raining yet.

17/11/22 - Geocaching the Historic Pubs of Manchester - #1

A chance to re-vist classic Manchester Pubs, through the power of Adventure Lab Caches.

For the uninitiated, an ALC is an on-line treasure hunt. Co-ordinates deliver you to a location and information needs to be gathered and inputted into the app as a "find". All fairly nerdy, I hear you say, but stick with me. Some kind soul has created three in Manchester based around the best historical pubs in the city.

That's 15 old friends to revisit. I'm in, but I will do it slowly.

This is the first, taking in 5 pubs around the south of the City.

Last Visit?  A pint before a Mark Lanegan (RIP) Gig

Play the game by getting info from the sign

Lass of Gowrie, Charles Street. A handsome pub, with dark tiling inside and out. Its Green King, but dont let that put you off. There was an IPA in the line up but plenty of more LocALE interest. Slight concern that the pump clip from my Coach House brewing blonde was turned around after dispense. No one wants the last of the barrel, do they? It did come with the offer of exchange, if I wasn't delighted.

Mad busy on a Thursday night. I had to steal the quizmasters reserved table. Which provided the impetitus to leave before the I got embroiled in such nonsense as "What are the 5 counties that form the Cotswolds?".

Don't worry Giles - Four more pubs to visit.

Point deducted for a too early Christmas Tree.

17/11 - FFS

The Peveril of the Peak needs no introduction to the pub tourist. It stands majestically alone, as all the architecture of the city evolves around it. A vision in green. Dates from 1829 and is a unaltered maze of rooms around a central bar inside. A tardis in reverse, it always seems smaller on the inside to me.

A vision in green

I managed to fight my way around to the main room, complete with the oldest continuously used table football in the land.  People watching, Timothy Taylor in hand.  Find me a better way to spend a damp November evening.

The Centre of the Pev Universe

The Britons Protection needs protecting itself. I was aware of issues with the building owner, Star Bars, not renewing the lease to an independent landlord. Its a worry that next time I visit Manchester, this may be consumed into more flats. Or at best, not be a charming bar with a unique feel. 

The BP

And the history of it.

If the worse was to happen, what will happen to the Peterloo murals that decorate the halls? Do they contain the image of two Manchester United Players from the 1960s? The barman didnt know or care. He was a City fan. I could swear I saw Bobby Charlton but I had moved on from real ale to whisky barrel aged cider.

The bar, and a glimpse of the magnificent ceiling

At least three other Peterloo murals.  Not sure 60s Man Utd players on this one.

The final two pubs of the evening for part of what may be a unique trio. Three traditional pubs in a row? Can any other City match this? Even if one is a JDW, ejected from the 2023 Good Beer Guide.

The Vine, leading to the City Arms

I must admit to not giving the Vine enough attention. Despite them using the same C19th tiling shop as the Pev. Timothy Taylor Landlord is my most checked in pint in Untappd, and its in absolute tip top condition here.

More Xmas Decs?  May have to deduct a point

The City Arms next door is the more revered pub - and some say that there is nowhere finer in Manchester to drink than in the rear room. A tiny space, where I managed to squeeze in, observe all of life in front of me and be reminded of the famous Belloc quote.

 

Pub Life

When you have lost your inns, drown your empty selves, for you will have lost the last England.

But not before I complete the next two historic pubs Adventure Lab Caches, please.

13/11/22 - The Woodbridge Inn, Coalport

Distance - 5 Miles

Walk Inspiration - Pub Walks App

Geocaches - 2

The Woodbridge Inn sits high above the River Severn and built in 1785 at the same time as the eponymous crossing.

After a week on the Sicilian sauce, I an banned from an adventurous public transport journey to Worcester's Tripel Bs Belgian bar. I'll have to wait for "Lambic Day" 2023.

Instead, Mrs M wants something more wholesome. A walk. I assume this means a walk with Sunday Lunch, so I fire up the Pub Walks App to find a suitable walk along the river. From Woodbridge to Ironbridge.

And you could not hope for a more gentle stoll, with plenty of interest.

On the western bank, a disused railway line leads past former industry.  Added poignancy from the Armistice parade starting out from the Boat Inn, Jackfield.  Brass band and sombre pomp.

The less famous Steel Bridge at Coalport

Boat Inn, Jackfield

Past Industrial Heritage

Ironbridge is a fine place for a stop off. Yes, you can take photos of a world's first.  More importantly, there is a pie shop on the Eastern side. Take your pick from sausage rolls, Cornish pasties or pork pies from Eley's.

Ironbridge Town

Crossing over to Eley's

A world's first

The return trip is a less interesting affair, mainly along roads but with at least 3 pubs spotted for the truly thirsty.

We are saving ourselves to pay for our parking.

When asking Mrs M about Sunday Lunch, she replied that "I've got a chicken in".  

I'm relived.

This may be my first Brunning and Price tied house. The lamb (Mrs M's go to dish) is £19.95 Cauliflower cheese (Mrs M's go to side) is £4.95.

A sign pronounces that Xmas day lunch is now fully booked. I couldn't help but have a look. £84.95.

Each.

Thank the lord for supermarket chicken.

Location, location, Brunning and Price

A week of searching for Italian craft beer bars (more than you would expect) and I am itching for traditional cask. The line-up better than expected. The Three Tuns XXX subject to a welcome double top up.

Could have been plum, could have been honey

Taken outside, in an attempt to capture the view